This letter is copied from "The Works of Charles Babbage", Published by William Pickering, London Vol 2 - Edited by Martin Campbell-Kelly, "The Difference Engine and Table Making" pages 8 through 12

I used a copy of this book at the

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The letter is much longer than the fragment below, but the following seems to be the heart of the matter. I have divided this fragment into the following sections

(Items in italics are my comments, not Babbages)

WORKS OF BABBAGE: VOLUME 2

Babbage is talking about error in printing due to incorrect type pieces being in the printing function

... The ten boxes with which the engine is provided contain each about three thousand types; any box having of course only those of one number in it. It may happen that the person employed in filling these boxes shall accidentally place a wrong type in some of them; as for instance, the number 2 in the boxes which ought only to contain 7s. When these boxes are delivered to the superintendent of the engine, I have provided a simple and effectual means by which he shall in less than half an hour ascertain whether, amongst these 30,000 types, there be any individual misplaced or even invented. The other cause of error to which I have alluded, arises from the type falling out when the page has been set up: this I have rendered impossible by means of a similar kind.

The quantity of errors from carelessness in correcting the press, even in tables of the greatest credit, will scarcely be believed, except by those who have had constant occasion for their use. A friend of mind, whose skill in practical as well as theoretical astronomy is well known, produced to me a copy of the tables published by order of the French Board of Longitude, containing those of the sun by Delambre and of the moon by Burg, in which he had corrected above five hundred errors: most of these appear to be errors of the press; and it is somewhat remarkable, that in turning over the leaves in the fourth page I opened we observed a new error before unnoticed. These errors are so much the more dangerous because independent computers using the same tables will agree in the same errors.

How to improve the situation, working small model

To bring to perfection the various machinery which I have contrived, would require an expense both of time and money which can be known only to those who have themselves attempted to execute mechanical inventions. Of the greater part of that which has been mentioned, I have at present contented myself with sketches on paper, accompanied by short memorandums, by which I might at any time more fully develop the contrivances; and where any new principles are introduced I have had models executed in order to examine their actions. For the purpose of demonstrating the practicability of these views, I have chosen the engine for differences, and have constructed one of them which will produce any tables whose second differences are constant. Its size is the same as that which I should propose for any more extensive one of the same kind: the chief difference would be, that in one intended for use there would be a greater repetition of the same parts in order to adapt it to the calculation of a larger number of figures. Of the action of this engine, you have yourself had opportunities of judging, and I will only at present mention a few trials which have since been made by some scientific gentlemen to whom it has been shown, in order to determine the rapidity with which it calculates. The compound table is presented to the eye at two opposite sides of the machine; and a friend having undertaken to write down the numbers as they appeared, it proceeded to make a table from the formula x2+ x +41. In the earlier numbers my friend, in writing quickly, rather more than kept pace with the engine; but as soon as four figures were required, the machine was at least equal in speed to the writer.

In another trial it was found that thirty numbers of the same table were calculated in two minutes and thirty seconds: as these contained eighty-two figures, the engine produced thirty-three every minute.

In another trial it produced figures at the rate of forty-four in a minute. As the machine may be made to move uniformly by a weight, this rate might be maintained for any length of time, and I believe few writers would be found to copy with equal speed for many hours together. Imperfect as a first machine generally is, and suffering as this particular one does from great defect in the workmanship, I have every reason to be satisfied with the accuracy of its computations; and by the few skilful mechanics to whom I have in confidence shown it. I am assured that its principles are such that it may be carried to any extent. In fact, the parts of which it consists are few but frequently repeated, resembling in this respect / the arithmetic to which it is applied, which, by the aid of a few digits often repeated, produces all the wide variety of number. The wheels of which it consists are numerous, but few move at the same time; and I have employed a principle by which any small error that may arise from accident or bad workmanship is corrected as soon as it is produced, in such a manner as effectually to prevent any accumulation of small errors from producing a wrong figure in the calculation.

Of those contrivances by which the composition is to be effected, I have made many experiments and several models; the results of these leave me no reason to doubt of success, which is still further confirmed by a working model that is just finished.

As the engine for calculating tables by the method of differences is the only one yet completed, I shall in my remarks on the utility of such instruments confine myself to a statement of the powers which that method possesses.

I would however premise, that if anyone shall be of opinion, notwithstanding all the precaution I have taken and means I have employed to guard against the occurrence of error, that it may still be possible for it to arise, the method of differences enables me to determine its existence. Thus, if proper numbers are placed at the outset in the engine, and if it has composed a page of any kind of table, then by comparing the last number it has set up with that number previously calculated, if they are found to agree, the whole page must be correct: should any disagreement occur, it would scarcely be worth the trouble of looking for its origin, as the shortest plan would be to make the engine recalculate the whole page, and nothing would be lost but a few hours' labour of the moving power.

What kinds of tables can be produced

Of the variety of tables which such an engine could calculate, I shall mention but a few. The tables of powers and products published at the expense of the Board of Longitude, and calculated by Dr Hutton, were solely executed by the method of differences; and other tables of the roots of numbers have been calculated by the same gentleman on similar principles.

As it is not my intention in the present instance to enter into the theory of differences, a field far too wide for the limits of this letter, and which / will probably be yet further extended in consequence of the machinery I have contrived. I shall content myself with describing the course pursued in one of the most stupendous monuments of arithmetical calculation which the world has yet produced, and shall point out the mode in which it was conducted and what share of mental labour would have been saved by the employment of such an engine as I have contrived.

Tables produced for the French government

The tables to which I allude are those calculated under the direction of M. Prony by order of the French Government - a work which will ever reflect the highest credit on the nation which patronized and on the scientific men who executed it. The tables computed were the following:

  1. The natural sines of each 10,000 of the quadrant calculated to twenty-five figures with seven or eight orders of differences.

  2. The logarithmic sines of each 100,000 of the quadrant calculated to fourteen decimals with five orders of differences.

  3. The logarithm of the ratios of the sines to their arcs of the first 5000 of the l00,000ths of the quadrant calculated to fourteen decimals with three orders of differences.

  4. The logarithmetic tangents corresponding to the logarithmic sines calculated to the same extent.

  5. The logarithms of the ratios of the tangents to their arcs calculated in the same manner as the logarithms of the ratios of the sines to their arcs.

  6. The logarithms of numbers from 1 to 10,000 calculated to nineteen decimals.

  7. The logarithms of all numbers from 10,000 to 200,000 calculated to fourteen figures with five orders of differences.

Such are the tables which have been calculated, occupying in their present state seventeen large folio volumes. It will be observed that the trigonometrical tables are adapted to the decimal system, which has not been generally adopted even by the French, and which has not been at all employed in this country. But, notwithstanding this objection, such was the opinion entertained of their value, that a distinguished member of the English Board of Longitude was not long since commissioned by our Government to make a proposal to the Board of Longitude of France to print an abridgement of these tables at the joint expense of the two countries; / and five thousand pounds were named as the sum our Government was willing to advance for this purpose. It is gratifying to record this disinterested offer, so far above those little jealousies which frequently interfere between nations long rivals, and manifesting so sincere a desire to render useful to mankind the best materials of science in whatever country they might be produced. Of the reasons why this proposal was declined by our neighbours, I am at present uninformed: but, from a personal acquaintance with many of the distinguished foreigners to whom it was referred, I am convinced that it was received with the same good feelings as those which dictated it.

How the French did it

I will now endeavour shortly to state the manner in which this enormous mass of computation was executed; one table of which (that of the logarithms of numbers) must contain about eight millions of figures.

The calculators were divided into three sections. The first section comprised five or six mathematicians of the highest merit, amongst whom were M. Prony and M. Legendre. These were occupied entirely with the analytical part of the work; they investigated and determined on the formulae to be employed.

The second section consisted of seven or eight skilful calculators habituated both to analytical and arithmetical computations. These received the formulae from the first section, converted them into numbers, and furnished to the third section the proper differences at the stated intervals.

They also received from that section the calculated results, and compared the two sets, which were computed independently for the purpose of verification.

The third section, on whom the most laborious part of the operations devolved, consisted of from sixty to eighty persons, few of them possessing a knowledge of more than the first rules of arithmetic: these received from the second class certain numbers and differences, with which, by additions and subtractions in a prescribed order, they completed the whole of the tables above mentioned.

Labor savings

I will now examine what portion of this labour might be dispensed with, in case it should be deemed advisable to compute these or any similar tables of equal extent by the aid of the engine I have referred to.

In the first place, the labour of the first section would be considerably reduced, because the formulae used in the great work I have been describing have already been investigated and published. One person, or at the utmost two, might therefore conduct it.

If the persons composing the second section, instead of delivering the numbers they calculate to the computers of the third section, were to deliver them to the engine, the whole of the remaining operations would be executed by machinery, and it would only be necessary to employ people to copy down as fast as they were able the figures presented to them by the engine. If, however, the contrivances for printing were brought to perfection and employed, even this labour would be unnecessary, and a few superintendents would manage the machine and receive the calculated pages set up in type.

Thus the number of calculators employed, instead of amounting to ninety-six, would be reduced to twelve. This number might however be considerably diminished, because when an engine is used the intervals between the differences calculated by the second section may be greatly enlarged. In the tables of logarithms M. Prony caused the differences to be calculated at intervals of two hundred, in order to save the labour of the third section: but as that would now devolve on machinery, which would scarcely move the slower for its additional burthen, the intervals might properly be enlarged to three or four times that quantity. This would cause a considerable diminution in the labour of the second section. If to this diminution of mental labour we add that which arises from the whole work of the compositor being executed by the machine, and the total suppression of that most annoying of all literary labour, the correction of the ...

The letter continues at length, but the above seemed to be the heart of the matter.