M chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute

846
Erwin Tomash Library
Marshall, William P. Martin, Benjamin
M 41
Marshall, William P.
M 40
M 41
Babbage’s calculating machine. In Proceedings of the
Birmingham Philosophical Society, Vol. 1, 1879
Year: 1879
Place: Birmingham
Publisher: Corns, Sherriff & Rattey
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Figures: 5 engraved plates
Binding: three-quarter-bound maroon leather; black leather
label
Pagination: pp. 33–48
Size: 214x137 mm
This paper is not another version of the many similar
descriptions of Babbage’s difference engine. It contains
illustrations of the actual gears and describes the
actual mode of operation (as compared with the usual
simplified version, based on that of Lardner (see
Lardner, Dionysius; Babbage’s calculating engines,
1834). Because of its unique nature, the illustrations for
this entry show not only the diagrams but also the full
text of the article.
Illustrations available:
Title page
Figures
Complete text
M 42
Martin, Benjamin (1705–1782)
The description and use of a case of mathematical
instruments; particularly of all the lines contained
on the plain scale, the sector, the Gunter, and the
proportional compasses. With a practical application,
exemplified in many useful cases of geometry, and plain
and spherical trigonometry. The whole illustrated by
copper-plate figures.
Year: 1790
Place: London
Publisher: P. & J. Dolland
Edition: 2nd
Language: English
Figures: 1 folding plate
Binding: disbound
Pagination: pp. [2], 18
Size: 212x133 mm
Reference: Hambly DI, p. 47
Nothing is known of Martin’s education, but since he
was born in the small English village of Broadstreet, it is
likely that he was largely self-taught. About 1730, he is
known to have run a boarding school in Chichester, and
by 1743 he was a traveling lecturer who became well
known for his demonstrations of physical phenomena.
He published a number of works, including a text based
on his lectures. By 1755, he was in business with his
son, as Martin and Son, in London selling scientific
instruments. He seems to have functioned primarily as
an instrument seller rather than as a maker, despite the
fact that there are instruments that bear his name. Martin
published a number of different books during this period,
most of them oriented to the devices he sold. While he
appears to have been willing to improve and sell almost
any instrument, and was well known enough that his
firm supplied Harvard University (then Harvard College)
with instruments, he eventually went bankrupt. Shortly
thereafter, he attempted suicide. While he survived for a
few weeks, he eventually died from the attempt.