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"Without the aid of this language I could not have invented the
Analytical Engine; nor do I believe that any machinery of equal complexity
can ever be contrived without the assistance of that or of some other
equivalent language.” –Charles Babbage |
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BABBAGE,
Charles. "On a method of expressing by signs the action of
machinery." In Philosophical Transactions 116, pt. 3 (1826):
250-65. The entire issue included. Quarto, original plain blue wrappers,
uncut. Housed in custom cloth box. $4600. First
edition in journal form (preceded only by the extremely scarce offprint,
of which an estimated fifty copies were printed) of Charles Babbage’s
system of mechanical notation, important to the development of the early
computer. Illustrated with four engraved plates for the Babbage article;
19 engraved plates in the issue. In "On a Method of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery," Babbage for the first time demonstrated his new mechanical notation system, a system which would be essential for all the design work for his famous Difference Engine, the first machine to mechanically perform mathematical calculations, and his later Analytical Engine. By developing a detailed systematic method for labeling the parts of a machine and their relative motions, Babbage created "the most formal method of describing switching systems until Boolean algebra was applied to the problem in the middle of the twentieth century" (Hyman). Babbage’s system, when combined with the discoveries in logic by Boole (1847 and 1854) and the application to modern circuitry by Claude Shannon (1938), became an essential developmental step in the conception of the modern computer. Only minor foxing and wear. A truly remarkable copy: the complete issue in scarce original wrappers. |