Charles Babbage

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• Born: 26 December 1792
• Birthplace: Teignmouth, Devonshire, England
• Died: 18 October 1871
• Best Known As: Inventor of the Difference Engine

Charles Babbage was a 19th century mathematician and inventor whose mechanical calculating machines earned him a top spot in the history of early computing. Babbage's early career was devoted to practical applications of science, particularly in manufacturing, but he is most famous for his work on what he called the Difference Engine and, later, the Analytical Engine. As early as 1822 he speculated that a machine could be used to compute complex mathematical problems and calculate and correct errors in logarithm tables and astronomical charts. He obtained government grants and began work on the Difference Engine, only to decide later that it would be easier to scrap the work and start fresh on a new idea, the Analytical Engine. The British government withdrew funding in 1842 and stuck the incomplete Difference Engine in the Science Museum, where it still sits. Babbage, using his own money, spent the rest of his life working on the Analytical Engine, but never finished it. He was assisted by Lord Byron's daughter, Ada Augusta, the countess of Lovelace and an amateur mathematician. In spite of his failure to completely develop a working machine, Babbage (and Lady Lovelace) are legendary heroes in the prehistory of the computing age; he is sometimes called "the grandfather of modern computing."

Babbage created the first reliable actuarial tables, invented skeleton keys and the locomotive cowcatcher... In 1847 he invented an ophthalmoscope to study the retina, but didn't announce the invention and didn't get any credit for it... Lady Lovelace also joined Babbage in his failed attempts to create an infallible system of betting on horse races... The work of Babbage and Lady Lovelace is central to the speculative novel The Difference Engine (1992), written by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson.

Scientist: Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage

Library of Congress

[b. Teignmouth, England, December 26, 1792, d. London, October 18, 1871]

Babbage designed and partially built the first mechanical computers. In 1832 he built a demonstration model of his first advanced calculator, the Difference Engine, designed to compute logarithms and other functions. This model worked to some degree, and Babbage's plans were later used to create fully functioning versions. Babbage also designed a device he called the Analytical Engine. This was supposed to use punched cards as input for problem-solving programs and have the equivalent of memory and a central processing system, but it was never built. Babbage was the first to use mathematics to study a complex system (the English postal system); his ideas led to the flat-rate postage stamp. He was also an inventor credited with the first ophthalmoscope, speedometer, skeleton key, and cowcatcher for locomotives.

Biography: Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was an English inventor and mathematician whose mathematical machines foreshadowed the modern computer. He was a pioneer in the scientific analysis of production systems.

Charles Babbage was born on Dec. 26, 1791, in Totnes, Devonshire. Much of his early education was under private tutors. In 1810 he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Appalled by the state of mathematical instruction there, Babbage helped to organize the Analytical Society, which played a decisive role in weakening the grip of blind Newton-worship at Cambridge and Oxford.

In 1814, the same year in which he took his degree, Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore. They had eight children, only three of whom survived to maturity. Mrs. Babbage died in 1827.

Mathematical Engines

In 1822 Babbage produced the first model of the calculating engine that would be the consuming interest of his life. The machine produced mathematical tables, and since its operation was based upon the mathematical theory of finite differences, he called it a "difference engine." The government was interested, and a vague promise of financial assistance encouraged Babbage to begin building a full-scale machine.

But he had underestimated the difficulties. Many of the precision machine tools needed to shape the wheels, gears, and cranks of the engine did not exist. Babbage and his craftsmen had to design them. The consequent delays worried the government, and the financial support was tied up in red tape.

Meanwhile the conception of a far grander engine had entered Babbage's restless brain, the "analytical engine." It would possess (in modern language) a feedback mechanism and would be able to perform any mathematical operation. Babbage asked the government for a decision on which engine to finish. After an 8-year pause for thought, the government indicated that it wanted neither.

Between bouts with the government and work on his engines, the versatile Babbage managed to squeeze in an incredible variety of activities. He wrote on mathematics, the decline of science in England, codes and ciphers, the rationalization of manufacturing processes, religion, archeology, tool design, and submarine navigation, among other subjects. He was Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge for 10 years, but he was better known for his interminable campaign against organ-grinders in the streets of London.

Always he returned to his great engines, but none of them was ever finished. He died on Oct. 18, 1871, having played a prominent part in the 19th-century revival of British science.

Further Reading

The best source on Babbage is Philip Morrison and Emily Morrison, eds., Charles Babbage and His Calculating Engines: Selected Writings by Charles Babbage and Others (1961). It contains an excellent short biography by the Morrisons, a selection of Babbage's works, and associated material on the engines. For more details on Babbage's life see Maboth Moseley, Irascible Genius: A Life of Charles Babbage, Inventor (1964).