On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures; Sayer & Bennett
London: Knight, 1832. First Edition. Hardcover. 1st edition, 1st state title page. Contemporary calf recently rebacked, else very good. It lacks the leaf of ads, but it has the 1833, 1st separate edition of the 32–page pamphlet, On Currency, bound in at the end (a prominent and valuable item on its own). Very good. Item #761
Here is resounding genius from the inventor of programable computers. In visiting factories and plants so he could, at first, understand how his Calculating Engine might be built, Babbage could not help noticing that certain principles he had learned in his engineering efforts would prove practical in manufacturing. So, he wrote this book hoping that some industrialist, who was directly involved, might chose to use his principles. And in considering that his imagined audience would not abide much scientific terminology, he kept his text colloquial, and laid it quieter than a feathery zephyr wisping through the discord in a broken promise.
Price:
$1,000.00