B chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute - University of Minnesota

Erwin Tomash Library
Babbage, Charles Babbage, Charles
Language: English
Binding: none—extracted from a volume of parliamentary
reports
Pagination: pp. 135, [1]
Collation: A–R 4
Size: 335x200 mm
Babbage was interested in all aspects of the developing
life insurance industry and the statistics upon which
it based rates. As a director of the aborted firm of The
Protector Life Insurance Co. (see Babbage, Protector
Life Assurance Society. In Works of Charles Babbage,
Collection of seventeen items …), he, together with
Benjamin Gompertz, was called in to give evidence
to a Select Committee of the House of Commons
investigating the laws governing the insurance industry.
The testimony concerned the accuracy of the tables upon
which the insurance rates were based. While Babbage
did not, in general, think they were accurate, he often
tempered his opinion. For example, when asked about
death rates for higher and lower classes of society and
whether differing tables should be used for each, he
responded that he thought different tables should be used
but that he would need to see more facts and figures to
see how soundly that opinion was founded.
Illustrations available:
Title page
B 53
Babbage, Charles (1791–1871) [J. E. Isoard, translator]
Science économique des manufactures, traduit de
l’Anglais de Ch. Babbage, sur le troisiéme édition par
M. Isoard.
Year: 1834
Place: Paris
Publisher: A la Librairie Orientale de Doney - Dupré
Edition: 2nd (French)
Language: French
Binding: contemporary leather; red leather label
Pagination: pp. xxiii, [1], 392
Collation: π 12 1–24 8 25 4
Size: 206x128 mm
Reference: MCK CBCW, v. 8
Two translations into French of Babbage’s On the
economy of machinery and manufactures appeared in
Paris almost simultaneously. Both were based on the
third English edition of 1833. This one by J. M. Isoard,
an official at the Ministry of Commerce, covered only
chapters 13 to 34 of the original. Isoard felt that Babbage’s
earlier chapters on machinery were too specialized
for the French reader. For a complete translation, see
Babbage, Charles; Traité sur l’économie des machines
et des manufactures, 1833.
Illustrations available:
Title page
B 54
Babbage, Charles (1791–1871)
Table of logarithms of the natural numbers from 1 to
108000.
Year: 1829
Place: London
Publisher: B. Fellowes
Edition: 1st (2nd issue)
Language: English
Binding: original paper boards, printed label on spine
Pagination: pp. xx, 202, [2]
Collation: a 8 b 2 B–N 8 O 4 P 2
Size: 262x158 mm
Reference: Van S CBCP, #70; Babb CBLP, #71, #73; Ran
ODC, p. 405
This is the first edition of Babbage’s logarithms, printed
on light yellow paper.
Babbage’s interest in calculating machines arose from
his desire to mechanically compute complete sets of
mathematical tables and thus eliminate the errors that
inevitably crept into them when they were calculated and
typeset by hand. He created this table of logarithms not
by calculating them, but by comparing many different
tables against one another. When differences were noted,
he would recalculate the correct value, thus producing
the first error-free table of logarithms. Not content with
accuracy, he also experimented with their layout and their
printing. He used variously colored papers in combination
B 54
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