ME. BABBAGE'S CALCULATING MACHINE. 291 



genious individual in his own neighbourhood had 

 been long occupied in the same pursuit ; and Mr. 

 Watt informed me that he had every reason to be- 

 lieve that this gentleman was entirely ignorant of 

 his labours. A proposal was then made that the two 

 inventors should combine their talents, and secure 

 the privilege by a joint patent; but Mr. Watt had 

 experienced so frequently the fatal operation of 

 our patent laws, that he saw many difficulties in 

 the way of such an arrangement, and he was un- 

 willing, at his advanced age, to embark in a 

 project so extensive, and which seemed to require 

 for its successful prosecution all the ardour and 

 ambition of a youthful mind. The scheme was 

 therefore abandoned ; and such is the unfortunate 

 operation of our patent laws, that the circum- 

 stance of two individuals having made the same 

 invention has prevented both from bringing it to 

 perfection, and conferring a great practical benefit 

 upon their species. The machine which Mr. 

 Watt had constructed had actually executed some 

 excellent pieces of work. I have seen in his 

 house at Heathfield copies of basso-relievos, and 

 complete statues of a small size ; and some of 

 his friends have in their possession other speci- 

 mens of its performance. 



Of all the machines which have been con- 

 structed in modern times, the calculating-machine 

 is doubtless the most extraordinary. Pieces of 

 mechanism for performing particular arithmetical 

 operations have been long ago constructed, but 

 these bear no comparison either in ingenuity or 

 in magnitude to the grand design conceived and 

 nearly executed by Mr. Babbage. Great as the 

 power of mechanism is known to be, yet we ven- 

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