“I’m a philosopher. Confound them all⁠— Birds, beasts, and men; but no, not womankind.” Don Juan “I now gave my mind to philosophy: the great object of my ambition was to make out a complete system of...

Sire, In dedicating this volume to your Majesty, I am also doing an act of justice to the memory of your illustrious father. In 1840, the King, Charles Albert, invited the learned of Italy to assemble...

Some men write their lives to save themselves from ennui, careless of the amount they inflict on their readers. Others write their personal history, lest some kind friend should survive them, and, in ...

What is there in a name? It is merely an empty basket, until you put something into it. My earliest visit to the Continent taught me the value of such a basket, filled with the name of my venerable fr...

From my earliest years I had a great desire to inquire into the causes of all those little things and events which astonish the childish mind. At a later period I commenced the still more important in...

Two events which impressed themselves forcibly on my memory happened, I think, previously to my eighth year. When about five years old, I was walking with my nurse, who had in her arms an infant broth...

During my boyhood my mother took me to several exhibitions of machinery. I well remember one of them in Hanover Square, by a man who called himself Merlin. I was so greatly interested in it, that the ...

My father, with a view of acquiring some information which might be of use to me at Cambridge, had consulted a tutor of one of the colleges, who was passing his long vacation at the neighbouring water...

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 without any mental atten...

Those who are only familiar with ordinary arithmetic may, by following out with the pen some of the examples which will be given, easily make themselves acquainted with the simple principles on which ...

From the preceding explanation it appears that all Tables may be calculated, to a greater or less extent, by the method of Differences. That method requires, for its successful execution, little beyon...

That portion of Difference Engine, No. 1, which during the last twenty years has been in the museum of King’s College, at Somerset House, is represented in the woodcut opposite the title page. It cons...

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 paper I possessed at a...

It was not until 1848, when I had mastered the subject of the Analytical Engine, that I resolved on making a complete set of drawings of the Difference Engine No. 2. In this I proposed to take advanta...

The circular arrangement of the axes of the Difference Engine round large central wheels led to the most extended prospects. The whole of arithmetic now appeared within the grasp of mechanism. A vague...

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 machinery. It soon becam...

When the construction of the Difference Engine No. 1 was abandoned by the Government in 1842, I was consulted respecting the place in which it should be deposited. Well aware of the unrivalled perfect...

When the construction of the Difference Engine No. 1 was abandoned by the Government in 1842, I was consulted respecting the place in which it should be deposited. Well aware of the unrivalled perfect...

All the drawings explaining the principles of the Mechanical Notation. The complete Mechanical Notations of the Swedish Calculating Engine of M. Scheutz. These latter drawings had been made and used b...

I have had one opportunity of fairly estimating some portion of the character of the late justly-lamented Prince Consort; to this I will now venture to allude. In 1842 Count Mensdorf visited London. A...

My acquaintance with the late Duke of Wellington commenced in an official visit from himself and Mr. Goulburn, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to inspect the drawings and works of the Difference Engi...

In 1826, one of the secretaryships of the Royal Society became vacant. Dr. Wollaston and several others of the leading members of the Society and of the Council wished that I should be appointed. This...

One day Herschel, sitting with me after dinner, amusing himself by spinning a pear upon the table, suddenly asked whether I could show him the two sides of a shilling at the same moment. I took out of...

My first visit to Paris was made in company with my friend John Herschel. On reaching Abbeville, we wanted breakfast, and I undertook to order it. Each of us usually required a couple of eggs. I prefe...

One of the most remarkable characteristics of Humboldt’s mind was, that he not merely loved and pursued science for its own sake, but that he derived pleasure from assisting with his information and a...

From my father’s house on the coast, near Teignmouth, we could, with a telescope, see every ship which entered Torbay. When the Bellerophon anchored, the news was rapidly spread that Napoleon was on b...

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 frequently availed myself fo...

Calling one morning upon Chantrey, I met Captain Kater and the late Sir Thomas Lawrence, the President of the Royal Academy. Chantrey was engaged at that period in casting a large bronze statue. An ov...

Calling one morning upon Chantrey, I met Captain Kater and the late Sir Thomas Lawrence, the President of the Royal Academy. Chantrey was engaged at that period in casting a large bronze statue. An ov...

I have never been so fortunate as to be conscious of having experienced the least shock of an earthquake, although, when a town had been destroyed in Ischia I hastened on from Rome in the hope of gett...

During my residence at Naples in 1828, the government appointed a commission of members of the Royal Academy of Naples to visit Ischia and make a report upon the hot springs in that island. Being a fo...

At the commencement of this chapter I mentioned that I had never been consciously sensible of the occurrence of an earthquake. I think it may perhaps be useful to state that on a recent occasion I rea...

An opportunity presented itself several years after my examination of Vesuvius of witnessing another form under which fire occasionally exerts its formidable power. I was visiting a friend38 at Merthy...

During one of my visits to Leeds, combinations and trades-unions were very prevalent. A medical friend of mine, who was going to Bradford on a professional visit, very kindly offered to take me over i...

These two subjects are in truth much more nearly allied than might appear upon a superficial view of them. They are in fact closely connected with each other as small branches of the same vast subject...

Deciphering is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating of arts, and I fear I have wasted upon it more time than it deserves. I practised it in its simplest form when I was at school. The bigger bo...

Soon after taking up my residence in London, I met with many applications from street-beggars, with various tales of distress. I could not imagine that all these were fictitious, and found great diffi...

I was never particularly devoted to theatrical representations. Tragedy I disliked, and comedy, which I enjoyed, frequently excited my feelings more than the dignity of the philosophic character sanct...

When the late Lord Lyndhurst was a candidate for the representation of the University of Cambridge, I met Mr. ⸻, a Whig in politics, and a great friend of Dr. Wollaston. After the usual salutation, he...

People of fashion:⁠— Turnstile, a retired Philosopher, M.P. for Shoreditch. Lord Flumm, a Tory nobleman of ancient family. Countess of Flumm, his wife. Lady Selina, their daughter. Hon. Mrs. Fubsey, s...

People of fashion:⁠— Turnstile, a retired Philosopher, M.P. for Shoreditch. Lord Flumm, a Tory nobleman of ancient family. Countess of Flumm, his wife. Lady Selina, their daughter. Hon. Mrs. Fubsey, s...

Committee-room of the Conservatives, Charles-street; Lord Flumm; Marquis of Flamborough; Lord George; Lord Charles; other Tory Lords, and Trim. A table covered with papers; Lord Charles smoking a ciga...

Committee-room of the Conservatives, Charles-street; Lord Flumm; Marquis of Flamborough; Lord George; Lord Charles; other Tory Lords, and Trim. A table covered with papers; Lord Charles smoking a ciga...

Committee-room of the Conservatives, Charles-street; Lord Flumm; Marquis of Flamborough; Lord George; Lord Charles; other Tory Lords, and Trim. A table covered with papers; Lord Charles smoking a ciga...

Grosvenor-square. Turnstile: Enter Turnstile, musing. 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 b...

Lord Flumm: Enter Lord Flumm. 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 ...

Lady Flumm’s drawing-room. Lady Flumm at the writing-table. Mrs. Fubsey at work on a sofa. Lord Flumm: Enter Lord Flumm and Turnstile. Lord Flumm: Lady Flumm, this is Mr. Turnstile, whom you have so l...

Grosvenor-square; before Lord Flumm’s house. Turnstile: Enter Turnstile, from the house. Turnstile: This is all very delightful; but what will they say at Shoreditch?⁠—twice in one week absent from th...

The street, near Turnstile’s house. Tripes: Enter Tripes and Smooth, meeting. Smooth: Taking both Tripes’ hands. My dear Tripes, how d’ye do?⁠—Pray, how is your good lady?⁠—What a jolly party at your ...

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 Repor...

The street, as before. Tripes: Enter Tripes, from Turnstile’s house. 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 th...

Downing-street, after a Cabinet Meeting. Lord A.; Closewind; Shift; Smooth; and other Members of the Cabinet. Lord A.: That point being settled, gentlemen, the sooner you are at your posts the better....

Downing-street, after a Cabinet Meeting. Lord A.; Closewind; Shift; Smooth; and other Members of the Cabinet. Lord A.: That point being settled, gentlemen, the sooner you are at your posts the better....

The Athenæum Club. Smooth and Atall at a table. Smooth: I saw it this morning on the breakfast-table at Lord A.’s; it is an admirable article, and I was told is yours. Atall: Decliningly. These things...

Byeways’ lodgings. Byeways alone, writing. Turnstile: Enter Turnstile. Turnstile: My dear Byeways; I want your assistance. Deserted by those shabby dogs the Radicals, and tricked, I fear, by the Whigs...

Lady Flumm’s Drawing-room. Lady Flumm; Lady Selina; Hon. Mrs. Fubsey. Mrs. Fubsey: But, my dear sister; how can you so beflatter that poor man? You don’t know all the mischief you may do to him. Lady ...

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 ...

The following letter was addressed by me to Dr. Henry, the biographer of Dalton, in reply to inquiries respecting the part I had taken in procuring a pension for that distinguished philosopher. It was...

About a quarter of a century ago the Court of Turin had the reputation of being the most formal and punctilious of any in Europe. It was dull to the diplomatic officials, who were doomed like planets ...

At the commencement of the railway system I naturally took a great interest in the subject, from its bearings upon mechanism as well as upon political economy. I accompanied Mr. Woolryche Whitmore, th...

During the last ten years, the amount of street music has so greatly increased that it has now become a positive nuisance to a very considerable portion of the inhabitants of London. It robs the indus...

It has often struck me that an analysis of the causes of wit would be a very interesting subject of inquiry. With that view I collected many jest-books, but fortunately in this one instance I had reso...

In this chapter I propose to throw together a few suggestions, which may assist in rendering a tour successful for its objects and agreeable in its reminiscences. Money is the fuel of travelling. I ca...

After that portion of the Difference Engine which was completed had been for some months promoted from the workshop to my drawing-room, I met two of my friends from Ireland⁠—Dr. Lloyd, the present Pro...

There are three sources from which it is stated that man can arrive at the knowledge of the existence of a Deity. The à priori or metaphysical proof. Such is that of Dr. Samuel Clarke. From Revelation...

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 more real and immediate...

In 1836 imitations of banknotes were so easily made, and the forgeries so numerous, that the Directors of the Bank of England resolved on appointing a small committee to examine the subject, and advis...

In 1836 imitations of banknotes were so easily made, and the forgeries so numerous, that the Directors of the Bank of England resolved on appointing a small committee to examine the subject, and advis...

On one of my visits to Paris I had the pleasure of dining at the Bank of France. During dinner, in the midst of an interesting conversation, the Chairman received a note: having glanced over it he put...

Letters of credit are specially addressed to certain bankers at various places with whom your own banker is in correspondence. It has on several occasions happened to me to want cash either for myself...

One Saturday morning an American gentleman who had just arrived from Liverpool, where he had landed from the United States on the previous day, called in Dorset Street. He was very anxious to see the ...

Many years ago some friends of mine invited me to accompany them to the concert of ancient music, and join their supper-party after it was over. My love of music is not great, but for the pleasure of ...

The origin of the Analytical Society has been already explained in the fourth chapter. In the year 1820 the Author of this volume, joining with several eminent men attached to astronomical pursuits, i...

The origin of the Analytical Society has been already explained in the fourth chapter. In the year 1820 the Author of this volume, joining with several eminent men attached to astronomical pursuits, i...

This was my earliest step, and is still one to which I would willingly recur if other demands on my time permitted. Many years ago I recorded, in a small MS. volume, the facts, and also extracts of le...

My contributions to Political Economy are chiefly to be found in The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, which consists of illustrations and developments of the principles regulating a very large s...

It is singular that in the analysis of the division of labour, given by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, the most efficient cause of its advantage is entirely omitted. The three causes assigned in...

Besides the usual elements which contribute to constitute the price of anything, there exists another which varies greatly in different articles. It is this⁠— The cost and difficulty of verifying the ...

In a pamphlet printed in 1848, I published my views of taxation, especially with reference to an Income Tax. The principle there supported was entertained and examined by the French Minister of Financ...

In the course of my examination of this question I arrived at what I conceive to be a demonstration of the following principle:⁠— That even under circumstances of the most absolute monopoly, the monop...

The explanation which I gave of the nature of miracles in The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, published in May, 1837, has now stood the test of more than a quarter of a century, during which it has been e...

Much has been written upon the subject of glaciers. The view which I took of the question on my first acquaintance with them still seems to me to afford a sufficient explanation of the phenomena. It i...

Much has been written upon the subject of glaciers. The view which I took of the question on my first acquaintance with them still seems to me to afford a sufficient explanation of the phenomena. It i...

It is a well-known fact that water rapidly frozen retains all the air it held in solution, and is opaque. It is also known that water freezing very slowly is transparent. Whenever, by the melting of t...

When my friend, the late General Colby, was preparing the materials and instruments for the intended Irish survey, he generally visited me about once a week to discuss and talk over with me his variou...

Of this it is not necessary to do more than mention the title and refer for the detail to the chapter on Experience by Water: and also to the article Diving Bell in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana. I h...

Enough has already been said about that unfortunate discovery in the previous part of this volume. The first and great cause of its discontinuance was the inordinately extravagant demands of the perso...

In 1824 Arago published his experiments on the magnetism manifested by various substances during rotation. I was much struck with the announcement, and immediately set up some apparatus in my own work...

This also has been described in a former chapter. I look upon it as one of the most important additions I have made to human knowledge. It has placed the construction of machinery in the rank of a dem...

The great object of all my inquiries has ever been to endeavour to ascertain those laws of thought by which man makes discoveries. It was by following out one of the principles which I had arrived at ...

The system of occulting light applies with remarkable facility to night signals, either on shore or at sea. If it is used numerically, it applies to all the great dictionaries of the various maritime ...

The distance at which such signals can be rendered visible exceeds that of any other class of signals by means of light. During the Irish Trigonometrical Survey, a mountain in Scotland was observed, w...

Another form of signal, although not capable of use at very great distances, may, however, be employed with considerable advantage, under certain circumstances. Universality and economy are its great ...

It has been thought very desirable that a signal to indicate Greenwich time should be placed on the Start Point, the last spot which ships going down the Channel on distant voyages usually sight. The ...

During one portion of my residence at Naples my attention was concentrated upon what in my opinion is the most remarkable building upon the face of the earth, the Temple of Serapis, at Puzzuoli.64 It ...

A considerable time after the translation of Menabrea’s memoir had been published, and after I had made many drawings of the Analytical Engine and all its parts, I began to meditate upon the intellect...

The problem of the three bodies, which has cost such unwearied labour to so many of the highest intellects of this and the past age, is simple compared with another which is opening upon us. We now po...

At the commencement of life I had hoped that, whilst I indulged in the pursuits of science, I might derive from it some advantages for my family, or at least, that it might enable me to replace a smal...

8. In 1835 a new office was created, that of Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. Mr. Francis Baily and others of my friends suggested to me that, being known to the public as qualified...

10. Some years ago, the alarm created by accidents occurring upon railways, induced the Government to consider about the appointment of a Commission to examine into their causes, and to lay down rules...

In the course of this volume I have mentioned, under other heads, many agreeable circumstances, and many others remain unwritten. I shall now confine myself to two. On one occasion when I was engaged ...

I will now conclude, as I began, by invoking the attention of my reader to a subject which, if he is young, may be of importance to him in afterlife. He may reasonably ask what peculiarities of mind e...

It has always occurred to my mind that many difficulties touching Miracles might be reconciled, if men would only take the trouble to agree upon the nature of the phenomenon which they call “Miracle.”...

It has always occurred to my mind that many difficulties touching Miracles might be reconciled, if men would only take the trouble to agree upon the nature of the phenomenon which they call “Miracle.”...

St. Athanasius is not the author of the Creed which bears his name. It did not, in fact, exist within a century after his death. It originally appeared in a Latin text, and consequently in the Western...

One of the most important facts which the engine-driver ought to know is the exact time since the preceding train has passed the point of railroad on which his own engine is. This may be done by placi...

Many applications having been made to the Author and to his Publishers, for detached Papers which he has from time to time printed, he takes this opportunity of giving a list of those Papers, with ref...

On the remains of human art, mixed with the bones of extinct races of animals. Proceedings of the Royal Society, 26th May, 1859. ↩ There exists an aristocracy even amongst slates, perhaps from their o...