Editing Charles Babbage (section)

===Public nuisances===
Babbage involved himself in well-publicised but unpopular campaigns against public nuisances. He once counted all the broken panes of glass of a factory, publishing in 1857 a "Table of the Relative Frequency of the Causes of Breakage of Plate Glass Windows": Of 464 broken panes, 14 were caused by "drunken men, women or boys".<ref>{{cite journal | title = Table of the Relative Frequency of Occurrence of the Causes of Breaking of Plate Glass Windows | author=Babbage, Charles | journal=Mechanics Magazine | year = 1857 | volume = 66 | page = 82 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author=Babbage, Charles | title = The Works of Charles Babbage | volume = V | year = 1989 | publisher=William Pickering | location = London | page = 137 | editor = Martin Campbell-Kelly | isbn = 978-1-85196-005-7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/insurancecyclop07walfgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/insurancecyclop07walfgoog/page/n418 417]|title=The Insurance cyclopaedia |publisher=C. and E. Layton|access-date=22 February 2011|year=1878|last1=Walford |first1=Cornelius }}</ref>

Babbage's distaste for commoners (the Mob) included writing "Observations of Street Nuisances" in 1864, as well as tallying up 165 "nuisances" over a period of 80 days. He especially hated [[busking|street music]], and in particular the music of [[organ grinder]]s, against whom he railed in various venues. The following quotation is typical:

{{blockquote|It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands of persons, and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their time, destroyed by organ-grinders and other similar nuisances.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Campbell-Kelly, Martin |author2=Babbage, Charles | title = Passages from the Life of a Philosopher | publisher=Pickering & Chatto Publishers | year = 1994 | chapter = Ch 26 | page = 342 | isbn = 978-1-85196-040-8 }}</ref>}}

Babbage was not alone in his campaign. A convert to the cause was the MP [[Michael Thomas Bass]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Karen Chase|author2=Michael Levenson|title=The Spectacle of Intimacy: A Public Life for the Victorian Family|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNitcKFsBBEC&pg=RA1-PA151|access-date=22 April 2013|date=15 August 2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-3112-8|page=151}}</ref>

In the 1860s, Babbage also took up the anti-[[Hoop rolling#British Empire|hoop-rolling]] campaign. He blamed hoop-rolling boys for driving their iron hoops under horses' legs, with the result that the rider is thrown and very often the horse breaks a leg.<ref>{{harvnb|Babbage|1864|p=360}}</ref> Babbage achieved a certain notoriety in this matter, being denounced in debate in Commons in 1864 for "commencing a crusade against the popular game of [[tip-cat]] and the trundling of hoops."<ref>Hansard's parliamentary debates. Third Series Commencing With the Accession of William IV. 27° & 28° Victoria, 1864. Vol. CLXXVI. Comprising the Period From the Twenty-First Day of June 1864, To the Twenty-Ninth Day of July 1864. Parliament, Thomas Curson Hansard "Street Music (Metropolis) Bill "; V4, p471 [https://books.google.com/books?id=dugT3_K-1ZIC&q=trundling&pg=PA469]</ref>