Poetry by Numbers, Then and Now: Metre, Mathematics, Machines and Manufacture

该项目以19世纪30年代/40年代的一次性技术为中心：尤里卡拉丁韵机。这个装置是由萨默塞特郡的一位名叫约翰·克拉克的发明家构思和制造的，它的目的是“创作”随机顺序的诗歌（每一行都以拉丁六步格排列）。克拉克的机器工作的“程序”，在他决定把它“自动化”的时候，已经存在了一百多年了，它由一个字母表组成，当一个人按照特定的数字顺序从中选择时，他或她就能“制造”一行诗，这一行诗在韵律、语法和意义上都是“正确的”。尤里卡使用了一个由木条、金属线和旋转鼓组成的系统，当机器手工上弦时，旋转鼓就会被激活。一行诗一旦写好，就会出现在机器正面的窗口上；然后，这条线被打乱，另一条线出现在原来的位置上，表面上是随机的，这个过程一直持续到机器耗尽动力。该项目感兴趣的是发现和记录建造这样一个设备所需的能力、方法和技能，以及这些专业的融合在多大程度上可以在当今投入生产使用，从而为与英国技术遗产相关的修复项目提供信息。为此，该项目汇集了来自关键学科的专家，他们的知识为尤里卡的工作提供了帮助：一位19世纪诗稿专家（首席研究员）；维多利亚时期古典研究的专家；19世纪数学历史学家；数学家和计算机科学家（合作研究者）；埃克塞特增材层制造中心（CALM）的工程专家；两位;以及拥有尤里卡的阿尔弗雷德·吉列特信托基金（AGT）的档案保管员。该专家团队由负责人和共同研究者协调，并与其他指定的专家在分包合同的基础上提供建议，以将成本降至最低，他们将评估历史对象和立即获得的相关文件（例如，关于其结构和维多利亚韵律/编程/数学/经典的注释），目的是(1)了解尤里卡的运作；(2)保存设备本身，(3)使其（在可行的情况下）恢复到功能状态。然而，考虑到它的历史和独特性，该项目还将制作一个虚拟和真实的复制品——前者使用最新的计算机编程，后者使用埃克塞特大学CALM实验室的3d打印程序——这将允许展示和动手操作。相关成果是协作方法和制造技术在其他修复项目中的潜在应用。我们所获得的关于使用3d打印来建造与科学史有关的物体的知识将在博物馆和遗产部门具有可转移的用途，为最佳实践提供模型，以及详细的建筑模板。一旦由拨款支持的核心工作完成，我们设想一个机器的展览，以及它的复制品和维多利亚时代“计算”技术的相关例子，把尤里卡，在1845年著名的展览，回到公众视野。大约170年后，新一代人能够欣赏科学与文化的合作，更全面地了解当时和现在的一系列技术，这些技术结合在一起，使计算机生成诗歌成为可能。为了这个项目，我们已经开始与埃克塞特的皇家阿尔伯特纪念博物馆（RAMM）进行对话（该博物馆已经收藏了与巴贝奇的“差分机”有关的文物），以及萨默塞特的博物馆（尤尔卡最初建造的地方）和伦敦的科学博物馆。

This project centres on a one-off piece of technology from the 1830s/40s: the Eureka Latin Verse Machine. This device, built to 'compose' in random sequence lines of poetry (each one arranged in Latin hexameters), was conceived and constructed by a Somerset inventor named John Clark. The 'programme' on which Clark's machine works, which had been in existence for over a hundred years when he decided to 'automate' it, consists of a table of letters so arranged that when a person selects from among them following a particular numerical sequence he or she is able to 'manufacture' a line of poetry that is at once 'correct' in terms of its metre, grammar and sense. The Eureka uses a system of wooden staves, metal wires and revolving drums that are activated when the machine is wound up by hand. Once one line of poetry is composed it appears in windows on the machine's front; the line is then scrambled and another appears in its place, ostensibly in random order, this process continuing until the machine runs out of motive power. The project is interested in uncovering and documenting the competencies, methodologies and skill sets needed for the construction of such a device, as well as the extent to which the convergence of these specialisms can be put to productive use in the current day to inform restoration projects relating to Britain's technological heritage. To that end, the project assembles experts from the key disciplines whose knowledge feeds into the working of the Eureka: a specialist in nineteenth-century versification (principal investigator); an expert in Classical studies of the Victorian period; a historian of nineteenth-century mathematics; a mathematician and computer scientist (co-investigator); engineering specialists working at Exeter's Centre for Additive Layer Manufacture (CALM); two conservators; and the archivist for the Alfred Gillett Trust (AGT), which owns the Eureka. This team of experts, co-ordinated by the principal and co-investigator, with other named experts advising on a sub-contractual basis to keep costs to a minimum, will assess the historical object and documents obtaining immediately and peripherally to it (e.g., notes on its construction and on Victorian prosody/programming/mathematics/Classics more generally) with a view to (1) understanding the Eureka's operation, (2) conserving the device itself and (3) returning it (where feasible) to a functional state. Given its age and uniqueness, however, the project will also (4) produce both a virtual and actual replica--the former using up-to-date computer programming, and the latter the procedures of 3-D printing in Exeter's CALM lab--that will allow for display and hands-on operation. A related outcome is the documenting of collaborative methods and manufacturing techniques for potential application in other restoration projects. The knowledge we gain about the use of 3-D printing for the construction of objects relating to the history of science will have transferable use across the museums and heritage sector, providing a model for best practice, as well as a detailed construction template. Once the core work supported by the grant has been accomplished, we envisage an exhibition of the machine, alongside its replicas and related examples of Victorian 'computing' technology, bringing the Eureka, which was famously exhibited in 1845, back to public view. Roughly 170 years later, a new generation can appreciate the collaboration of science and culture, with a fuller awareness of the array of techniques that came together--both then and now--to make possible computer-generated poetry. For this venture, which is likely to fall beyond the immediate timeframe of the grant, we have begun dialogue with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter (which already maintains a collection of artefacts relating to Babbage's 'Difference Engine'), as well museums in Somerset (where the Euerka was originally built) and the Science Museum in London.