Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. Charles Babbage

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      The opinion pronounced by the novelist and financier was, “That Mr. Babbage’s projects appear to be so indefinitely expensive, the ultimate success so problematical, and the expenditure certainly so large and so utterly incapable of being calculated, that the Government would not be justified in taking upon itself any further liability.”—Extract from the Reply of Earl Derby to the application of the Earl of Rosse, K.P., President of the Royal Society.

      〈REFERRED TO THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER.〉

      The answer of Lord Derby to Lord Rosse was in substance—

      That he had consulted the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who pronounced Mr. Babbage’s project as— {108}

       1. “Indefinitely expensive.”

       2. “The ultimate success problematical.”

       3. “The expenditure utterly incapable of being calculated.”

      1. With regard to the “indefinite expense.” Lord Rosse had proposed to refer this question to the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, who would have given his opinion after a careful examination of the drawings and notations. These had not been seen by the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and, if seen by him, would not have been comprehended.

      The objection that its success was “problematical” may refer either to its mechanical construction or to its math­e­mat­i­cal principles.

      Who, possessing one grain of common sense, could look upon the unrivalled workmanship of the then existing portion of the Difference Engine No. 1, and doubt whether a simplified form of the same engine could be executed?

      As to any doubt of its math­e­mat­i­cal principles, this was excusable in the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was himself too practically acquainted with the fallibility of his own figures, over which the severe duties of his office had stultified his brilliant imagination. Far other figures are dear to him—those of speech, in which it cannot be denied he is indeed pre-eminent.

      Any junior clerk in his office might, however, have told him that the power of computing Tables by differences merely required a knowledge of simple addition.

      As to the impossibility of ascertaining the expenditure, this merges into the first objection; but a poetical brain must be pardoned when it repeats or amplifies. I will recall to the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer what Lord Rosse really {109} proposed, namely, that the Government should take the opinion of the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers upon the question, whether a contract could be made for constructing the Difference Engine, and if so, for what sum.

      But the very plan proposed by Lord Rosse and refused by Lord Derby, for the construction of the English Difference Engine, was adopted some few years after by another administration for the Swedish Difference Engine. Messrs. Donkin, the eminent Engineers, made an estimate, and a contract was in consequence executed to construct for Government a fac-simile of the Swedish Difference Engine, which is now in use in the department of the Registrar-General, at Somerset House. There were far greater mechanical difficulties in the production of that machine than in the one the drawings of which I had offered to the Government.

      From my own experience of the cost of executing such works, I have no doubt, although it was highly creditable to the skill of the able firm who constructed it, but that it must have been commercially unprofitable. Under such circumstances, surely it was harsh on the part of the Government to refuse Messrs. Donkin permission to exhibit it as a specimen of English workmanship at the Exhibition of 1862.

      〈HIS OPINION WORTHLESS.〉

      But the machine upon which everybody could calculate, had little chance of fair play from the man on whom nobody could calculate.

      If the Chancellor of the Exchequer had read my letter to Lord Derby, he would have found the opinion of the Committee of the Royal Society expressed in these words:—

      “They consider the former [the abstract math­e­mat­i­cal principle] as not only sufficiently clear in itself, but as already admitted and acted on by the Council in their former proceedings. {110}

      “The latter [its public utility] they consider as obvious to every one who considers the immense advantage of accurate numerical tables in all matters of calculation, especially in those which relate to astronomy and navigation.”—Report of the Royal Society, 12th Feb., 1829.

      Thus it appears:—

       1st. That the Chancellor of the Exchequer presumed to set up his own idea of the utility of the Difference Engine in direct opposition to that of the Royal Society.

       2nd. That he refused to take the opinion of the highest mechanical authority in the country on its probable cost, and even to be informed whether a contract for its construction at a definite sum might not be attainable: he then boldly pronounced the expense to be “utterly incapable of being calculated.”

      〈DIFFERENCE ENGINE No. 2. FEELS FOR THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER.〉

      This much-abused Difference Engine is, however, like its prouder relative the Analytical, a being of sensibility, of impulse, and of power.

It can not only calculate the millions the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer squandered, but it can deal with the smallest quantities; nay, it feels even for zeros.23 It is as conscious as Lord Derby himself is of the presence of a negative quantity, and it is not beyond the ken of either of them to foresee the existence of impossible ones.24

23 It discovers the roots of equations by feeling whether all the figures in a certain column are zeros.

24 It may be necessary to explain to the unmath­e­mat­i­cal reader and to the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer that impossible quantities in algebra are something like mare’s-nests in ordinary life.

      Yet should any unexpected course of events ever raise the {111} ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer to his former dignity, I am sure he will be its friend as soon as he is convinced that it can be made useful to him.

      It may possibly enable him to un-muddle even his own financial accounts, and to———

      But as I have no wish to crucify him, I will leave his name in obscurity.

      The Herostratus of Science, if he escape oblivion, will be linked with the destroyer of the Ephesian Temple.

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