[fellellor]

From what I know, error correcting codes wrap around information (in a manner of speaking) so as to provide a measure of consistency, which then enables error correction properties. If the information itself is riddled with errors then the error correcting code can't do anything here.

People using Babbage's machine would have entered raw information into that thing. No error correcting code would correct the human induced flaws in that. So the question was absurd at the time.