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BABBAGE, CHARLES. 1791-1871. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864. image 1
BABBAGE, CHARLES. 1791-1871. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864. image 2
Lot 14

BABBAGE, CHARLES. 1791-1871.
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864.

4 December 2019, 13:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$6,325 inc. premium

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BABBAGE, CHARLES. 1791-1871.

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864.
8vo (225 x 142 mm). Wood-engraved frontispiece, without publisher's catalog. Publisher's green cloth, spine gilt-lettered. Covers soiled, corners bumped, slight foxing to first few leaves.
Provenance: C.J. Peacock (bookplate); Sydney Melmore (bookplate).

FIRST EDITION, ASSOCIATION COPY, inscribed on the half-title: "To Wm. Gravatt, Esqre. with the author's kind regards." This was Babbage's final book, which details his two most important inventions, the difference engine and analytical engine. Gravatt and Babbage were advocates of the difference engine made by Swedish inventor Georg Scheutz, which Gravatt studied and demonstrated to British audiences, including at one point, Prince Albert. In Chapter 10 (pp 147-167), Babbage describes Gravatt's long efforts to have the difference engine exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1862, with the heading "Its Exhibition in 1862 Entirely Due to Mr. Gravatt." Hook Origins of Cyberspace 84; Hyman p 260; Van Sinderen 77.

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