Autograph letter signed (“C Babbage”), to Davies Gilbert PRS, asking for details of Gilbert´s friend Sir Humphry Davy, which he needs for an obituary notice (“...Is anything known respecting his early education, tending to show the best of his genius and did he pursue any regular course of studies?...”), giving news of Humboldt, and complaining about mistreatment over his Difference Engine, three pages, 4to, guard, printed identification slip, Dorset Street, Manchester Square, 27 September 1829 BABBAGE STRUGGLES TO ADVANCE WORK ON HIS DIFFERENCE ENGINE, hoping for funding from the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington. He tells Gilbert, then serving as President of the Royal Society: “I have been kept in town all the summer in daily expectation of the promised visit of the Duke of Wellington but he has not yet been, – I have written to him 5 weeks since and he has not answered my letter – I have discontinued the construction of the machine for many months, and am wearing out with anxiety and annoyance at the manner in which I have been treated”. First plans for the machine – one of the first mechanised computers – had been submitted to the Royal Society in 1822 and a grant was made by the Treasury the following year. Following the death of his wife in 1827, Babbage travelled to Europe, returning to England late in 1828. By this time, money had run out, and a visit by the Duke of Wellington to see a model of the engine took place (notwithstanding Babbage´s complaints in this letter), resulting in a further grant of £3000. Work on the Difference Engine however ground to a halt a few years later. Babbage then formulated plans for an Analytical Machine, which to an even more remarkable degree foreshadowed many of the features of twentieth-century computer; but these were to remain unrealized during his lifetime. See illustration overleaf.
Autograph letter signed (“C Babbage”), to Davies Gilbert PRS, asking for details of Gilbert´s friend Sir Humphry Davy, which he needs for an obituary notice (“...Is anything known respecting his early education, tending to show the best of his genius and did he pursue any regular course of studies?...”), giving news of Humboldt, and complaining about mistreatment over his Difference Engine, three pages, 4to, guard, printed identification slip, Dorset Street, Manchester Square, 27 September 1829 BABBAGE STRUGGLES TO ADVANCE WORK ON HIS DIFFERENCE ENGINE, hoping for funding from the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington. He tells Gilbert, then serving as President of the Royal Society: “I have been kept in town all the summer in daily expectation of the promised visit of the Duke of Wellington but he has not yet been, – I have written to him 5 weeks since and he has not answered my letter – I have discontinued the construction of the machine for many months, and am wearing out with anxiety and annoyance at the manner in which I have been treated”. First plans for the machine – one of the first mechanised computers – had been submitted to the Royal Society in 1822 and a grant was made by the Treasury the following year. Following the death of his wife in 1827, Babbage travelled to Europe, returning to England late in 1828. By this time, money had run out, and a visit by the Duke of Wellington to see a model of the engine took place (notwithstanding Babbage´s complaints in this letter), resulting in a further grant of £3000. Work on the Difference Engine however ground to a halt a few years later. Babbage then formulated plans for an Analytical Machine, which to an even more remarkable degree foreshadowed many of the features of twentieth-century computer; but these were to remain unrealized during his lifetime. See illustration overleaf.
.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
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