Project Gutenberg #4238
On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures
Charles Babbage
1832Babbage's study of machinery, factories, automation, and labor, prepared chapter by chapter from Project Gutenberg HTML.
Project Gutenberg #4238 Public domain in the United States Cover source Local typographic cover created for MojiMori from public-domain source metadata
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of the difficulty of invention in mechanics. It is, therefore, of great importance to the individuals and to the families of those who are too often led away from more suitable pursuits, the dupes of their own ingenuity and of the popular voice, to convince both them and the public that the power of making new mechanical combinations is a possession common to a multitude of minds, and that the talents which it requires are by no means of the highest order. It is still more important that they should be impressed with the conviction that the great merit, and the great success of those who have attained to eminence in such matters, was almost entirely due to the unremitted perseverance with which they concentrated upon their successful inventions the skill and knowledge which years of study had matured.