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

这个项目的中心是19世纪30/40年代的一项一次性技术：尤里卡拉丁诗机。这个装置是由萨默塞特郡的发明家约翰·克拉克构思和建造的，可以用随机的诗歌序列(每行诗都以拉丁文的六步格排列)组成。克拉克的机器工作的“程序”已经存在了一百多年，当他决定将其“自动化”时，它由一个字母表组成，这样当一个人按照特定的数字序列从字母表中进行选择时，他或她就能够‘制造’出一行从韵律、语法和意义上立即“正确”的诗行。Eureka使用了一个由木棒、金属线和旋转鼓组成的系统，当机器手动上发条时，这些系统会被激活。一旦一行诗写好了，它就会出现在机器前面的窗口里；然后这行诗就会被打乱，另一行诗就会出现在它的位置上，表面上是随机的，这个过程一直持续到机器动力耗尽。该项目感兴趣的是发现和记录建造这种设备所需的能力、方法和技能集，以及这些专业的融合在多大程度上可以在当今用于与英国技术遗产有关的修复项目。为此，该项目汇集了关键学科的专家，他们的知识为尤里卡的工作提供了帮助：一名19世纪版本化专家(首席研究员)；一名维多利亚时期古典研究专家；一名19世纪数学历史学家；一名数学家和计算机科学家(联合调查员)；埃克塞特添加剂层制造中心(CAME)的工程专家；两名保管员；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。这个专家小组由首席和协理调查员协调，与其他指定的专家在分包合同的基础上提供建议，以将成本保持在最低水平，将评估立即和外围获得的历史对象和文件(例如，关于其结构和更广泛的维多利亚韵律/编程/数学/经典的注释)，以期(1)了解尤里卡的操作，(2)保护设备本身，以及(3)将其(在可行的情况下)恢复到正常状态。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，后者使用埃克塞特平静实验室的3D打印程序--这将允许展示和实际操作。一个相关的成果是记录了可能在其他修复项目中应用的协作方法和制造技术。我们在利用3D打印建造与科学史有关的物品方面所获得的知识将可在博物馆和遗产部门使用，为最佳做法提供了一个模式，并提供了一个详细的建造模板。一旦拨款支持的核心工作完成，我们预计将举办一场展览，展示这台机器，以及它的复制品和维多利亚时代“计算”技术的相关实例，将1845年著名的尤里卡展览带回公众视野。大约170年后，新一代可以欣赏科学和文化的合作，更充分地意识到一系列技术--无论是当时还是现在--结合在一起，使计算机生成诗歌成为可能。对于这项可能超出直接拨款时间表的项目，我们已经开始与埃克塞特的皇家阿尔伯特纪念馆(RAMM)(该博物馆已经收藏了一批与巴贝奇的“差异引擎”有关的文物)，以及萨默塞特(尤尔卡最初建造的地方)的博物馆和伦敦的科学博物馆进行对话。

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.