#yeah he meant suanpan

[publicdomainbooksdevotee]

Guess what just hit Project Gutenberg!

This isn't about the analytical engine (the one that could have been considered a computer), it's an article about a difference engine (the mechanical calculator one).

I just skimmed it and it's like…30% just talking about how horrible errors in calculation tables are? He's not wrong, but still. Dude. And a good chunk of describing the machine is talking about how to make the machine print out what it's doing so you can be sure it isn't making errors.

It's got some pictures.

Another large chunk goes into how horrible it is that this very important work is not appreciated enough and he needs more money, which I guess yes, he's definitely right that calculating machines can REALLY be world-changing, but also my dude, you never finished one!

[W]e express our regret, that a discovery of such paramount practical value, in a country preeminently conspicuous for the results of its machinery, should fall still-born and inconsequential through their hands, and be buried unhonoured and undiscriminated in their miscellaneous transactions.

I mean yes, your mechanical calculator is definitely remembered as a too-early broken offshoot of early computing history, but also they gave you seventeen thousand mid-19th-century pounds sterling and you didn't make a whole working calculator. There comes a point.