Science and Reform
Selected Works of Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage was a key figure of a great era of British history.

Charles Babbage (Author), Anthony Hyman (Edited by)

9780521036764, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 March 2007

368 pages
24.3 x 16.9 x 1.8 cm, 0.592 kg

Charles Babbage was a key figure of a great era of British history. Best remembered for his pioneering Difference and Analytical Engines, forerunners of the modern computer, Babbage was also an active reformer of science and society. Among his friends were the Bonapartes, the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of Somerset, Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace and the reforming Earl of Shaftesbury, whose interest Babbage directed to the factories. In this book, Anthony Hyman has selected passages from Babbage's many publications, including his proposals on profit sharing and life peerages and his ideas on such topics as the applications of science, scientific management, taxation and life assurance. Setting each extract in perspective, Hyman has provided the passages with an explanatory editorial commentary. Together with his concern for the systematic application of science, technology and mathematical method to commercial, industrial and economic problems, his work on computing makes Charles Babbage one of the most remarkable as well as one of the most colourful figures in the history of science.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Family background and education
2. Early mathematical work
3. The first difference engine
4. Life assurance
5. Reform of science
6. Economic theory
7. Life peerage
8. Babbage's philosophy
9. Taxation
10. The analytical engines
11. Lighthouse signalling
Postscript
Works represented
Index
Plate section.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]