In Part III, the Academy houses the great mind of the "Projectors:" the scientific innovators of Balnibarbi. These projectors are a satire on the Royal Society, which hosted real people of similar ambitions, funded by the monarchy. In both cases, Swift also considers them schemers, constantly vying for monarch's attention and money. The OED provided three definitions which I thought rather fitting.
1) "A person who forms a project; one who plans or designs an enterprise or undertaking; a proper or founder of some venture."
This definition fits the acclaimed scientists of the Academy and their various ventures. The word was also used in A Scheme for a New Lottery: or, a Husband and a Coach and Six for Forty Shillings with a similar definition: "The Amount of the whole Lottery Tickets will be One Hundred Thousand Pounds, and shall be laid out by the Projector, and such proper Commissioners shall be a appointed. . ." (7). However, this document's use of the word goes on to use "Projector" in a similarly satirical way, playing on the second definition.
2) "A schemer; a person who lives by his or her wits; a promoter of bogus or unsound business ventures; a cheat, a swindler."
This definition fits the underlying joke in Swift's use of the word. They "beg" for money from any who will listen, and the monarch most of all. They seek his favor with their projects and projections of success. The "schemer" definition is also fit by multiple other works, including The Court Monkies ("Mourn the Projector who contrives Thy Woes" (6)) and The Honest Electors: or, the Courtiers Sent Back with Their Bribes, a New Ballad Opera ("And yet notwithstanding all this, the Scheme is still pursued, and the Projector hath declared his Resolution to make an Attempt upon their Representatives to put them under his Yoke" (8)).
3) "A person who forecasts or predicts something."
ECCO could not provide a comparable example for this definition, but I found it fitting of Swift's scientists. Though not fortune tellers or prophets, the Projectors are constantly speaking of their future success, and how their endeavors will bear fruit in only a few years more. The monarch must continue to fund them for a predicted profitable outcome.
My original passage is on page 229 of the Broadview Press edition, the last paragraph, which describes Swift's Projectors rather well. The following Chapter V explains their projects in great, humorous detail.
Until Swift's use of the word, I had never heard the word used to refer to a person. I like the way it sounds to say a projector projects something. Usually I think of projectors displaying images, but the definitions in the OED provide a different aspect on the word. And even though ECCO didn't provide results comparable to the results on the OED, I think Swift gets every meaning of the word into his text.
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