Babbage

Charles Babbage

Geb.: 26 Dec 1792 in Teignmouth, Devon, England
Gest.: 18 Oct 1871 in London, England

Babbage invented the principle of the analytical engine, the forerunner of the modern electronic computer.

Babbage graduated from Cambridge and at the early age of 24 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1827 he became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a position he held for 12 years although Babbage never taught.

He originated the modern analytic computer. By 1834 he invented the principle of the analytical engine, the forerunner of the modern electronic computer.

In 1830 he published Reflections on the Decline of Science in England , a controversial work that resulted in the formation, one year later, of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1834 Babbage published his most influential work On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures , in which he proposed an early form of operational research.

The computation of logarithms had made him aware of the inaccuracy of human calculation, and he became so obsessed with mechanical computation that he spent £6000 in pursuit of it. A government grant of £17000 was given but support withdrawn in 1842. He felt some anger towards how the Royal Society was run:-

The Council of the Royal Society is a collection of men who elect each other to office and then dine together at the expense of this society to praise each other over wine and give each other medals.

Although Babbage never built an operational, mechanical computer, his design concepts have been proved correct and recently such a computer has been built following Babbage's own design criteria.

Other Web sites:

MIT, USA
Oxford, UK
Virginia Tech, USA
Clarke University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. E Morrison, Charles Babbage and his calculating engines (New York, 1961).
  4. R Webster, Charles Babbage : the man behind the machines, Mathematical Spectrum 24, 34-41.
  5. A Hyman, Charles Babbage : pioneer of the computer (Oxford, 1982).
  6. M Campbell-Kelly, Charles Babbage and the Assurance of Lives, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 16 (1994), 5-14.
  7. M V Wilkes, Herschel, Peacock, Babbage and the development of the Cambridge curriculum, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 44 (1990), 205-219.
  8. J M Dubbey, The mathematical work of Charles Babbage (Cambridge, 1978).