Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/170

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154
THE LOAN OF OTHER

is own mind relative to the abolition of all tables except those made and stereotyped by machinery, I offered all the assistance in my power to accelerate the accomplishment of his task.

I lent him for exhibition numerous specimens of the unfinished portions of the Difference Engine No. 1. These I had purchased on the determination of the Government to abandon its construction in 1842.

I proposed also to lend him the Mechanical Notations of the Difference Engine, which had been made at my own expense, and were finished by myself and my eldest son, Mr. B. Herschel Babbage.

I had had several applications from foreigners[1] for some account of my system of Mechanical Notation, and great desire was frequently expressed to see the illustrations of the method itself, and of its various applications.

These, however, were so extensive that it was impossible, without very great inconvenience, to exhibit them even in my own house.

I therefore wrote to Mr. Gravatt to offer him the loan of the following property for the Exhibition:—

1. A small Calculating Machine of the simplest order for adding together any number of separate sums of money, provided the total was under 100,000l., by Sir Samuel Morland. 1666. 2. A very complete and well-executed Machine for answering all questions in plane trigonometry, by Sir Samuel Morland. 1663.
  1. One object of the mission of Professor Bolzani was, to take back with him to Russia such an account of the Mechanical Notation as might facilitate its teaching in the Russian Universities. I regret that it was entirely out of my power to assist him.