MUCH misapprehension having arisen as to the circumstances attending the invention and construction of Mr. Babbage's Calculating Engines, it is necessary to state from authority the facts relating to them.

In 1823; Mr. Babbage, who had previously invented an Engine for calculating and printing tables by means of differences, undertook, at the desire of the Government, to superintend the construction of such an Engine. He bestowed his whole time upon the subject for many years, refusing for that purpose other avocations which would have been attended with considerable pecuniary advantage. During this period about £ 17,000 had been expended by the Government in the construction of the Difference Engine. A considerable part of this sum had from time to time been advanced by Mr. Babbage for the payment of the workmen, and was of course repaid; but it was never contemplated by either party that any portion of this sum should be appropriated to Mr. Babbage himself, and in truth not one single shilling of the money was in any shape whatever received by Mr. Babbage for his invention, his time, or his services, a fact which Sir Robert Peel admitted in the House of Commons in March 1843.

Early in 1833 the construction of this Engine was suspended on account of some dissatisfaction with the workmen, which it is now unnecessary to detail. It was expected that the interruption, which arose from circumstances over which Mr. Babbage had no control, would be only temporary. About twelve months after the progress of the Difference Engine had been thus suspended, Mr. Babbage discovered a principle of an entirely new order, the power of which over the most complicated arithmetical operations seemed nearly unbounded.