Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq

Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq is by Luigi Federico Menabrea, with notes by the translator, and was printed in London in 1843. The title page gives L. F. Menabrea, of Turin, as an officer of the military engineers. An editors’ note promises a list of the printed papers connected with the subject, and also of those relating to the Difference Engine by which it was preceded.

The text says the labours which belong to the various branches of the mathematical sciences may be divided into two distinct sections, one called the mechanical, subjected to precise and invariable laws, the other demanding the intervention of reasoning. The text says one may propose to execute the mechanical branch of these labours by means of machinery, reserving for pure intellect that which depends on the reasoning faculties. An editor’s note says that in August 1840 Mr. Babbage caused one of his general plans of the whole Analytical Engine to be lithographed at Paris.