cate subject was taken up by Mr. Babbage in 1821, when he
undertook to superintend for the British government the construction of
a machine for calculating and printing mathematical and astronomical
tables. The model first constructed to illustrate the nature of his
invention produced figures at the rate of 44 a minute. In 1823 the
Royal Society was requested to report upon the invention, and after
full inquiry the committee recommended it as one highly deserving of
public encouragement. A sum of 1500L. was then placed at Mr. Babbage's
disposal by the Lords of the Treasury for the purpose of enabling him
to perfect his invention. It was at this time that he engaged Mr.
Clement as draughtsman and mechanic to embody his ideas in a working
machine. Numerous tools were expressly contrived by the latter for
executing the several parts, and workmen were specially educated for
the purpose of using them. Some idea of the elaborate character of the
drawings may be formed from the fact that those required for the
calculating machinery alone--not to mention the printing machinery,
which was almost equally elaborate--covered not less than four hundred
square feet of surface! The cost of executing the calculating machine
was of course very great, and the progress of the work was necessarily
slow. The consequence was that the government first became impatient,
and then began to grumble at the expense. At the end of seven years
the engineer's bills alone were found to amount to nearly 7200L., and
Mr. Babbage's costs out of pocket to 7000L. more. In order to make
more satisfactory progress, it was determined to remove the works to
the neighbourhood of Mr. Babbage's own residence; but as Clement's
claims for conducting the operations in the new premises were thought
exorbitant, and as he himself considered that the work did not yield
him the average profit of ordinary employment in his own trade, he
eventually withdrew from the enterprise, taking with him the tools
which he had constructed for executing the machine. The government
also shortly after withdrew from it, and from that time the scheme was
suspended, the Calculating Engine remaining a beautiful but unfinished
fragment of a great work. Though originally intended to go as far as
twenty figures, it was only completed to the extent of being capable of
calculating to the depth of five figures, and two orders of
differences; and only a small part of the proposed printing