JEVONS, William Stanley.

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"Preliminary Account of Certain Logical Inventions." 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.

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