Part 39 (1/2)
”A bridge-builder cannot practice his trade, unless he knows the length of the span to be made-”
”The length is from now until a Hanover is crowned King or Queen of Great Britain.”
”That could be never.”
”And yet, as a wise woman once remarked, we are all gambling on it.”
”It could be years, then.”
”Queen Anne is as likely to live to the end of 1714 as I am to go to Naples and sell myself in the town square as a gigolo,” Daniel averred.
”What is the amount you seek?”
”A stipend, delivered at regular intervals. Mr. Ham has drawn up some figures.”
”That sounds boring,” Eliza said, ”and so I propose a parting of the ways. Johann, who has a head for numbers, can look at Mr. Ham's. Hildegard may wish to stay with him.”
”And you, madame?”
”I have a head for relations.h.i.+ps,” Eliza said, ”and so I shall join you in my carriage as you are delivered back to Clerkenwell Court, and I shall discourse to you of the relations.h.i.+p-or to be blunt, what precisely is to be my security security for the proposed loan.” for the proposed loan.”
”IT IS A CURIOUS sort of Mint that you have created,” Eliza remarked. sort of Mint that you have created,” Eliza remarked.
Daniel was startled out of a drowsy reverie. The d.u.c.h.ess of Arcachon-Qwghlm had been silent, staring out the window, as her carriage had taken them up the bank of Fleet Ditch and round the western approach of Holbourn Bridge. Now they were stuck in the absurdly mis-named Field Lane, a clogged chute of brick and horse-s.h.i.+t.
London had come awake reluctantly. The Mobility had devoted all of their energies, yesterday, to the Hanging-March; even those who had not actually pushed their way through the crowd to glimpse the awful Derrick raised above Tyburn Cross, had busied themselves picking the pockets, filling the bellies, or satisfying the urges of those who had. As for the n.o.bility, they had been as preoccupied with a violent and ghastly spectacle of a different character: down in Westminster, the Whigs had suddenly begun to ask pointed questions as to what had become of certain Asiento revenues. Persons of Quality had devoted yester evening and much of the night to liquidating their holdings in the South Sea Company, and gathering in Clubbs and coffee-houses to misinform one another.
But it was now mid-afternoon, and everyone, hanging-watchers and Parliamentarians alike, was finally awake. Except for Daniel Waterhouse, who had almost drifted off when p.r.i.c.ked awake by this curious remark from Eliza. ”I beg your pardon?” he mumbled, buying time to wake himself up.
”I am trying to hatch a similitude for what you are doing at Bridewell,” Eliza returned. Then, sensing that this answer had been none too informative, she straightened her spine, like a cat, and turned her face toward Daniel. She was so beautiful that he flinched. ”Gold is meant to be fungible-an ounce of it here is no different from an ounce in Amsterdam or Shahjahanabad.”
I wish someone would explain that to Isaac, Daniel mused, then felt bad, as Isaac was a sick man just now-he'd collapsed in Westminster Palace a couple of weeks ago, and was still lying on a sick-bed at Roger Comstock's house. Daniel mused, then felt bad, as Isaac was a sick man just now-he'd collapsed in Westminster Palace a couple of weeks ago, and was still lying on a sick-bed at Roger Comstock's house.
”A financier, asked for a loan, carries out a diligent summing-up of the debtor's a.s.sets, to ensure that the loan shall be secured by something of worth,” Eliza continued. ”You have gold. This gold could be weighed, to find its worth. There could be no better security for a loan. But there is a complication. You are not using the gold as gold as gold. You are using it as a medium for storage of information. Or I might say it thus: you are informing it. Once informed by the card-punching organ, it possesses value-to you, at least-that it did not have before. If it were to be melted down, it would lose that value. The only like procedure that I can call to mind, is that whereby blank disks of gold are informed by the blow of a die at the Mint, making 'em into guineas, and thereby imbuing 'em with additional worth-seigneurage, they name it. And so I say that your organ at Bridewell is like a little Mint, and your punched cards are the Coin of a new Realm.”
”You have convinced me,” Daniel said. ”I only hope that Sir Isaac does not hear of it, and denominate me a rival.”
”If the rumors as to Sir Isaac's condition are true,” Eliza said, ”you or some some rival may soon be running the Mint at the Tower. But that is beside the point. Supposing you build the Logic Mill, and it works. Then the value-and I mean value not moral, aesthetic, or spiritual, but oeconomic-of your Inst.i.tute inheres in the ability to carry out logical and arithmetical work using the cards.” rival may soon be running the Mint at the Tower. But that is beside the point. Supposing you build the Logic Mill, and it works. Then the value-and I mean value not moral, aesthetic, or spiritual, but oeconomic-of your Inst.i.tute inheres in the ability to carry out logical and arithmetical work using the cards.”
”Indeed, madame, that is all we can offer.”
”If the cards were foreclosed upon by a creditor, and melted, the information would all be con-fused, the Logic Mill would not do work, and the value we just spoke of would be annihilated.”
”True.”
”It follows that the gold, once wrought into punched cards, becomes a poor form of security indeed, as it cannot be spent, in a monetary sense, without destroying your enterprise.”
”I agree without reservation that the gold cannot secure the loan.”
”Moreover, if I understand the nature of the project, the cards and the machine are to be s.h.i.+pped to the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg when they are finished.”
”That is true of the first set.”
”But subsequent ones, supposing you build more, shall become the property of the Marquis of Ravenscar.”
”As currently envisioned, yes.”
”All that I I would be left with would be some news that I might use to my advantage in certain markets. This is a sort of game I played to great advantage when I was young, and had nothing to lose, and no one who depended on me. But now I require tangible equity in exchange for my investments. I invest with my would be left with would be some news that I might use to my advantage in certain markets. This is a sort of game I played to great advantage when I was young, and had nothing to lose, and no one who depended on me. But now I require tangible equity in exchange for my investments. I invest with my head head, not my heart heart.”
”And yet it is plain that you support Dappa, and I have heard that you contribute generously to hospitals for Veterans and Vagabonds.”
”As charities, yes. But it is too late for you to remake your Inst.i.tute as a charity.” yes. But it is too late for you to remake your Inst.i.tute as a charity.”
”Then let me tell you something of the Logic Mill that not even Roger knows,” Daniel sighed.
”You have my attention, Doctor.”
”It will not work.”
”The Logic Mill will not do logic?”
”Oh, yes, of course it will do that. Doing logic with a machine is not so very difficult. Leibniz took it up where Pascal dropped it, and I built upon Leibniz's work for fifteen years in Boston. Now I have turned it over to a cabal of ingenious fellows who in fifteen weeks weeks have advanced further than I did.” have advanced further than I did.”
”Then what do you mean, when you say it will not work?”
”When I returned from Hanover two days ago I devoted some time to reviewing the schemes that the ingenieurs ingenieurs have devised. I am most pleased with the results. But then I discovered a grave difficulty: we want power.” have devised. I am most pleased with the results. But then I discovered a grave difficulty: we want power.”
”Ah, you spoke to me of this in Hanover.”
”Indeed, for then I had begun to suspect suspect what I now what I now know know: that the Logic Mill shall require a source of Power, in the newfangled Mechanickal sense of that word, that is both mighty mighty and and steady steady. A very large water-wheel in a great river might serve; but much better would be-”
”The Engine for Raising Water by Fire!”
”If you were to invest in that that, madame-and rest a.s.sured that it does does want investors-you could obtain a controlling interest with little difficulty, thereby satisfying your requirement for Equity. With a new financial wind at his back, Mr. Newcomen could clear certain shoals on which the work has recently run aground, and drive on into open and beckoning seas. Meanwhile, here in London, the Logic Mill project shall arrive at an impa.s.se, because of the dearth of Power. It shall happen soon-less than a year from now. You may then take the matter up with the Tsar, or with the Marquis of Ravenscar, or both; they will bargain with you then, madame, having no other choices.” want investors-you could obtain a controlling interest with little difficulty, thereby satisfying your requirement for Equity. With a new financial wind at his back, Mr. Newcomen could clear certain shoals on which the work has recently run aground, and drive on into open and beckoning seas. Meanwhile, here in London, the Logic Mill project shall arrive at an impa.s.se, because of the dearth of Power. It shall happen soon-less than a year from now. You may then take the matter up with the Tsar, or with the Marquis of Ravenscar, or both; they will bargain with you then, madame, having no other choices.”
Eliza gazed out the windows for some minutes. By now they had run the length of Saffron Hill, and the driver had made a detour to the edge of Clerkenwell Green and up Rag Street so as to spare himself, his horses, and his pa.s.sengers a disagreeable and perilous transit of Hockley-in-the-Hole, where at this very moment outrages were being committed that would be punished six weeks hence at the next Hanging Day.
They had entered into the extension of Rag Street called Coppice Row, bringing them full circle. Daniel, gazing forward out his window, spied a carriage stopped before Clerkenwell Court. His heart forgot to beat when he recognized it. Matters were about to become more complicated than he'd have liked them to be. He thumped on the roof, and the driver reined in his team at the corner, a stone's throw short of the other carriage. ”I will alight here,” Daniel said, ”as this is an easier place to get your lovely carriage turned round.” Before Eliza could protest he opened the door, and one of her footmen jumped down to help him out.
”You have cast a new light on the matter,” Eliza announced, giving him a prim smile that was the beginning of good-bye. ”I am now willing to consider the proposal. But I cannot come to any conclusions until I have become well acquainted with the gentleman who founded the company.”
”The Earl of Lostwithiel,” said Daniel, raising his voice, as he was now out in the street, addressing Eliza through the open carriage-door. ”For some weeks he has excused himself from the House of Lords. The illness of his third son forced him to withdraw to the west country. The poor child's demise extended his absence. I suspect that complications relating to the Engine have drawn it out even further. But even now, news is speeding westwards of yesterday's doings in Parliament. Lostwithiel must return now. He will be back in London anon. I shall see to it that he pays a call on your grace at Leicester House.”
”THIRTY-SEVEN MINUTES AGO,” said the big horologist named Saturn, ”a strange old Tory appeared at our gates and begain baying for Doctor Waterhouse.” He nodded at the carriage parked in front of his shop. said the big horologist named Saturn, ”a strange old Tory appeared at our gates and begain baying for Doctor Waterhouse.” He nodded at the carriage parked in front of his shop.