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# Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage FRS (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath who was a
mathematician, philosopher, inventor, and mechanical engineer. Babbage originated the concept
of a digital programmable computer.

Babbage is considered by some to be a "father of the computer". Babbage 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 Babbage's Analytical Engine, programmed using a principle openly derived from the Jacquard
loom.

## The Difference Engine

In 1822, Babbage proposed a steam-driven calculating machine, the Difference Engine, that
would be able to compute tables of numbers. The project received government funding but was
eventually cancelled in 1842 due to cost overruns and disputes with the project engineer.

A working Difference Engine was eventually constructed in 1991 at the Science Museum in London,
using Babbage's original plans. The machine weighs 2.6 tonnes and measures 3.4 metres long.

## The Analytical Engine

Around 1834, Babbage conceived of the Analytical Engine — a general-purpose mechanical computer
that was far more ambitious than the Difference Engine. The Analytical Engine featured:

- **Mill** — the computing unit (analogous to a CPU)
- **Store** — memory that could hold 1,000 numbers of 50 decimal digits each
- **Reader** — input via punched cards (inspired by the Jacquard loom)
- **Printer** — output mechanism

The Analytical Engine was designed to be programmed using punched cards and could perform any
calculation that could be described algorithmically. It was never completed in Babbage's lifetime.

Ada Lovelace, who collaborated with Babbage from 1842 onwards, wrote the first algorithm
intended to be executed by the machine — now regarded as the first computer program.
