Model of a Calculating Machine
JEVONS, William Stanley.
‘Preliminary account of certain logical inventions’, communicated March 19th, 1866 [in: Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool. During the fifty-fifth session, 1865-66. No. XX]. London, Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer; Liverpool, David Marples, 1867.
8vo, pp. [ii], 173-232; a clean copy, in recent drab boards, printed label along spine; stamps of the Geologists’ Association, London.
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‘Preliminary account of certain logical inventions’, communicated March 19th, 1866 [in: Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool. During the fifty-fifth session, 1865-66. No. XX].
First edition of the account of Professor Jevons’ communication on the ‘logical abacus’ and the ‘logical machine’, a precursor of his later ‘logical piano’.
Jevons had experimented with different forms of teaching aids before creating his logical piano. On this occasion, early in his career, Jevons (pp. 177-179) organized a practical demonstration and set forth the purpose and functions of his newly devised calculating and logical machine – a comparatively simple device consisting of a number of marked blocks of wood that could be manipulated on a series of shelves to produce the solution to a logical problem. He considers his work within the tradition of ‘mechanical logic’, from Aristotle to Babbage.
Inoue and White 66; not in Letters and journal.