On 24 March he applied to the Royal Society for a grant to cover the cost of constructing it, and on their questionnaire wrote,
3月24日，艾伦向皇家学会申请拨款，以便制造这种机器，他在申请上写道：
Apparatus would be of little permanent value.
该机器并不是万能的，
It could be added to for the purpose of carrying out similar calculations for a wider range of t and might be used for some other investigations connected with the zeta-function.
它用于在更大的范围内进行计算注，并用于其它一些与ζ函数有关的研究。
I cannot think of any applications that would not be connected with the zeta-function.
对于与ζ函数无关的问题，该机器并无用处。
Hardy and Titchmarsh were quoted as referees for the application, which won the requested 40 pounds.
负责审批这个申请的，是哈代和蒂施马奇。艾伦得到了他申请的40英镑经费。
The idea was that although the machine could not perform the required calculation exactly,
艾伦的想法是，虽然这台机器不能进行精确的计算，
it could locate the places where the zeta-function took a value near zero,
但可以用它来锁定零点的范围，
which could then be tackled by a more exact hand computation.
然后人工进行精确计算，
Alan reckoned it would reduce the amount of work by a factor of fifty.
他认为这会减少50%的工作量。
Perhaps as important, it would be a good deal more fun.
还有一个重要的原因是，这将会很有趣。
The Liverpool tide-predicting machine made use of a system of strings and pulleys to create an analogue of the mathematical problem of adding a series of waves.
利物浦的潮汐预测机，是用皮带和滑轮构造的一个系统，来模拟一系列波动的叠加。
The length of the string, as it wrapped itself round the pulleys, would be measured to obtain the total sum required.
皮带绕在滑轮上，通过测量它的长度来得到计算的结果。