456 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



each party forming societies and using every means to establish its 

 views. Babbage pai*odied it by forming the Analytical Society to 

 propagate the notation of Leibnitz, using the differential d in the cal- 

 culus, and consigning to perdition all who supported the heresy of the 

 dots of Newton. Being accused of infidelity, the members entitled the 

 first volume of their transactions " The Principles of Pure D-ism in 

 Opposition to the Dot-age of the University." They proposed to trans- 

 late a small work of Lacroix on the Calculus, maintaining that it was 

 so perfect that any comment was unnecessary. 



In 1828, while in Rome, Babbage was elected Lucasian Professor 

 of Mathematics at Cambridge ; a chair first occupied by Sir Isaac 

 Newton. After filling it for eleven years, he resigned, finding even 

 the few duties it involved too much for his strength in addition to his 

 other work. He bitterly calls it the only honor he ever received in his 

 own country. 



We now come to the great work of his life, and that by which he is 

 best known to the public, namely, the construction of an engine for 

 performing numerical computations. As early as 1813 he turned his 

 attention to this matter. One evening, when sitting in the room of the 

 Analytical Society, leaning his head on the table, another member, 

 coming in, called out, " Well, Babbage, what are you dreaming 

 about ? " To which he replied, " I am thinking that all these tables 

 (pointing to a table of logarithms) might be calculated by machinery." 

 In 1822 he completed his first Difference Engine, which was capa- 

 ble of working two orders of differences, and computing six places 

 of figures. It was highly approved by the Royal Society, and, in 

 accordance with their recommendation, the government appropriated 

 £1,500 for the construction of a large engine to compute eight orders 

 of differences to sixteen places of figures. For four years the work 

 was carried on uninterruptedly, but then various difficulties presented 

 themselves. As it appeared that the cost would be much greater than 

 was originally anticipated, the government was informed of the fact. 

 More money was obtained ; but, owing to the delay, the engineer who 

 had entire charge of the construction withdrew, taking with him all the 

 tools, the labor of years. A lawsuit ensued, but he was finally allowed 

 to retain them. The work now went on at intervals, but finally a new 

 idea occurred to Babbage of a machine whose powers should vastly 

 exceed those of the Difference Engine. He called it the Analytical En- 

 gine, and it is difficult to describe, in a short notice like the present, 



