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

Babbage, Charles
Herschel title page, B 23
Peacock title page, B 23
différentiel et du calcul integral, 1797–1800) (see entry
for [Babbage, et al., translators] – Lacroix, Sylvestre
François; An elementary treatise on the differential and
integral calculus. Translated from the French with an
appendix and notes, 1816).
This volume consists of a large set of examples of the
applications of the calculus of differences, initially
intended to accompany that translation but ultimately
published separately. It contains examples (171 pp.)
by Herschel for the calculus of finite differences
and Babbage’s smaller (42 pp.), eighty-three worked
examples of the calculus of functions.
The printer, J. Smith, printer to the University, issued
the work in two forms. One was in two volumes, the
first containing the work of Peacock and the second
containing the work of Babbage and Herschel. Smith
also produced an issue containing the work of all three
Erwin Tomash Library
Babbage, Charles
authors. A copy of this later edition is available in the
collection.
Peacock (1791–1858) held the Lowndean chair of
astronomy and geometry at Cambridge from 1836 to
1858 but stopped lecturing there when he became Dean
of Ely Cathedral in 1839.
The translation became very popular and was used for
many years as a calculus text in British universities.
Illustrations available:
Title page of Babbage section
Title page of Herschel section
Title page from Peacock’s section (from the second copy)
B 24
Babbage, Charles (1791–1871)
The exposition of 1851; or, views of the industry, the
science, and the government of England.
Year: 1851
Place: London
Publisher: London
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Binding: original cloth boards; spine and cover gilt stamped
Pagination: pp. xvi, 290, [4], 16
Collation: A–T 8 U 3 χ 8
Size: 226x138 mm
Reference: Van S CBCP, #70; Babb CBLP, #71, #73; Ran
ODC, p. 405; MCK CBCW, v. 10
Martin Campbell-Kelly, editor of The works of Charles
Babbage (London, 1989), describes this as a vitriolic
volume. It was written after Charles Babbage was not
invited to take part in the organization of the International
Exposition of 1851. The exhibition, held to celebrate
progress in arts and manufactures, was opened by Queen
Victoria and took place in Hyde Park in Joseph Paxton’s
newly erected, eye-catching Crystal Palace. In the
Dictionary of National Biography, the work is described
as the diatribe of a disappointed man. Babbage had sought
permission from the organizing committee to display the
model of his Difference Engine and had been refused.
In this polemic, Babbage not only criticized the policies
of the organizers of the exhibition but also broadened
his censure to include the low estate to which science
in Great Britain had fallen. To remedy the Exposition
Committee’s failure to recognize the importance and
value of the Difference Engine, Babbage included a
chapter on the machine and its history (pp. 173–188) in
the main body of the text. In an appendix he provided
a copy of a previously published (1849) pamphlet
containing articles by Charles Weld and Augustus
DeMorgan that present Babbage and his work on the
Difference Engine in an objective and factual light.
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