Charles Babbage was fed up with errors in the printed maths tables used by sailors, bankers and engineers. In 1822 he began designing the Difference Engine, a machine to calculate them automatically. He then designed the Analytical Engine, which could be programmed with punched cards and had a memory and a processor: the basic plan of a modern computer, a century early. Neither was finished in his lifetime. In 1991 the Science Museum built a Difference Engine from his plans, and it worked.
Charles Babbage
Father of the Computer
EXTRA-ORDINARY TRAIT
PASSION
JFDI PILLAR
D — DRIVE
COUNTRY & REGION
England (UK & Ireland)
LIFESPAN
1791 – 1871
GENDER
Man
EDITION
No.033
✦ DEFINING MOMENT
Turning the handle of his Difference Engine, number wheels spinning.
✦ ARCHIVAL DOSSIER
The Story
✦ VERIFIED QUOTE
“On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?'”
✦ DID YOU KNOW?
He ran a long campaign against noisy street musicians outside his London home.
✦ YOUR TURN
What would you build if no one had built it before?