Esteemed Fellows and Members of the Imperial Brotherhood of Auto-Mobile
Mecanicians, Associate Brothers in France, Germany and the rest of Europe,
and Friends in the various parrts of America, I send you my greetings on this
day of Easter Monday.
I present my humble apologies to our emminent Master of the Telegraphic
Magazine, Lord Veritas Johnothan, for sending here a Telegram not directly
related to the Work of our Brotherhood, but the matter is of Importance to
all of us as we all use Difference Engines to read this Magazine:

I beg to inform the Brotherhood that my Difference Engine has been sent a new
(and very nasty) Modus relayed through my Engine's Telegraphic Connection
from the Engine of Master Mechanician Lord Belshy (Sir Martyin before
his recent accession to the Peerage ) PhD Mech. KCBE, SSGB, who also is a
subscriber and a well-known contributor to this Telegraphic Magazine.

The Modus comes disguised as a Kinotropic Display, with the revealing title
"Temperance_lecture_part_one.pps.scr" on the paper-tape leader.

The length of the paper tape is 284' 5"1/4 (86 metres and 696.5 millimetres
for our Worthy Members in those countries that are Metricated).

It appears to emmanate from the British Empire League Against Alcoholic
Excess, but a spiining of the Police Engines quickly showed that the real
originator, first thought to be a Luddite clacker, has been linked with the
Manhattan Red Commune, and uses various telegraph account codes in the
Republic of Texas..

If it is spun on a Babbage Difference Engine with the Standard Gears, the
Modus first attempts to re-send itself by Telegraph to all the Telegraphic
Codes of other Engines stored in its internal adress-card-stack, after which
it then renders the Engine unusable by exploiting a little-known defect in
the Ada Byron Standard Gears: Any Engine will of course refuse to accept to
run a division by zero, but the Ada Byron Standard Gears do not notice the
fallacy when the Modus sets the Engine to divide a prime number by the cubed
root of zero. It then spins endlessly attempting the impossible operation,
and can only be restored to spinning order by a complete dismantling and
rebuilding of the System Gears.

I have not been personnally affected, as I run a Babbage Engine with the
Finlandish Modified Gears, which I can highly recommend to the Brotherhood,
as they run much smoother, use less steam for the same gear yardage spun, and
are not succeptible to the Blue Gear-lock of Death.

It does not affect Grand Napoleon Engines either.

But anyone on the list who uses a standard Babbage Difference Engine with the
Ada Byron Gears must take appropriate measures immediately.

You should immediately upgrade your Norton Anti-Modus card-stack/paper-tape
to the latest published edition

The Engine at messrs. Norton Anti Modus Gear Works can be reached directly by
Telegraph at the adress 27182818284590,

I thank all you Brothers for your patience and have the honour to remain,

your obdt. servant,

Master Ydnar Eel,
MScMech (Universidad de Constipacion), YMCA and Bar,
Island Bespoke Gears Design.
Telegraph: 4523536028750.
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