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Pioneering British mathematician and mechanical engineer (1791–1871) whose Difference Engine and Analytical Engine are generally acknowledged as the first programmable computers. Uncommon paper by Charles Babbage entitled "On a Method of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery," an extract from Philosophical Transactions, as read on March 16, 1826. Disbound, 8.5 x 10.75, 15 pages plus four engraved plates. In the 1820s, notations to describe a machine's actions were coarse, inaccurate and antiquated; Babbage therefore found it necessary to design his own notation. The paper includes four engraved plates showing a mechanical eight-day clock, Babbage's mechanical notation of the same clock, and a hydraulic ram with its mechanical notation below. It is interesting that this notation, while presenting some problems, allowed the building of a working model of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 in 1990 at the Science Museum in London. In fine condition.
