Extracts from the Manuscripts in the James D. Forbes Collection kept at the Library of the University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland relating to Charles Babbage and the Development of his First Difference Engine.
Extract of a Letter CB to J.D.F.
21st Sept 1831
... Few things have vexed me more (always excepting the infernal machine) than the impossibility of going to York (to attend the first meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science). I cannot leave London whilst it is still unsettled that the Engine is to come to my neighbourhood and unless I am continually urging the different departments of government to get the business carried from one to the other it will have a tolerable chance of failing and with it perhaps the Engine itself. . . .
Extract of a Letter from CB to J.D..F.
25th January 1832, Cambridge
My buildings for the Engine are far advanced. I shall at last have a fire proof place for it and also workshops close to me but Clement has been ill in bed during the last three months and this is a sad delay. Sir C. Bell attends him but I fear the case is a tedious one. I have just condemned the casting (of pewter) for the platform; after planing its surface it was found defective and must be recast. Have you seen a review of the "Decline" in the Journal des Savans Jan 1831 by Biot: he is rather hard on English Universities, but we are doomed to be Martyrs, our good deeds are not sufficiently known. I am glad to hear that you are actively cultivating analysis it is the great key to Nature and every great Discovery renders it more necessary. ...
Extract of Letter from J.D.F. to CB. Squeeze Book f421 26th August [1831], Greenhill, Edinburgh
I hope you have not forgot your machine for this 'Abominable Reform Bill'.
Extract of Letter from J.D..F. to CB. Squeeze Book f448 13th October 1831, Greenhill, Edinburgh
Deeply as we felt the want of your company at York, the advancement of your machine must ever be of paramount importance:
with every wish for its advancement and final success ...
Extract of Letter from J.D.F. to CD. Squeeze Book f356
I have heard nothing for some time of the infernal machine. I hope you have fairly suceected in bringing it over to Dorset Street.
1st April 1832, Greenhill, Edinburgh
I hope the Machine thrives and that Clement lives. Have you begun to move it?
Extract From James D. Forbes Diary for 1831
Entry for Sunday, 5th Inst. Box 1.10 p71—76 Visit to Babbage's House
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