Fascinating facts about Charles
Babbage inventor of the first mechanical computing machine in 1821.
AT A GLANCE:
Babbage is often called the "father of computing" for his detailed plans
for mechanical Calculating Engines, both the table-making Difference
Engines (1821) and the far more ambitious Analytical Engines (1837),
which were flexible and powerful, punched-card controlled general
purpose calculators, embodying many features which later reappeared in
the modern computer.
HOW IT WORKS
DID YOU KNOW?
invent. Modern prototype.
26,1791 in London, England
18,1871 in London, England
Difference Engine / Analytical Engine
Difference Engine No. 1 and No. 2 were intended to compile and print
mathematical tables. The Analytical Engine is intended to perform
any mathematical task and to be programmed by punched cards.
1791 Charles Babbage was born December 26 in London,
1811 entered Trinity College, Cambridge
1812 transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge
1814 received an honorary degree without examination from Peterhouse
1814 married Georgiana Whitmore, they had eight children, but only three
lived to adulthood.
1816 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and founded the Astronomical
1817 received MA from Cambridge
1820 founded the Analytical Society with John Herschel and George Peacock
1821 began work on the Difference Engine, intended to compile and print mathematical tables
1822 he first discussed the principles of a calculating engine in a
letter to Sir Humphrey Davy
1827 published a table of logarithms from 1 to 108000
1827 Babbage's father, his wife Georgiana Babbage, and one son all died
1828 appointed to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge
1831 founded the British Association for the Advancement of Science
1832 a small portion of the Difference Engine, completed by Babbage's
engineer, Joseph Clement
1832 the British government suspended funding for his Difference Engine
1832 published "Economy of Manufactures and Machinery"
1833 began work on the Analytical Engine, intended to perform any
1833 Ada Augusta Lovelace begins documentation of Babbage's calculating
1834 founded the Statistical Society of London
1837 conceptual design for Analytical Engine completed
1842 begins work designing the Difference Engine No. 2
1842 "Sketch of the Analytical Engine" by Luigi F. Menabrea,
1843 Luigi F. Menabrea paper is translated by Augusta Ada Lovelace and
expands four fold
In the "Notes", Ada described how the Analytical Engine could be
1854 George Schertz, constructed a machine based on the designs for the
1856 design of the Analytical Engine completed, uses Jacquard's punch
card idea for programming
1864 published "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher"
1871 Charles Babbage died October
18,1871 in London, England
1985 Science Museum of London launched a project to build a complete
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Charles Babbage is widely
regarded as the first computer pioneer and the great ancestral figure in the
history of computing. Babbage excelled in a variety of scientific and
philosophical subjects though his present-day reputation rests largely on
the invention and design of his vast mechanical calculating engines.
Charles Babbage was born in London on December 26, 1791, the son of Benjamin
Babbage, a London banker. As a youth Babbage was his own instructor in
algebra, of which he was passionately fond, and was well read in the
continental mathematics of his day. Upon entering Trinity College,
Cambridge, in 1811, he found himself far in advance of his tutors in
mathematics. Babbage co-founded the Analytical Society for promoting
continental mathematics and reforming the mathematics of Newton then taught
at the university.
In his twenties Babbage worked as a mathematician, principally in the
calculus of functions. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816
and played a prominent part in the foundation of the Astronomical Society
(later Royal Astronomical Society) in 1820. It was about this time that
Babbage first acquired the interest in calculating machinery that became his
consuming passion for the remainder of his life.
In recognition of the high error rate in the calculation of mathematical
tables, Babbage wanted to find a method by which they could be calculated
mechanically, removing human sources of error. Three different factors seem
to have influenced him: a dislike of untidiness; his experience working on
logarithmic tables; and existing work on calculating machines carried out by Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibniz. He first discussed
the principles of a calculating engine in a letter to Sir Humphrey Davy in 1822.
In the 1820s Babbage began developing his Difference Engine, a
mechanical device that can perform simple mathematical calculations. Babbage
started to build his Difference Engine, but was unable to complete it
because of a lack of funding.
In the 1830s Babbage began developing his Analytical Engine, which was
designed to carry out more complicated calculations, but this device was
never built. Babbage's book Economy of Machines and Manufactures (1832)
initiated the field of study known today as operational research.
Unfortunately, little remains of Babbage's prototype computing machines.
Critical tolerances required by his machines exceeded the level of
technology available at the time. And, though Babbage’s work was formally
recognized by respected scientific institutions, the British government
suspended funding for his Difference Engine in 1832.
In 1833 Ada Augusta Lovelace met Babbage and
was fascinated with both him and his Engines. Later Ada became a competent
student of mathematics, which was most unusual for a woman at the time. She
translated a paper on Babbage's Engines by General Menabrea, later to be
prime minister of the newly united Italy. Under Babbage's careful
supervision Ada added extensive notes (c.f. Science and Reform, Selected
Works of Charles Babbage, by Anthony Hyman) which constitute the best
contemporary description of the Engines, and the best account we have of
Babbage's views on the general powers of the Engines.
It is often suggested that Ada was the world's first programmer. Ada Lovelace figures in the history of the Calculating Engines as
Babbage's interpretress, his `fairy lady'. As such her achievement was
There remain only fragments of
Babbage's prototype Difference Engine, and though he devoted most of his
time and large fortune towards construction of his Analytical Engine after 1856, he never succeeded in completing any of his several designs for it.
George Scheutz, a Swedish printer, successfully constructed a machine based
on the designs for Babbage's Difference Engine in 1854. This machine printed
mathematical, astronomical and actuarial tables with unprecedented accuracy,
and was used by the British and American governments. Though Babbage's work
was continued by his son, Henry Prevost Babbage, after his death in 1871,
the Analytical Engine was never successfully completed, and ran only a few
"programs" with embarrassingly obvious errors.
Besides the Calculating Engines Babbage has
an extraordinary range of achievements to his credit: he wrote a consumer
guide to life assurance; pioneered lighthouse signaling; scattered
technical ideas and inventions in magnificent profusion; developed
mathematical code breaking.
Babbage was also an important political economist. Where Adam Smith thought
agriculture was the foundation of a nation's wealth; where Ricardo's ideas
were focused on corn: Babbage for the first time authoritatively placed the
factory on centre stage. Babbage gave a highly original discussion of the
division of labour, which was followed by John Stuart Mill. Babbage's
discussion of the effect of the development of production technology on the
size of factories was taken up by Marx, and was fundamental to Marxist
theory of capitalist socio-economic development.
For twenty five years Charles Babbage was a leading figure in London
society, and his glorious Saturday evening soirées, attended by two or three
hundred people, were a meeting place for Europe's liberal intelligence.
Babbage's greatest achievement was his detailed plans for Calculating
Engines, both the table-making Difference Engines and the far more ambitious
Analytical Engines, which were flexible and powerful, punched-card
controlled general purpose calculators, embodying many features which later
reappeared in the modern stored program computer. These features included:
punched card control; separate store and mill; a set of internal registers
(the table axes); fast multiplier/divider; a range of peripherals; even
The calculating engines of Charles Babbage
are among the most celebrated icons in the prehistory of computing.
Babbage’s Difference Engine No.1 was the first successful automatic
calculator and remains one of the finest examples of precision engineering
of the time. Babbage is sometimes referred to as "father of computing." The
Charles Babbage Foundation took his name to honor his intellectual
contributions and their relation to modern computers.
Charles Babbage died at his home in London on October 18, 1871. Throughout
his life Babbage worked in many intellectual fields typical of his day, and
made contributions that would have assured his fame irrespective of the
Difference and Analytical Engines.
Babbage's Difference Engine
by many to be a direct forerunner of the modern computer, the Difference Engine was able
to compute mathematical tables. Although the device did not
have a memory, Babbages later idea for the Analytical Engine would have been a true,
programmable computer if the technology of his time had been able to build it.
Charles Babbage's calculating engines are among the most celebrated icons in
the prehistory of computing. His Difference Engine No. 1 was the first
successful automatic calculator and remains one of the finest examples of
precision engineering of the time.
A small portion was assembled in 1832 by Babbage's engineer,
Joseph Clement. It consists of about 2000 parts and represents
one-seventh of the complete engine. This 'finished portion of the unfinished
engine' was demonstrated to some acclaim by Babbage, and functions
impeccably to this day. The engine was never completed and most of the 12
000 parts manufactured were later melted for scrap.
Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science
It has often been asked whether Babbage's Engines would have worked if they
had been built. This may not be an entirely meaningful question: much can go
wrong during such a project, while on the other hand new solutions may be
found to any problems which might appear during construction. However the
question can be put slightly differently: would it have been technically
feasible for, say, Babbage and Whitworth to construct an Analytical Engine
during the 1850s?
In the late 20th Century, after a careful investigation, Anthony Hyman and the
late Maurice Trask formed the opinion that construction of Babbage's Engines
would have been quite possible. The problems were financial and
organizational, but technically the project in itself was perfectly
feasible. They proposed a plan. :first construct DE2 (the Second Difference
Engine; then, if wished DE1, or a version of DE2 with `traveling
platforms'; and finally a complete Analytical Engine, probably following
After much work by many people, and particularly by Dr. Allan Bromley, a
team at the Science Museum led by Doron Swade built a complete version of
DE2. In 1985, the Science Museum in London began construction of the Difference
Engine No. 2 using Babbage's original designs. The calculating device was
completed and working by 1991, just in time for the bicentennial of
The device consists of 4000 parts and weighs over three
The printer for the Difference Engine No. 2 was completed nine years later,
in 2000. It has 4000 parts and weighs 2.5 metric tons. It was a triumphant
success, vindicating Babbage's technical work. However, the far more
ambitious task of constructing an Analytical Engine remains to be
Babbage's Analytical Engine
His Analytical Engine conceived in 1834 is one of the
startling intellectual feats of the nineteenth century. The design of this
machine possesses all the essential logical features of the modern general
purpose computer. However, there is no direct line of descent from Babbage’s
work to the modern electronic computer invented by the pioneers of the
electronic age in the late 1930s and early 1940s largely in ignorance of the
detail of Babbage's work.
Babbage failed to build a complete machine. The most widely accepted reason
for this failure is that Victorian mechanical engineering were not
sufficiently developed to produce parts with sufficient precision.
Augusta Ada Lovelace Biography
from The Great Idea Finder
History of Computing
from The Great Idea Finder
ON THE BOOKSHELF:
The History of Science and Technology
by Bryan Bunch, Alexander Hellemans / Hardcover: 768 pages / Houghton Mifflin Company; (2004)
Highly browsable yet richly detailed, expertly researched and indexed,
The History of Science and Technology is the perfect desktop reference
for both the science novice and the technologically advanced reader
Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer
by Anthony Hyman / Paperback: 287 pages / Princeton University Press
(January 1, 1985)
He was a man with a great deal of understanding of how English and western
societies were changing and many of his fundamental ideas of computing were
over a century ahead of his time. Given the enormous economic benefits of
the computer, had all of his projects been funded to completion, England may
have remained an industrial powerhouse well into the twentieth century.
and the Engines of Perfection (Oxford Portraits in Science)
by Bruce Collier, James H. MacLachlan / Hardcover - 144 pages
/ Oxford Univ Press (Dec.1998)
Intertwining Babbage's personal life with his work as an inventor, this
book tells the story of the mathematician's conception of and work on
the first computers.
Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Late Charles Babbage, Esq. F.R.S.
by Anthony Hyman (Designer), H. W. Buxton / Hardcover - 401 pages / MIT
Press (January 1988)
Written but never published during his lifetime, this memoir of the
founding father of computing is an indispensable primary source of
information about Babbage's personal character and work.
Glory and Failure:
The Difference Engines of Johann Muller, Charles
Babbage, and Georg and Edvard Scheutz
by Michael Lindgren, Craig G. McKay (Translator) / Hardcover - 415 pages / MIT
Press 2nd ed. (1990)
The story of Georg and Edvard Scheutz is a well written and entertaining
scientific book. A young schoolboy, Edvard Scheutz, succeeds in his
kitchen to construct a difference engine that works better then that of
the famous Charles Babbage.
Engines of the Mind: The Evolution of the Computer from Mainframes to
by Joel N. Shurkin / Paperback: 363 pages / W. W. Norton & Company; Updated
Shurkin traces the history of the computer, starting with earlier
groundbreaking advances in mechanics and mathematics and tracing the
construction of the first computer at the University of Pennsylvania during
Mathmaticians are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great
by Luetta Reimer, Wilbert Reimer / Paperback: 152 pages / Dale Seymour
Publications (June, 1993)
This Volume Two of two dramatizes the lives of Omar Khayyam, Albert
Einstein, Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, and others. 15 illustrated
vignettes per book introduce students to great mathematicians from various
The Difference Engine (Limited Availability)
by Doron Swade, Charles Babbage / Hardcover: 352 pages / Viking Press (September 10, 2001)
The author is in a unique position to appreciate the technical difficulties of the time,
as he led a team that built a working model of a Difference Engine, using contemporary
materials, in time for Babbage's 1991 bicentenary.
ON THE SCREEN:
DVD / 1 Volume Set / 50 Minutes / History Channel / Less than $25.00 /
The incredible breakthroughs and refinements that have marked the
development of the computer are so familiar that they have lost some
of their power to amaze
ON THE WEB:
The Charles Babbage Institute
The Charles Babbage Institute of Computer History (CBI) is a research center at
the University of Minnesota dedicated to promoting the study and preservation of the
history of computing and information processing through historical research and archival
Babbage's Calculating Engines 1832-1871
Charles Babbage's calculating engines are among the most celebrated icons in the
prehistory of computing. His Difference Engine No. 1 was the first successful automatic
calculator and remains one of the finest examples of precision engineering of the time.
The Science Museum of London has a working model of the Difference Engine Number 2 on
Science Museum - Charles Babbage
In 1985 the Science Museum launched a project to build a complete
Babbage Engine to original designs to explore the practical viability of
Reformer militant, mathematician, computer pioneer, economist, mechanical
engineer, code-breaker, inventor, society figure, Site maintained by author
Charles Babbage's description, in 1837, of the
Analytical Engine, a mechanical digital
computer which, viewed with the benefit of a century and a half's hindsight,
anticipated virtually every aspect of present-day computers.
Dimension - Inventor of the Week
Celebrates inventor/innovator role models through outreach activities and annual
awards to inspire a new generation of American scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
Babbage Difference Engine 2 (1991)
By studying Babbage's original designs, engineers at the museum were able to
build a complete calculating engine. It has 4,000 parts and weighs over 3
Babbage Printer Finally Runs (2000)
A computer printer that was originally designed more than 150 years ago has
finally been built and will go on display at the Science Museum in London.
Article by BBC News.
Babbage's Other Inventions
The cowcatcher, dynamometer, standard railroad gauge, uniform postal rates,
occulting lights for lighthouses, Greenwich time signals, heliograph
opthalmoscope. He also had an interest in cyphers and lock-picking. Article by J. A. N. Lee, September 1994
The construction of modern computers, logically
similar to Babbage's design, have changed the whole of mathematics and it is
even not an exaggeration to say that they have changed the whole world.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson for the School of Mathematics and
Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Two of Charles Babbage's books have been made available at Project Gutenberg
They are:On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (English) and
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (English).
Charles Babbage's Analytical
The first device that might be considered to be a computer in the modern
sense of the word was conceived by the eccentric British mathematician and
inventor Charles Babbage.
The Charles Babbage Foundation (CBF) is a nonprofit California corporation
that provides financial and advisory support to organizations dedicated to
the preservation, interpretation and dissemination of the history of
WORDS OF WISDOM:
"One of Babbage's most serious flaws was his
inability to stop tinkering. No sooner would he send a drawing to the
machine shop than he would find a better way to perform the task and would
order work stopped until he had finished pursuing the new line. By and large
this flaw kept Babbage from ever finishing anything." - Joel Shurkin
stated:in his book Engines of the Mind
HOW IT WORKS:
works. This site is developed and maintained by John Walker, founder of
Autodesk, Inc. and co-author of AutoCAD software.
In 1985 the Science Museum of London launched a project to build a complete
Babbage Engine as originally designed, to explore the practical viability of
DID YOU KNOW?
- Around age eight Charles Babbage was sent
to a country school to recover from a life-threatening fever. His parents
ordered that his "brain was not to be taxed too much"
- On the moon, there is a crater bearing
- The Charles Babbage Foundation is named in
his honor in recognition of his intellectual contributions and their
influence on the modern computing world.
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Reference Sources in BOLD Type.
This page revised May 4, 2006.
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book, is the perfect desktop reference for both the science novice and the
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