344 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



opposite sides of the machine ; the number 383, for example, 

 appearing in figures before the person employed in 

 copying. 



Table calculated ly a small Trial Engine. 



113 347 743 1301 2021 



While the machine was occupied in calculating this table, 

 a friend of the inventor undertook to write down the 

 numbers as they appeared. In consequence of the copyist 

 writing quickly, he rather more than kept pace with the 

 engine, but as soon as five figures appeared, the machine 

 was at least equal in speed to the writer. At another 

 trial thirty-two numbers of the same table were calculated 

 in the space of two minutes and thirty seconds, and as these 

 contained eighty-two figures, the engine produced thirty- 

 three figures every minute, or more than one figure in 

 every two seconds. On another occasion it produced 

 forty-four figures per minute. This rate of computation 

 could be maintained for any length of time ; and it is 

 probable that few writers are able to copy with equal 

 speed for many hours together. ' 



Some of that class of individuals who envy all great 

 men, and deny all great inventions, have ignorantly stated 

 that Mr. Babbage's invention is not new. The same 

 persons, had it suited their purpose, would have maintained 

 that the invention of spectacles was an anticipation of the 

 telescope ; but even this is more true than the allegation, 

 that the arithmetical machines of Pascal and others were 



