Here I present: Luigi F. Menabrea, “Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage” (Ada Lovelace trans.), 1842 was a nonfiction science book of a mechanical computer.
Charles Babbage the inventor, mathematician Luigi F. Menabrea the writer; and Ada Lovelace her translation into English. I generally, post blogs from books from Harrison Horblit, “100 Books Famous in the History of Science”, 1964. Harrison Horblit’s library did not contain this book; and, it is a rare item for there are only six copies.
Large national libraries such as the American “Library of Congress” (a collection 130 million items); and, the Japanese “Diet Library”(vast collection science) both do not have this book. The book is available online from a Harvard University copy (3 of the 6 copies are at Harvard University. Harvard University (16 million item collection) and the Library of Congress (130 million items) were part of the “Research Libraries Group” from 1974-2006.
“RLG” also included Yale University, Columbia University, and the New York Public Library. Non-Roman scripts was one of the bibliographic projects of “RLG”. Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Hebrew, Yiddish book in the United States could be found on a computer terminal designed for the “RLG”. “RLG” after 2006 became “WorldCat”. “WorldCat” has 2 billion items; and lists Luigi F. Menabrea, “Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage“(Ada Lovelace trans.), 1842.
So if your “research” is on the first female computer programmer Ada Lovelace of 1842 it is possible to locate hard to find items today.
