--pull the string of clock A; pull
the string of clock B; pull the string of clock C.
The table on the following page will then express the series
of movements and their results.
If now only those divisions struck or pointed at by the clock
A be attended to and written down, it will be found that they
produce the series of the squares of the natural numbers. Such a
series could, of course, be carried by this mechanism only so far
as the numbers which can be expressed by three figures; but this
may be sufficient to give some idea of the construction--and
was, in fact, the point to which the first model of the
calculating engine, now in progress, extended.
250. We have seen, then, that the effect of the division of
labour, both in mechanical and in mental operations, is, that it
enables us to purchase and apply to each process precisely that
quantity of skill and knowledge which is required for it: we
avoid employing any part of the time of a man who can get eight
or ten shillings a day by his skill in tempering needles, in
turning a wheel, which can be done for sixpence a day; and we
equally avoid the loss arising from the employment of an
accomplished mathematician in performing the lowest processes of
arithmetic.
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