Category: Biographies
Value of a celebrated Name — My Ancestors — Their Ante-Mosaic origin — Flint-workers — Tool-makers — Not descended from Cain — Ought a Philosopher to avow it if he were? — Probability of Descent from Tubal Cain — Argument in favour, he worked in Iron — On the other side, he in...
Glaciers — Uniform Postage — Weight of the Bristol Bags — Parcel Post — Plan for transmitting Letters along Aërial Wires — Cost of Verification is part of Price — Sir Rowland Hi...
8. CHAPTER VIII.Built Workshops for constructing the Analytical Engine — Difficulties about carrying the Tens — Unexpectedly solved — Application of the Jacquard Principle — Treatment of Tables...
6. CHAPTER VI.The following statement was drawn up by the late Sir Harris Nicolas, G.S.M. & G., from papers and documents in my possession relating to the Difference Engine. I believe every p...
5. CHAPTER V.Calculating Machines comprise various pieces of mechanism for assisting the human mind in executing the operations of arithmetic. Some few of these perform the whole operation w...
38. CHAPTER XXV.Opening of Manchester and Liverpool Railway — Death of Mr. Huskisson — Plate-glass Manufactory — Mode of separating Engine from Train — Broad-gauge Question — Experimental Carri...
10. CHAPTER X.Mr. Gravatt suggests to King’s College the exhibition of the Difference Engine No. 1, and offers to superintend its Transmission and Return — Place allotted to it most unfit — N...
50. CHAPTER XXXVI.On one occasion when I was engaged in my workshop in arranging some machinery for experiments on a difficult part of the Analytical Engine, an intimate friend called, and I went...
42. CHAPTER XXVIII.New Inventions — Stomach Pump — Built a Carriage — Description of Thames Tunnel — Barton’s Iridescent Buttons — Chinese Orders of Nobility — Manufactory of Gold Chains at Venice...
21. CHAPTER XXI.The late Lord Lyndhurst candidate for the University of Cambridge — The Philosopher refuses to vote for him — The reason why — Example of unrivalled virtue — In 1829 Mr. Cavendi...
39. CHAPTER XXVI.Various Classes injured — Instruments of Torture — Encouragers; Servants, Beer-shops, Children, Ladies of elastic virtue — Effects on the Musical Profession — Retaliation — Poli...
4. CHAPTER IV.Universal Language — Purchase Lacroix’s Quarto Work on the Integral Calculus — Disappointment on getting no explanation of my Mathematical Difficulties — Origin of the Analytica...
16. CHAPTER XVI.Baked in an Oven — A Living Volcano — Vesuvius in action — Carried up the Cone of Ashes in a Chair — View of the Crater in a Dark Night — Sunrise — Descent by Ropes and Rolling...
37. CHAPTER XXIV.The Author invited to a Meeting at Turin of the Philosophers of Italy, 1840 — The King, Charles Albert — Reflections on Shyness — Question of Dress — Electric Telegraph — Theory...
45. CHAPTER XXXI.How, when, and where this vision occurred it is unnecessary for me at present to state. It did not arise under the action of the laughing-gas or of chloroform, but by some much...
7. CHAPTER VII.Difference Engine No. 2 — The Earl of Rosse, President of the Royal Society, proposed to the Government a Plan by which the Difference Engine No. 2 might have been executed — It...
12. CHAPTER XII.Official visit to see the Difference Engine in 1829 — Extract from a letter from the late General Sir William Napier — Loss of the troopship “Birkenhead” — The Author accompanie...
47. CHAPTER XXXIII.Scientific Societies — Analytical Society — Astronomical Society — Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II. — Scientific Meeting at Florence — Also at Berlin — At Edinburgh — At Cambr...
14. CHAPTER XIV.My First Visit to Paris — Anecdote of the fifty-two Eggs — Mistake about Woodhouse — Fourier — Biot — Drawings of the Difference Engine — Strong characteristic of Humboldt’s min...
40. ill. This approximation may be fairly assumed as the nearest yetattained for the population of London. It follows, therefore, that about forty-seven out of every thousand inhabitants are always ill. The number of persons per house varies in...
44. CHAPTER XXX.“Before thy holy altar, sacred Truth, I bow in manhood, as I knelt in youth; There let me bend till this frail form decay, And my last accents hail thine opening day.”
2. CHAPTER II.Early Passion for inquiry and inquisition into Toys — Lost on London Bridge — Supposed value of the young Philosopher — Found again — Strange Coincidence in after-years — Poison...
13. CHAPTER XIII.Secretaryship of Royal Society — Mr. Murray of Albemarle Street — Remark on “The Decline of Science” — Dr. Somerville — Explanation of a Job of Sir Humphry Davy — History of the...
19. CHAPTER XIX.Deep-snow — Beggar in Belgravia wanted work — He said he was a Watchmaker — Gave his address — It was false — Met him months after — The same story — The same untruth — Children...
43. CHAPTER XXIX.Difference Engine set so as to follow a given law for a vast period — Thus to change to another law of equally vast or of greater duration, and so on — Parallel between the succ...
49. CHAPTER XXXV.Board of Longitude — Professorship of Mathematics at the East India College — Professorship of Mathematics at Edinburgh — Secretaryship of the Royal Society — Master of the Mint...
46. CHAPTER XXXII.In 1836 imitations of bank-notes were so easily made, and the forgeries so numerous, that the Directors of the Bank of England resolved on appointing a small committee to examin...
15. CHAPTER XV.The grounds surrounding my father’s house, near Teignmouth, extended to the sea. The cliffs, though lofty, admitted at one point of a descent to the beach, of which I very frequ...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.Interview with Vidocq — Remarkable Power of altering his Height — A Bungler in picking Locks — Mr. Hobbs’s Lock and the Duke of Wellington — Strong belief that certain Ciphers a...
3. CHAPTER III.Taken to an Exhibition of Mechanism — Silver Ladies — School near London — Unjustly punished — Injurious Effect — Ward’s Young Mathematician’s Guide — Got up in the Night to Stu...
41. CHAPTER XXVII.Poor Dogs — Puns Double and Triple — History of the Silver Lady — Disappointed by the Milliner — The Philosopher performs her functions — Lady Morgan’s Criticism — Allsop’s Beer...
20. CHAPTER XX.The Philosopher in a Tableau at the Feet of Beauty — Tableau encored — Philosopher at the Opera of ‘Don Juan’ — Visits the Water-works above and the dark expanse below the Stage...
36. CHAPTER XXIII.Pension to Dr. Dalton — Inhabitants of Manchester subscribe for a Statue by Chantrey — The Author proposed that he should appear at a Levee — Various difficulties suggested and...
1. CHAPTER I.Value of a celebrated Name — My Ancestors — Their Ante-Mosaic origin — Flint-workers — Tool-makers — Not descended from Cain — Ought a Philosopher to avow it if he were? — Proba...
17. CHAPTER XVII.Visit to Bradford — Clubs — Co-operative Shops — The Author of the “Economy of Manufactures” welcomed by the Workmen — Visit to the Temple of Eolus — The Philosopher moralises —...
9. CHAPTER IX.Soon after I had commenced the Difference Engine, my attention was strongly directed to the imperfection of all known modes of explaining and demonstrating the construction of m...
11. CHAPTER XI.Count Mensdorf mentions to the Duke of Wellington his wish to see the Difference Engine — An appointment made — Prince Albert expresses his intention of accompanying his uncle —...
31. SCENE I.—_Downing-street, after a Cabinet Meeting._ LORD A.; CLOSEWIND;_Lord A._ That point being settled, gentlemen, the sooner you are at your posts the better. The King comes down to dissolve on Friday.[40] But, before we part, we had better {28...
29. SCENE X.—TURNSTILE’S _parlour_, 11½ A. M. _Breakfast on the table;pamphlets and newspapers. In the corners of the room, books and philosophical instruments, dusty and thrown together; heaps of Parliamentary Reports lying above them._ TURNSTILE...
26. SCENE VI.—LADY FLUMM’S _drawing-room_. LADY FLUMM _at the_Lady Flumm._ Yes, indeed! You see he is a mortal man after all. Bring me, my love, the book you will find open on the table in the boudoir. I wish to show Mr. Turnstile the pas...
33. SCENE VI.—BYEWAYS’ _lodgings_. BYEWAYS _alone, writing_._Turnstile._ My dear Byeways; I want your assistance. Deserted by those shabby dogs the Radicals, and tricked, I fear, by the Whigs, I find I have no chance of a decent show of...
23. SCENE I.—_Committee-room of the Conservatives, Charles-street_; LORDFLUMM; MARQUIS OF FLAMBOROUGH; LORD GEORGE; LORD CHARLES; _other Tory Lords, and_ TRIM. _A table covered with papers_; LORD CHARLES _smoking a cigar_; LORD GEORGE _half asleep i...
34. SCENE VIII.—LADY FLUMM’S _Drawing-room_. LADY FLUMM; LADY SELINA; HON._Lady Flumm._ “Poor man!” I cannot pity him. His maxim is, that knowledge is power; and he thinks _his_ {290} knowledge is all that can be known. He has to learn that _our_ know...
35. SCENE XII.—TURNSTILE’S _Parlour. Night._ TURNSTILE _alone_._Turnstile._ Then all is up. What a fool have I been to embark upon this sea of trouble! Two years of trifling and lost time; while others have been making discoveries and addin...
27. SCENE VII.—_Grosvenor-square; before_ LORD FLUMM’S _house_._Griskin._ Mr. Turnstile, I’m glad to find you; just called on you, as I came to this quarter to look after a customer—long way from the City—sorry not to hear from you.
24. SCENE IV.—_Grosvenor-square._Turnstile._ This will never do! They make use of me, and laugh at me in their sleeves;—push me round and go by. That break down _was_ a devil of a business! They didn’t laugh o...
25. SCENE V._Lord Flumm._ Mr. Turnstile, if I do not mistake! My dear Turnstile: how glad I am to see you again! it _was_ kind of Sir Phillip to introduce me. You know that you are near our...
32. SCENE IV.—_The Athenæum Club._ SMOOTH _and_ ATALL _at a table_._Smooth._ The book was open at the article upon the table. It does you honour. Hits _just_ the happy point,—hints probable _intentions_, without giving any pledge,—enough to ple...
28. SCENE IX.—_The street, near_ TURNSTILE’S _house_._Smooth._ (_Taking both_ TRIPES’ _hands_). My dear Tripes, how d’ye do?—Pray, how is your good lady?—What a jolly party at your house last night! and Mrs. Tripes, I hope, is non...
22. CHAPTER XXII.30. SCENE XI.—_The street, as before._Tripes._ (_Putting on his hat._) He might have been more civil, too;—though he did count upon me for his chairman. But I’ll show him that I’m not to be insulted; and if, MacLee...