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On the Economy of Machinery and Manufacturesby Charles Babbage1832
Preface
The present volume may be considered as one of theconsequences that have resulted from the calculating engine, theconstruction of which I have been so long superintending. Havingbeen induced, during the last ten years, to visit a considerablenumber of workshops and factories, both in England and on theContinent, for the purpose of endeavouring to make myselfacquainted with the various resources of mechanical art, I wasinsensibly led to apply to them those principles ofgeneralization to which my other pursuits had naturally givenrise. The increased number of curious processes and interestingfacts which thus came under my attention, as well as of thereflections which they suggested, induced me to believe that thepublication of some of them might be of use to persons whopropose to bestow their attention on those enquiries which I haveonly incidentally considered. With this view it was my intentionto have delivered the present work in the form of a course oflectures at Cambridge; an intention which I was subsequentlyinduced to alter. The substance of a considerable portion of ithas, however, appeared among the preliminary chapters of themechanical part of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana.
I have not attempted to offer a complete enumeration of allthe mechanical principles which regulate the application ofmachinery to arts and manufactures, but I have endeavoured topresent to the reader those which struck me as the mostimportant, either for understanding the actions of machines, orfor enabling the memory to classify and arrange the factsconnected with their employment. Still less have I attempted toexamine all the difficult questions of political economy whichare intimately connected with such enquiries. It was impossiblenot to trace or to imagine, among the wide variety of factspresented to me, some principles which seemed to pervade manyestablishments; and having formed such conjectures, the desire torefute or to verify them, gave an additional interest to thepursuit. Several of the principles which I have proposed, appearto me to have been unnoticed before. This was particularly thecase with respect to the explanation I have given of the divisionof labour; but further enquiry satisfied me that I had beenanticipated by M. Gioja, and it is probable that additionalresearch would enable me to trace most of the other principles,which I had thought original, to previous writers, to whose meritI may perhaps be unjust, from my want of acquaintance with thehistorical branch of the subject.
The truth however of the principles I have stated, is of muchmore importance than their origin; and the utility of an enquiryinto them, and of establishing others more correct, if theseshould be erroneous, can scarcely admit of a doubt.
The difficulty of understanding the processes of manufactureshas unfortunately been greatly overrated. To examine them withthe eye of a manufacturer, so as to be able to direct others torepeat them, does undoubtedly require much skill and previousacquaintance with the subject; but merely to apprehend theirgeneral principles and mutual relations, is within the power ofalmost every person possessing a tolerable education.
Those who possess rank in a manufacturing country, canscarcely be excused if they are entirely ignorant of principles,whose development has produced its greatness. The possessors ofwealth can scarcely be indifferent to processes which, nearly orremotely have been the fertile source of their possessions. Thosewho e