Babbage, Charles (1791-1871), was an English mathematician best known today for his designs of two mechanical computing machines. These designs employed some of the same principles that were later used in electronic digital computers.
Babbage was born on Dec. 26, 1791, in Walworth, Surrey, now a part of London. He began developing his first machine, called the difference engine, in the early 1820’s. This machine was intended to automatically calculate and print simple mathematical tables. In the 1830’s, Babbage turned his attention from the difference engine—which he never completed—to another computing machine, the analytical engine. This device was designed to perform complicated calculations according to a sequence of instructions. Babbage never built the analytical engine, though part of it was under construction at the time of his death. Babbage helped found the Astronomical Society (now the Royal Astronomical Society) and several other organizations. He was also the author of many books, including On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1832). He died on Oct. 18, 1871.
