and printmg Mathematical Tables, 
nt, amongst whom were M. Prony and M. Legendre. These 
were occupied entirely with the analytical part of the work ; 
they investigated and determined on the formiilse to be employ- 
ed. 
The second section consisted of seven or eight skilful calcula- 
tors, habituated both to analytical and arithmetical computations. 
These received the formulae from the first section, converted 
them into numbers, and furnished to the third section the pro- 
per differences at the stated intervals. 
They also received from that section the calculated results, 
and compared the two sets, which were computed independent- 
ly for the purpose of verification. 
The third section, on whom the most laborious part of the opera- 
tions devolved, consisted of from sixty to eighty pe'rsons, few of 
them possessing a knowledge of more than the first rules of arith- 
metic : these received from the second class certain numbers 
and differences, with which, by additions and subtractions in a 
prescribed period, they completed the whole of the tables above 
mentioned. 
I will now examine what portion of this labour might be dis- 
pensed with, in case it should be deemed advisable to compute 
these or any similar tables of equal extent by the aid of the en- 
gine I have referred to. 
In the first place, the labour of the first section would be con- 
siderably reduced ; because the formulae used in the great work 
I have been describing, have already been investigated and pu- 
blished. One person, or at the utmost two, might therefore con- 
duct it. 
If the persons composing the second section, instead of deliver- 
ing the numbers they calculate to the computers of the third sec- 
tion, were to deliver them to the engine, the whole of the re- 
maining operations would be executed by machinery, and it 
would only be necessary to employ people to copy down as fast 
as they were able the figures presented to them by the engine. 
If, however, the contrivances 'for printing were brought to per- 
fection and employed, even this labour would be unnecessary, 
and a few superintendants would manage the machine and re- 
ceive the calculated pages set up in type; Thus, the number of 
calculators employed, instead of amounting to ninety-six, would 
T 3 
