SKETCH OF THE ANALYTICAL ENGINE INVENTED BY CHARLES BABBAGE, ESQ. By L. F. MENABREA, of Turin, OFFICER OF THE MILITARY ENGINEERS. WITH NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR. [Extracted from the ‘Scientific Memoirs’, vol. III.] LONDON: PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 1843. [Pg 1] ARTICLE XXIX. Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage Esq. By L. F. MENABREA, Officer of the Military Engineers. [From the Bibliothèque Universelle de Génève, No. 82. October 1812.] [BEFORE submitting to our readers the translation of M. Menabrea’s memoir ‘On the Mathematical Principles of the ANALYTICAL ENGINE’ invented by Mr. Babbage, we shall present to them a list of the printed papers connected with the subject, and also of those relating to the Difference Engine by which it was preceded. For information on Mr. Babbage’s “Difference Engine,” which is but slightly alluded to by M. Menabrea, we refer the reader to the following sources:— 1. Letter to Sir Humphry Davy, Bart., P.R.S., on the Application of Machinery to Calculate and Print Mathematical Tables. By Charles Babbage, Esq., F.R.S. London, July 1822. Re-printed, with a Report of the Council of the Royal Society, by order of the House of Commons, May 1823. 2. On the Application of Machinery to the Calculation of Astronomical and Mathematical Tables. By Charles Babbage, Esq.—Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, vol. I. part 2. London, 1822. 3. Address to the Astronomical Society by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, Esq., F.R.S., President, on presenting the first Gold Medal of the Society to Charles Babbage, Esq., for the invention of the Calculating Engine.—Memoirs of the Astronomical Society. London, 1822. 4. On the Determination of the General Term of a New Class of Infinite Series. By Charles Babbage, Esq.—Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 5. On Mr. Babbage’s New Machine for Calculating and Printing Mathematical Tables.—Letter from Francis Baily, Esq., F.R.S., to M. Schumacher. No. 46, Astronomische Nachrichten. Reprinted in the Philosophical Magazine, May 1824. 6. On a Method of expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery. By [Pg 2] Charles Babbage, Esq.—Philosophical Transactions. London, 1826. 7. On Errors common to many Tables of Logarithms. By Charles Babbage, Esq.—Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, London, 1827. 8. Report of the Committee appointed by the Council of the Royal Society to consider the subject referred to in a communication received by them from the Treasury respecting Mr. Babbage’s Calculating Engine, and to report thereon. London, 1829. 9. Economy of Manufactures, chap. XX. 8vo. London, 1832. 10. Article on Babbage’s Calculating Engine.—Edinburgh Review, July 1834. No. 120. vol. LIX.