"Preliminary Account of Certain Logical Inventions." In: Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool during the fifty-fifth session, 1865-66. No. XX.

JEVONS, William Stanley.

Published by London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, 1867

About this Item

First edition of this report recording Jevons' progress in building one of the earliest mechanical devices capable of outperforming the human mind. Jevons began his attempts to build a mechanical reasoning machine in 1865. While the "logical piano" was eventually demonstrated before the Royal Society in 1870, this extract records his demonstration of an earlier version before the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society. Where the finalized piano has a metre-high wooden case and a keyboard of 21 keys, this version consisted of "a black board with four ledges attached horizontally. A number of slips of wood with small and large letters printed upon them in various combinations were ranged upon the ledges, and by means of wire pins could be readily classified in any required order" (pp. 178-179). From 1865 to 1866, Jevons had taught political economy and logic at Queen's College, Liverpool; in 1867, he was teaching similar subjects at Owens College, Manchester. Inoue & White 66. Octavo. Wood-engraved publisher's vignette to title page, illustrations in the text. Original brown pebble-grain cloth, spine lettered in gilt and ruled in blind, light yellow coated endpapers. Housed in custom red cloth flat-back box. Library label of Erwin Tomash (1921-2012), renowned collector of the history of mathematics and computing. Closed tears and tape repairs to pp. xi-xii, and xv-xvi. Light bumping, sunning, and wear, slight loss to spine ends, rear joint splitting at foot but holding firm, minor foxing to contents: a very good copy.

Seller Inventory # 149677

Bibliographic Details

• Title: "Preliminary Account of Certain Logical Inventions." In: Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool during the fifty-fifth session, 1865-66. No. XX.
• Publisher: London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, 1867
• Edition: 1st Edition