Equations have been already tabulated by the portion of the machinery
which has been put together, which are so far beyond the reach of the
present power of mathematics, that no distant term of the table can be
predicted, nor any function discovered capable of expressing its general
law. Yet the very fact of the table being produced by mechanism of an
invariable form, and including a distinct principle of mechanical
action, renders it quite manifest that _some_ general law must exist in
every table which it produces. But we must dismiss these speculations:
we feel it impossible to stretch the powers of our own mind, so as to
grasp the probable capabilities of this splendid production of combined
mechanical and mathematical genius; much less can we hope to enable
others to appreciate them, without being furnished with such means of
comprehending them as those with which we have been favoured. Years must
in fact elapse, and many enquirers direct their energies to the
cultivation of the vast field of research thus opened, before we can
fully estimate the extent of this triumph of matter over mind. 'Nor is
it,' says Mr Colebrooke, 'among the least curious results of this
ingenious device, that it affords a new opening for discovery, since it
is applicable, as has been shown by its inventor, to surmount novel
difficulties of analysis. Not confined to constant differences, it is
available in every case of differences that follow a definite law,
reducible therefore to an equation. An engine adjusted to the purpose
being set to work, will produce any distant term, or succession of
terms, required--thus presenting the numerical solution of a problem,
even though the analytical solution be yet undetermined.' That the
future path of some important branches of mathematical enquiry must now
in some measure be directed by the dictates of mechanism, is
sufficiently evident; for who would toil on in any course of analytical
enquiry, in which he must ultimately depend on the expensive and
fallible aid of human arithmetic, with an instrument in his hands, in
which all the dull monotony of numerical computation is turned over to
the untiring action and unerring certainty of mechanical agency?
It is worth notice, that each of the axes in front of the machinery on
which the figure wheels revolve, is connected with a bell, the tongue of
which is governed by a system of levers, moved by the several figure
wheels; an adjustment is provided by which the levers shall be
dismissed, so as to allow the hammer to strike against the bell,
whenever any proposed number shall be exhibited on the axis. This
contrivance enables the machine to give notice to its attendants at any
time that an adjustment may be required.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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