MECHANICAL AND USEFUL ARTS. 125 



SCHEUTZ'S CALCULATING MACHINE. 



The inventors of this ingenious and complicated engine are the 

 two Messrs. Scheutz, father and son, Swedes, who were stimulated 

 with the ambition of rivalling Mr. Babbage by reading, so long ago 

 as 1834, an account of his invention, published in the Edinburgh 

 Rerieic. For twenty years they toiled unremittingly, and at last 

 produced an engine which seemed absolutely capable of thinking. 

 With the costly result of their patient labour, packed up in a box, 

 six feet by two feet, they came to England, and about the year 1855 

 took out a patent for it in this country. Mr. Babbage warmly 

 espoused the invention, and gave his cordial co-operation to the in- 

 genious Swedes, who had succeeded in overcoming all the mechani- 

 cal impediments which had prevented him from realizing his fondest 

 expectations. The machine was taken to Paris, and shown there at 

 the Great Exhibition. A gold medal was unanimously awarded to 

 the inventors. For some reasons or other, unexplained, both the 

 English and the French Governments — Governments who have so 

 often, not wastefuUy, but with the greatest advantage to their 

 people, lavished large sums of money to secure accurate astronomical 

 and other tables — let this marvellous machine pass away from them. 

 An enlightened and public- spirited merchant of the United States, 

 John F. Bathbone, Esq., bought the machine and presented it to 

 the Dudley Observatory, at Albany, where he resides. The apathy 

 of the French and English Governments, or their want of appre- 

 ciation of the valuable instrument offered them, has been the theme 

 of regret to all who can appreciate its national importance and value. 

 The Begistrar- General and Dr. Fair have, however, succeeded in 

 wiping away the reproach from the English Government. They 

 obtained the requisite funds, some 1200Z., for procuring a copy of 

 the machine now in America. It has been constructed in admirable 

 style, with some admirable improvements, by Messrs. Donkin, the 

 civil engineers, from working drawings by the Messrs. Scheutz. It has 

 for some time commenced its labours by printing some tables relating 

 to life assurance, of considerable importance. It is almost hopeless 

 to describe the operation of a machine of this kind without the aid of 

 diagrams. — A merican Paper. 



Our Transatlantic contemporary omits to state that to our eminent 

 engineer, Mr. W. Gravatt, F.R.S., is due the honour of having 

 greatly assisted the Messrs. Scheutz in their great labour, more 

 especially during their stay in England, when Mr. Gravatt generously 

 accommodated the Messrs. Scheutz in his house at Westminster, in 

 order that they might complete the engine for the British Govern- 

 ment. An interesting narrative of the circumstances will be found 

 in Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts, 

 by the Editor of the present work ; and the former volume con- 

 tains a large engraving of Mr. Babbage'a engine (the only one ever 

 published), now in the museum of King's C'olitge, London. 



