458 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



probably have been drowned. Later he descends in a diving-bell, in 

 a coal mine is surrounded by explosive gases, enters the air-chamber 

 of a blast furnace, also an oven for baking moulds at a temperature of 

 265° F., and finally descends the crater of Vesuvius between two 

 eruptions which are taking place periodically at intervals of ten or 

 fifteen minutes. In the early days of railroads he made many ex- 

 periments on them ; and one Sunday morning, when just about to start 

 on an experimental train with thirty tons of pig-iron on board, nar- 

 rowly escaped a collision with Brunei, who came down the line on an 

 engine at the rate of fifty miles an hour. 



He was elected a member of most of the principal scientific societies 

 of the world, so that he was able to write after his name the titles, 

 A. A. S., F. R. S., F. R. S. E., F. R. A. S., F. Stat. S., Hon. M. R. 

 I. A., M. C. P. S., Inst. Imp. (Acad. Moral.) Paris Corr., Reg. 

 OEcon. Boruss., Phts. Hist. Nat. Genev., Acad. Reg. Monac, 

 Hafn, Massil., et Divion., Socius, Acad. Imp. et Reg. Petrop., 

 Neap., Brux., Patav., Georg. Floren., Ltncei Rom., Mut., Phi- 

 lomath. Paris Soc. Corr., etc. His writings are somewhat volumi- 

 nous. Among the most noted are the following. That " On a Method 

 of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery" is a descrip- 

 tion of his Mechanical Notation. A good example of his talent for 

 satire is a scathing criticism of the Royal Society, entitled " Reflections 

 on the Decline of Science in England, and on some of its Causes." 

 His most successful work was the " Economy of Manufactures and 

 Machinery," which went through many editions, and was translated 

 into German, French, Italian, and Spanish. To these must be added 

 the " Ninth Bridgewater Treatise," and his autobiography, " Passages 

 from the Life of a Philosopher." 



As often happens with men of genius, when once interested in a sub- 

 ject he would devote his utmost powers to it, however trifling its im- 

 portance ; as, for instance, in reading ciphers, picking locks, and de- 

 vising automata for playing games of skill. Or, again, when annoyed 

 by street musicians, he displayed the same perseverance in prosecuting 

 them as when urging the importance of his inventions on the govern- 

 ment. As his engines have not been, and probably never will be, com- 

 pleted, many, doubtless, regard the life of Babbage as a failure. Yet 

 in his own department he stood unequalled, and to him belongs the 

 credit of devising the most complicated piece of machinery ever 

 planned by the human mind. 



