Jacquards' Web (37 page)
Authors: James Essinger
Jacquard’s Web
Watching the machine in action has been among the most soul-shattering experiences of my life. On both occasions I was poignantly aware that Babbage himself never saw his own creation completed, let alone working with complete beauty, precision, and harmony. Witnessing the Difference Engine in operation causes profound questions to leap into one’s mind with the regular beat of the cascading cogwheels. Is the machine one sees in operation really a nineteenth-century machine? A twentieth-century creation? A twenty-
first
century device? Or is it something else that exists, both miraculously and uneasily, in a kind of netherworld of the scientific imagination, lurking at the margins of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
Babbage was to enjoy yet another vindication. In April
2000
, another team at the Science Museum, also headed by Doron Swade, completed the construction, to Babbage’s specifications, of a printer which Babbage planned to be used in conjunction with the Difference Engine, his first cogwheel calculator. The project to build Babbage’s printer was sponsored by Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer of Microsoft, for whom the Museum is building a replica of Difference Engine No.
2
.
The printer automatically produces results of up to thirty digits on a paper roll. The roll can be used for checking the Difference Engine’s output. The printer also presses the results in soft metal or
papier mâché
trays from which plates can be made for use in a conventional printing press. The results are produced simultaneously in two print sizes, and there is also a facility for the page layout to be altered. Numbers can be arranged in one, two, or three columns. It is even possible to vary page margins and the spacing between columns. Results can be produced down one column, with an automatic fly-back to the top of the next column, or across the page with an automatic line-rack to the start of the next line. The apparatus is entirely mechanical.
268
Appendix 1
The remarkable success of the team at the London Science Museum in completing the construction of a working Babbage machine, and subsequently a working printer, has naturally generated a surge of fresh interest in Babbage. If any nineteenth-century scientist deserves greater and greater attention from a new generation of anyone interested in how technology has evolved, it is surely him.
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Ada Lovelace’s letter to Charles Babbage,
The following is the full text of the letter which Ada Lovelace wrote to Charles Babbage on Monday,
14
August
1843
, offering him comprehensive assistance in connection with his work on the Analytical Engine.
My Dear Babbage. You would have heard from me several days ago, but for the
hot
work that has been going on between me & the printers. This is now happily concluded. I have endeavoured to work up everything to the utmost perfection,
as far as it goes;
& I am now well satisfied on the whole, since I think that
within the sphere of views
I set out with, & in accordance with which the whole contents & arrangement of the Notes are shaped, they are very complete, & even admirable.
I could
now
do the thing
far better
; but this would be from setting out upon a wholly different
basis
.
I say you would have heard from me before. Your note (enclosed on Monday with my papers & c), is such as demands a very full reply from me, the writer being so old & so esteemed a friend,
& one whose genius I not only so highly appreciate myself, but wish to see fairly appreciated by others.
Were it not for this desire (which both Lord L— & myself have more warmly at heart than you are as yet at all aware of), coupled with our long-established regard & intercourse, I should say that
the less notice taken by me of that note—the better
;
& it was only worthy to be thrown aside with a smile of con-270
Appendix 2
tempt. The
tone
of it, it is impossible to misunderstand; & as I am myself always a very “
explicit function of x,
” I shall not pretend to do so; & shall leave to
you
(if you please it) to continue the “i
mplicit
” style which is exceedingly marked in the said note.
As I know you will not be
explicit
enough to state the
real
state of your feelings respecting me at this time, I shall do so for you. You feel, my dear Babbage, that
I
have (tho’ in a negative manner)
added
to the list of injuries & of disappointments
& mis-comprehensions that you have already experienced in a life by no means smooth or fortunate. You
know
this is your feeling; & that you are deeply hurt about it; & you endeavour to derive a poor & sorry consolation from such sentiments as
“Well, she don’t
know
or
intend
the injury & mischief if she has done” &c.
You say you did not wish me to “break my engagement, but merely to ask to be released from it.” My dear friend, if the engagement was such that I had no right to break it
without
leave
, I had still
less right
to appeal to the
courtesy
of parties, in order to obtain an apparent sanction & excuse for doing that which their
justice & sense of their own rights
could not have conceded. There is no greater sin, or deeper
double-dealing
in this world, than that of endeavouring thro’ the influence of secondary motives to get the apparent support & consent of others towards that which on a
higher
& more
general
motive would be inadmissible. Your reply to this will be, that my principle is
just, good, & great;
but that it did not apply to the particular case; in as much as the editors would themselves have been glad of an excuse to be released, under the circumstances. You must allow me to state that I took measures for ascertaining that point beyond all possibility of doubt, & that I found it to be very much otherwise.
You will deny & dispute this; or more probably you will immediately perceive grounds
why
, (from various unworthy arrière-pensées) the persons concerned might still wish to retain the article. Remember however, that when you did 271
Jacquard’s Web
this, you have
shifted your original ground
; & that your question then becomes not whether Lady L— ought to oblige two parties,
you & the editors
, who both tho’ on different grounds wish to dispose of my publication thro’ another channel than that originally proposed, but whether Lady L— ought tacitly to lend herself to certain possible or probable unworthy motives entertained by the editors. Now to this the reply is perfectly plain in the opinion of all parties accustomed to fair & honorable dealings, uninfluenced by secondary motives. My engagement was
unconditional
, had no reference to the
motives
of the parties with whom I contracted it. I have therefore no right to withdraw it on grounds
subsequently
thought of. If I had undertaken to do the thing specially
for
you, in addition to its being
for
them, the case would be wholly different. But with the circumstance of your happening to be a private friend of my own, & of my therefore being too happy & delighted to make prior engagement
especially
pleasing & useful to you,
they
had nothing to do. Consequently, because my private friend wished it, (however justly), this could form no
real
equitable ground for withdrawing the article.
I have now touched on all grounds which can be taken on the supposition of its
really being pernicious to your interests
that I have thus allowed the article to appear. This however I cannot agree to or believe; & were you not influenced by a set of feelings which are very different from those that I myself, & the minds whom I most esteem, can consider wise, justifiable, or in harmonious accordance with man’s moral nature,
you
would not think so. Mind, I do not say that
your
views may not be in reality higher, juster, & wiser, than my own. But my moral standard, such as it is, I must stick to; as long as it
is
my moral standard. It would not be of any use for me to endeavour making you see thro’
my
glasses; for, (besides the fact that they may be as far or farther than yours, from refracting & reflecting quite truly), no one
can
instanter alter the views & modes of feeling of a
life
. But I
do
wish you to understand the 272
Appendix 2
fact, that
I believe
myself (however erroneous that belief may be), to have forwarded
your
interests far more by allowing the article to appear than I should have done by any of the courses you suggested. I
have
a right to expect from you the belief that I do sincerely & honestly take this view. For if
your
knowledge of
me
does not furnish sufficient grounds for doing so, then I can only say that
no
mutual knowledge of any human beings in this life, can give stable & fixed grounds for faith & confidence. Then Adieu to
all
trust, & to everything most generous, in this world!–
I must now come to a practical question respecting the future.
Your
affairs have been, & are, deeply occupying both myself & Lord Lovelace. Our thoughts as well as our conversation have been earnest upon them. And the result is that I have plans for you, which I do not think fit at present to communicate to you; but which I shall either develop, or else throw my energies, my time & pen into the service of some other department of truth & science, according to the reply I receive from you to what I am now going to state. I do beseech you therefore deeply & seriously to ponder over the question how far you can subscribe to my conditions or not. I give to
you
the
first
choice & offer of my services & my intellect. Do not lightly reject them. I say this entirely for
your own
sake, believe me.
My channels for developping [sic] & training my scientific & literary powers, are various, & some of them very attractive.
But I wish my old friend to have the
refusal.
Firstly: I want to know whether if I continue to work
on
&
about
your own great subject, you will undertake to abide wholly by the judgement of myself (or of any persons whom you may
now
please to name as referees, whenever we may differ), on
all practical
matters relating to
whatever can involve
relations with any fellow-creature or fellow-creatures.
Secondly: can you undertake to give your mind
wholly
&
undividedly
, as a primary object that no engagement is to inter-273
Jacquard’s Web
fere with, to the consideration of all those matters in which I shall at times require your intellectual
assistance
&
supervision
;
& can you promise not to
slur
&
hurry
things over; or to mislay, & allow confusion & mistakes to enter into documents, &c?
Thirdly: If I am able to lay before you in the course of a year or two, explicit & honorable propositions for
executing
your engine
, (such as are approved by persons whom you may
now
name to be referred to for their approbation), would there be any chance of your allowing myself & such parties to conduct the business for you; your own
undivided
energies being devoted to the execution of the work; & all other matters being arranged for you on terms which your
own
friends should approve?
You will wonder over this last query. But, I strongly advise you not to reject it as chimerical. You do
not
know the grounds I have for believing that such a contingency may come within my power, & I wish to know before I allow my mind to employ its energies any further on the subject, that I shall not be wasting thought & power for no purpose or result.
At the same time, I must place the whole of your relations with me, in a fair & just light. Our motives, & ways of viewing things, are very widely apart; & it may be an anxious question for you to decide how for the advantages & expediency of enlisting a mind of my particular class, in your service,
can
over-balance the annoyance to you of that divergency on perhaps many occasions. My own uncompromising principle is to endeavour to love
truth & God before fame & glory or even just
appreciation
; & to believe generously & unwaveringly in the
good
of human nature, (however dormant & latent it may often seem).
Yours
is to love truth & God (yes, deeply & constantly); but to love
fame, glory, honours, yet more
. You will deny this; but in all your intercourse with
every
human being (as far as I know & see of it), it is a
practically paramount
sentiment. Mind, I am not 274
Appendix 2
blaming
it. I simply state my belief in the
fact
. The fact may be a very
noble & beautiful
fact.
That
is another question.
Far be it from
me
, to disclaim the influence of
ambition &
fame
. No living soul ever was more imbued with it than myself. And my own view of duty is, that it behoves me to place this
great & useful
quality in its
proper relations & subordina-tion
; but I certainly would not deceive myself or others by pretending that it is other than a very important motive & ingredient in my character & nature.
I wish to add my mite towards
expounding & interpreting
the Almighty, & his laws & works, for the most effective use of mankind; and certainly, I should feel it no small
glory
if I were enabled to be one of his most noted prophets (using this word in my own peculiar sense) in this world. And I should undoubtedly prefer being
known
as a benefactor of this description, to
being
equally great in fact, but promulgating truths from obscurity & oblivion.