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Was clearing out some old files and came across the following story about Charles Babbage, inventor of the calculating machine. Lewis Carroll of course met both Tennyson and Babbage - I wonder which one he felt more at home with? I suspect Babbage, as Tennyson sounds as if he might have been a rather difficult person to get along with.

"The English mathematician Charles Babbage, who conceived programmable
computation, wrote to the young poet Tennyson. "In your otherwise
beautiful poem," he said, "one verse reads,

Every moment dies a man,
Every moment one is born.

" ... If this were true," he went on, "the population of the world
would be at a standstill. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in
excess of that of death. I would suggest [that the next edition of
your poem should read]:"

Every moment dies a man,
Every moment 1 1/16 is born.

"Strictly speaking," Babbage added, "the actual figure is so long I
cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 1/16 will be
sufficiently accurate for poetry."

The picture by the way shows Babbage.