Monday, January the 19th, 2004

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Babbage

When he wasn't inventing the computer, Charles Babbage spent much of his time getting het up about what he called “street disturbances”. These seem to have consisted almost entirely of what most people call “music”. He wrote a helpful list of “instruments of torture permitted by the Government to be in daily and nightly use in the streets of London”:

Organs, Bagpipes, Brass bands, Accordians, Fiddlers, Halfpenny whistles, Harps, Tom-toms, Harpsichords, Trumpets, Hurdy-gurdies, Shouting out objects for sale, Flageolets, Religious canting, Drums, Psalm-singing.

And apart from the Government, responsible for allowing this mayhem, Babbage knew who to blame: “Tavern-keepers, Public-houses, Girl-shops, Beer-shops, Coffee-shops, Servants, Children, Visitors from the country, Ladies of doubtful virtue, Occasionally titled ladies; but these are almost invariably of recent elevation, and deficient in that taste which their sex usually possess”.

Would Babbage have approved of mp3s? Discuss.