Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage (born December 26, 1791,

London, England—died October 18, 1871,
London) was an English mathematician and
inventor who is credited with having conceived
the first automatic digital computer.
Charles Babbage
In 1812 Babbage helped found the Analytical
Charles Babbage, detail of an oil
painting by Samuel Lawrence, 1845; in Society, whose object was to introduce
the National Portrait Gallery, London. developments from the European continent into
English mathematics. In 1816 he was elected a
fellow of the Royal Society of
London. He was instrumental in founding the
Royal Astronomical (1820) and Statistical (1834)
societies.
Babbage, Charles The idea of mechanically calculating

Charles Babbage. mathematical tables first came to Babbage in
1812 or 1813. Later he made a small calculator
that could perform certain mathematical
computations to eight
decimals. Then in 1823 he obtained
government support for the design of a
projected machine, the Difference Engine,
Difference Engine
with a 20-decimal capacity. The Difference
The completed portion of Charles
Babbage's Difference Engine, 1832. Engine was a digital device: it operated on
This advanced calculator was discrete digits rather than smooth quantities,
intended to produce logarithm tables
used in navigation. The value of
and the digits were decimal (0–9), represented
numbers was represented by the by positions on toothed wheels rather than
positions of the toothed wheels
binary digits (“bits”). When one
marked with decimal numbers.
of the toothed wheels turned from nine to zero, it caused the next wheel to
advance one position, carrying the digit. Like modern computers, the
Difference Engine had storage—that is, a place where data could be held
temporarily for later processing. Its construction required the development
of mechanical engineering techniques, to which Babbage of necessity
devoted himself. In the meantime (1828–39), he served as Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. However, the full engine,
designed to be room-sized, was never built, at least not by Babbage. All
design and construction ceased in 1833, when Joseph Clement, the machinist
responsible for actually building the machine, refused to continue unless he was
prepaid.
During the mid-1830s Babbage developed plans for the Analytical Engine, the
forerunner of the modern digital computer. In that device he envisioned the
capability of performing any arithmetical operation on the basis of instructions
from punched cards, a memory unit in which to store numbers, sequential
control, and most of the other basic elements of the present-day computer. As
with the Difference Engine, the project was far more complex
than anything theretofore built. The memory unit was to be large enough to hold
1,000 50-digit numbers; this was larger than the storage capacity of any
computer built before 1960. The machine was to be steam-driven and run by one
attendant.
In 1843 Babbage’s friend mathematician Ada Lovelace translated a French

paper about the Analytical Engine and, in her own annotations, published
how it could perform a sequence of calculations, the first computer program.
The Analytical Engine, however, was never completed. Babbage’s design was
forgotten until his unpublished notebooks were discovered in 1937. In 1991
British scientists built Difference Engine No. 2—accurate to 31 digits—to
Babbage’s specifications, and in 2000 the printer for the Difference Engine
was also built.
Babbage made notable contributions in other

areas as well. He assisted in establishing the
modern postal system in England and compiled
the first reliable actuarial tables. He also
invented a type of speedometer and the
Babbage, Charles locomotive cowcatcher.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article
Charles Babbage, engraving from
1871. was most recently revised and updated by
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Citation Information
Article Title: Charles Babbage
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 14 February 2024
URL: https://www.britannica.comhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Babbage
Access Date: March 21, 2024

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Charles Babbage (born December 26, 1791,

Babbage, Charles The idea of mechanically calculating

In 1843 Babbage’s friend mathematician Ada Lovelace translated a French

Babbage made notable contributions in other

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