Charles Babbage

Lore & Background

Babbage is considered by some to merit the title of 'father of the computer'. He is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, the difference engine, that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in his analytical engine, programmed using a principle openly borrowed from the Jacquard loom. As part of his computer work, he also designed the first computer printers. He had a broad range of interests in addition to his work on computers, covered in his 1832 book Economy of Manufactures and Machinery. He was an important figure in the social scene in London, and is credited with importing the 'scientific soirée' from France with his well-attended Saturday evening soirées. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as 'pre-eminent' among the many polymaths of his century. Babbage, who died before the complete successful engineering of many of his designs, including his Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, remained a prominent figure in the ideating of computing. Parts of his incomplete mechanisms are on display in the Science Museum in London. In 1991, a functioning difference engine was constructed from the original plans. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage's machine would have worked.

Reader's Guide

Babbage's birthplace is disputed, but according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography he was most likely born at 44 Crosby Row, Walworth Road, London, England. His date of birth was given in his obituary in The Times as 26 December 1792; but then a nephew wrote to say that Babbage was born one year earlier, in 1791. The parish register of St. Mary's, Newington, London, shows that Babbage was baptised on 6 January 1792, supporting a birth year of 1791. Babbage was one of four children of Benjamin Babbage and Betsy Plumleigh Teape. He arrived at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1810. Babbage, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society in 1812. In 1812, Babbage transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge. He received a degree without examination in 1814. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816. Babbage was instrumental in founding the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820. In 1824 he won its Gold Medal, cited 'for his invention of an engine for calculating mathematical and astronomical tables'. On his father's death in 1827, Babbage inherited a large estate, making him independently wealthy. In April 1828 he heard that he had become a professor at Cambridge, a position he had three times failed to obtain.

Did You Know?

• Babbage's date of birth is uncertain: his obituary said 26 December 1792, but a nephew and parish records support 1791.
• Babbage and John Herschel worked on the electrodynamics of Arago's rotations, publishing in 1825.
• Babbage purchased the actuarial tables of George Barrett and surveyed the field in 1826 in Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives.
• Babbage studied the requirements to establish a modern postal system with Thomas Frederick Colby, leading to uniform postal rates.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Charles Babbage (26 December, 1791 – 18 October, 1871) was an English mathematician and analytical philosopher who originated the idea of a programmable computer. Ada Lovelace worked for him." — Charles Babbage "New Scientist, 4 December 1958, pg.1428." — Charles Babbage "Comment in response to Alfred Tennyson’s poem Vision of Sin, which included the line Every moment dies a man, // every moment one is born." — Charles Babbage "The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data." — Charles Babbage