164 CHARLES BABBAGE. 



which Babbage's engines have been constructed, however, is entirely 

 new, and intended to do work of a much more important character. 



On the 1st of April, 1823, a letter was received from the treasury by 

 the president of the Eoyal Society, requesting him to ask the council 

 to take into consideration a plan which had been submitted to gov- 

 ernment by Mr. Babbage for applying machinery to the purposes of 

 calculating and printing mathematical tables, and desiring to be favored 

 with its opinion on the merits and utility of the invention. This is the 

 earliest allusion to the calculating machine on the records of the Eoyal 

 Society. The invention, however, had been brought before the mem- 

 bers in the previous year by a letter from Mr. Babbage to Sir Hum- 

 phry Davy. In that he had given an account of a small model of his 

 engine for calculating differences, which produced figures at the rate of 

 44 a minute, and performed with rapidity and precision all those calcu- 

 lations for which it was designed. He had concluded this letter by 

 saying, "that though he had arrived at a point where success was no 

 longer doubtful, it could be ^.ttained only at a very considerable expense, 

 which would not probablj^ be replaced by the works it might produce 

 for a long period of time; and which is an undertaking T should feel 

 unwilling to commence, as altogether foreign to my habits and pur- 

 suits." 



The council of the Eoyal Society appointed a committee to take Mr. 

 Babbage's plan into consideration. It was composed of the following 

 gentlemen : Sir H. Davy, Mr. Brande, Mr. Combe, Mr. Baily, Mr. Brunei, 

 Mr. Colby, Mr. Davies Gilbert, Sir John Herschel, Captain Kater, Mr. 

 Pond, Dr. Wollaston, and Dr. Young. On the 1st of May, 1823, this 

 committee reported: "That it appears Mr. Babbage has displayed great 

 talents and ingenuity in the construction of his machine for computa- 

 tion, which the committee think full^^ adequate to the attainment of the 

 objects proposed by the inventor, and that they consider Mr. Babbage 

 as highly deserving of public encouragement in the prosecution of his 

 arduous undertaking." This report was transmitted to the lords of the 

 treasury, by whom it was printed and laid before Parliament. Two 

 months after this a letter was sent from the treasury to the Eoyal Soci- 

 ety, informing them that the issue of £1,500 had been directed to Mr. 

 Babbage "to enable him to bring his invention to perfection in the man- 

 ner recommended." 



It is not within the purpose of this memoir to describe the misunder- 

 standing which arose between Mr. Babbage and the British government, 

 during the following twenty years, in consequence of this letter, received 

 by the Eoyal Society from the lords of the treasury. He regarded the 

 machine he now undertook to build as the property of the government. 

 They understood it to be his. He received the first advanceof money as an 

 earnest that all necessarj^ funds would be furnished to complete this 

 difference engine No. 1. They seemed to have regarded it in the light of 

 a temporary assistance, given to a man of genius for the purpose of en- 



