CHARLES BABBAGE. 165 



abling Mm to complete an iuvention which would be of great public 

 benefit. He commenced the work, giving his own labors gratuitously, 

 according to what he considered to be an order. Government looked 

 on, furnished further moneys, consulted the Koyal Society once and 

 again as to the progress of the work, but declined committing itself 

 further. Mr. Babbage advanced considerable sums, but was not reim- 

 bursed; made great improvements upon his original plans, but was not 

 encouraged; carried with him the convictions of the scientific men of 

 his country and contiuental Europe, but was left behind by the treas- 

 ury; and finally, when, in the opinion of such philosophical mechanists 

 as Sir John Herschel, Sir Mark Brunei, Mr. Pond, the astronomer 

 royal, and others, he was on the eve of results far surpassing in impor- 

 tance all that had been contemplated, he was informed that "ultimate 

 success appeared so problematical and the expense so large and so 

 utterly incapable of being calculated, that the government would not 

 be justified in taking upon itself any further liability." 



Thus terminated in 1842 the engagement which had existed more than 

 a score of years between Charles Babbage and the British government. 

 During this period of time he had made heavy sacrifices, both pecuniary 

 and personal, had refused highly honorable and profitable situations ; 

 had employed in his own house, at his own expense, the most intelligent 

 and skiUed workmen to assist him in making experiments necessary for 

 attaining a knowledge of every art which could possibly tend to the 

 perfection of his engine; had repeatedly, at his own expense, visited the 

 manufactories of England and the continent; had invented incidentally, 

 and constructed, mechanical tools and labor-saving machines of great 

 public value, not one of which he protected by letters-patent, and had 

 gratuitously given the results of his energetic mind to the perfect con- 

 struction of the machines which he regarded as the great purpose of his 

 life. Whether success would have equaled expectation had his gov- 

 ernment rendered him the required aid, can never be known. He has 

 left behind him no thinker or philosophical mechanic capable of com- 

 pleting his work. 



It was to calculate and print tables of figures connected with various 

 sciences; with almost every department of the useful arts; with com- 

 merce, astronomy, navigation, surveying, engineering, and everything 

 which depends on mathematical measurements. 



To show the immense importance of any method by which these 

 numerical tables, absolutely accurate in every individual copy, could be 

 produced with facility and cheapness, let the reader revert to what 

 European governments have attempted to do in the last hundred years. 

 Dodson's Calculator, published in London in 1747, contained a table of 

 multiplication extending to 10 times 1,000. In 1775 this table was ex- 

 tended to 10 times 10,000. The English board of longitude employed 

 Dr. Hutton, in 1781, to calculate numerical tables up to 100 times 1,000;. 

 and to add to these, tables of the squares of numbers as far as 25,400 ; 



