M chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute

828
Erwin Tomash Library
Macmillan, Robert Hugh Macrosty, Henry William
This work is a detailed description of the practical
challenges facing a navigator. In particular, it discusses
various instruments and their defects. It also covers
determining longitude by taking observations of either the
Moon or the eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites. The second
volume contains tables, many of which are repeated in
Mackay’s other works (e.g., The complete navigator or
A collection of mathematical tables). The frontispiece is
a portrait of the author.
The fact that this work, including the tables, is printed
on light green paper causes one to wonder if Charles
Babbage, who also experimented with printing tables
on colored paper (see Babbage, Charles; Table of
logarithms, 1831), might have obtained the idea from
Mackay. The Crawford Library catalog (Copeland,
Ralph; The catalogue of the Crawford library of the Royal
Observatory Edinburgh, 1890), the current location of
Babbage’s book collection, shows that Babbage owned
other Mackay volumes but not this one.
Illustrations available:
Title page (color showing light green paper)
Frontispiece portrait
M 15
Macmillan, Robert Hugh
M 14
An introduction to the theory of control in mechanical
engineering
Year: 1951
Place: Cambridge
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Figures: 1 large folding plate
Binding: original cloth boards
Pagination: pp. xiv, 196
Collation: π 7 1–11 8 12 10
Size: 265x176 mm
Macmillan was a demonstrator in the Engineering
Department of Cambridge University and immediately
prior to writing this book had been a visitor at MIT for
a year.
As the experience with control systems grew, mainly as
a result of World War II, analysis of them in a theoretical
context was not far behind. This volume is one of
many (see, for example, MacColl, LeRoy Archibald;
Fundamental theory of servomechanisms, 1945) that were
published in the immediate postwar period. This work is
notable for including an analysis of the torque amplifier
invented by Vannevar Bush for use on the Differential
Analyzer. Part of the discussion is a question that
appeared on the 1936 final examination in engineering
(Mechanical Science Tripos). Maurice Wilkes (Memoirs
of a computer pioneer, 1985) mentions that his interest
in differential analyzers was first aroused early in that
same year when he attended a lecture and demonstration
in the Mechanical Engineering Department.
Illustrations available:
Title page
Exam question
M 16
Macrosty, Henry William (1865–1941) and James
Bonar (1852–1941)
Annals of the Royal Statistical Society. 1834-1934
Year: 1934
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