Pioneering British mathematician and mechanical engineer (1791-1871) whose Difference Engine and Analytical Engine are generally acknowledged as the first programmable computers. Signed book: On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. Third edition enlarged. London: Charles Knight, 1833. Leatherbound hardcover with marbled endpapers and textblock edges, 4.5 x 6.75, 392 pages. Signed and inscribed on a free end page, "To Edw'd Strull Esq're, from the Author." Autographic condition: fine, with light soiling to the signed page. Book condition: VG/None, with a bookplate to front pastedown, sunning to the binding, nicks and dings to spine, and overall staining to the title page, but other interior pages remarkably clean.
An influential early work of operational research, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures discussed the organization of industrial production. The work described what is now called the 'Babbage principle,' pointing out commercial advantages available with more careful division of labor. The book's success established Babbage as an expert in political economy, with the work influencing both John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx.
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