On The Economy Of Machinery And Manufactures Second Edition Enlarged

In this famous book, first published in 1832, Charles Babbage (1791-1871), the mathematician, philosopher, engineer and inventor who originated the concept of a programmable computer, surveys manufacturing practices and discusses the political, moral and economic factors affecting them. The book met with hostility from the publishing industry on account of Babbage's analysis of the manufacture and sale of books. Babbage describes the many different printing processes of the time, analyses the costs of book production and explains the publication process, before discussing the 'too large' profit margins of booksellers. Babbage succeeded in his aim 'to avoid all technical terms, and to describe in concise language', making this an eminently readable historical account. His analysis and promotion of mechanisation and efficient 'division of labour' (still known as the 'Babbage principle') continue to resonate strongly for modern industrial engineering.

Reproduction of the original: On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage

Excerpt from On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures Tm; present volume may be considered as one of the con sequences that have resulted from the calculating-engine, the construction of which I have been so long superintending. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

There exists, perhaps, no single circumstance which distinguishes ourcountry more remarkably from all others, than the vast extent andperfection to which we have carried the contrivance of tools andmachines for forming those conveniences of which so large a quantityis consumed by almost every class of the community. The amount ofpatient thought, of repeated experiment, of happy exertion of genius, bywhich our manufactures have been created and carried to their presentexcellence, is scarcely to be imagined. If we look around the rooms we inhabit, or through those storehouses of every convenience, of everyluxury that man can desire, which deck the crowded streets of our largercities, we shall find in the history of each article, of every fabric, a seriesof failures which have gradually led the way to excellence; and we shallnotice, in the art of making even the most insignificant of them...