On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures - Charles Babbage - Bauman Rare Books

On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures

Charles BABBAGE

Item#: 45921 We're sorry, this item has been sold

On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures

BABBAGE’S IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL WORK ON THE ECONOMY OF MACHINERY AND MANUFACTURES, INCLUDING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIS EDITION HIS CALCULATING ENGINE

BABBAGE, Charles. On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. London: Charles Knight, 1833. Small octavo, original plum cloth.

Expanded third edition, published just one year after the scarce first edition, including for the first time a brief demonstration of Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 1 performing calculations.

“In pursuit of methods that might better enable the construction of his calculating or ‘Difference’ engine, Babbage made an exhaustive study of both British and Continental industry, then combined the results with his longtime interest in political economy to produce On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures… his pioneering treatise was ‘at once a hymn to the machine, an analysis of the development of machine-based production in the factory, and a discussion of social relations in industry” (Hyman, 103). “By the time the third edition was published Babbage had the small working portion of his Difference Engine No. 1 that he had ordered constructed in 1832. This portion of the machine, which represented approximately one-ninth of the complete design, would be the only portion ever constructed… Babbage was able to include a long mathematical footnote to pages 198 and 199 of the chapter on the division of mental labor showing how it had been possible to implement in machinery de Prony’s principles of the division of mental labor” (Hook and Norman, Origins of Cyberspace 44). “Early example of the study of scientific management and consideration of production, personnel, inventory, and other controls. Valuable” (Larson 2625). Goldsmith 27926. Kress C.3401. Norman 93.

A fine copy in the original cloth.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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