(£6000 of which was sunk by himself, the balance voted by Government), Babbage abandoned the undertaking in favour of a much more enlarged work, an analytical engine, worked with cards like the jacquard-loom; but the project was never completed. The incompleted machine is now in the South Kensington Museum. Among the many treatises he published on subjects connected with mathematics and mechanics few can be regarded as finished performances. Babbage was instrumental in founding the Astronomical and Statistical Societies (1820 and 1834).
Babbit-metal, a soft metal resulting from alloying together certain proportions of copper, tin, and zinc or antimony, used with the view of as far as possible obviating friction in the bearings of journals, cranks, axles, &c., invented by Isaac Babbit (1799-1862), a goldsmith of Taunton, Massachusetts.
Ba´bel. See Babylon.
Ba´bel, Tower of, according to the 11th chapter of Genesis, a structure in the Plain of Shinar, Mesopotamia, commenced by the descendants of Noah subsequent to the deluge, but which was not allowed to proceed to completion. It has commonly been identified with the great temple of Belus, or Bel, that was one of the chief edifices in Babylon, and the huge mound called Birs Nimrud is generally regarded as its site, though another mound, which to this day bears the name of Babil, has been assigned by some as its site. Babel means literally 'gate of God'. The meaning 'confusion' assigned to it in the Bible really belongs to a word of similar form. See Babylon.
Bab-el-Mandeb ('gate of tears', from being dangerous to small craft), a strait, 15 miles wide, between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, formed by projecting points of Arabia in Asia, and Abyssinia in Africa. The Island of Perim is here.
Ba´ber, first Grand Mogul, the founder of the Mogul dynasty in Hindustan, born in 1483, died 1530. He was a grandson of the great Tartar prince, Timur or Tamerlane, and was sovereign of Cabul. He invaded Hindustan, and in 1525 overthrew and killed Sultan Ibrahim, the last Hindu emperor of the Pathan or Afghan race. He made many improvements, social and political, in his empire, and left a valuable autobiography (English translation, 1826).
Babeuf (ba˙-beuf), François Noel, a French political agitator, born in 1764; started a democratic journal in Paris, called Le Tribun du Peuple, par 'Gracchus' Babeuf, and wrote with great severity against the Jacobins. After the fall of Robespierre, to which he powerfully contributed, he openly attacked the terrorists, and advocated the most democratic principles. He was accused of a conspiracy against the directorial Government, condemned to death, and guillotined in 1797. He was one of the pioneers of Socialism in France.
Bab´ington, Anthony, a Catholic gentleman of Derbyshire, born 1561. He associated with others of his own persuasion to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, and deliver Mary, Queen of Scots. The plot being discovered, the conspirators were executed in 1586.
Babiroussa. See Babyroussa.
Bab´ism, the doctrines of a Mohammedan sect whose head-quarters is Persia, founded by Seyd Ali Mohammed in 1844. He took the name of Bab-ed-din, 'the gate of the faith', and afterwards that of Nokteh, 'the point', as not merely the recipient of a new divine revelation, but the focus in which all preceding dispensations would converge. One of his most successful disciples was a highly-gifted woman, Gurred-ul-Ayn, 'consolation of the eyes', who perished with many others during a persecution in 1852. The Bab himself had been executed about two years before this, and was succeeded by a noble youth, Mirza Yahya. The sect holds that all individual existence is an emanation from the supreme deity, by whom it will be ultimately reabsorbed. The morality of the sect is pure and cheerful, and it shows great advancement in the treatment of woman. Moses, Christ, and Mohammed are acknowledged as prophets, though only mere precursors of the Bab. A schism divided the followers of Babism into two sects, Bahais and Ezelis. The former have carried on an active propaganda in America.