Charles Babbage (1791-1873) Charles Babbage (1791-1871), computer pioneer, designed the first automatic computing engines. He invented computers but failed to build them. We invite you to learn more about this extraordinary object, its designer Charles Babbage and the team of people who undertook to build it. Discover the wonder of a future already passed.

His Life Charles Babbage was born in London on December 26, 1791, his father was Benjamin Babbage, a London banker. As a young person Babbage was his own instructor in algebra, of which he was fond, and was well read in the continental mathematics of his day. After entering Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1811,he was one step ahead from his teachers in mathematics Babbage co-founded the Analytical Society for promoting continental mathematics and reforming the mathematics of Newton then taught at the university. It was about 1820 that Babbage first acquired the interest in calculating machinery that became his consuming passion for the remainder of his life. In 1821 Babbage invented the Difference Engine to compile mathematical tables. On completing it in 1832, he conceived the idea of a better machine that could perform not just one mathematical task but any kind of calculation. This was the Analytical Engine (1856), which was intended as a general symbol manipulator, and had some of the characteristics of today’s computers. 2

His Family Henry Prevost Babbage On 25 July 1814, Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore at St. Michael's Church in Devon.Charles and Georgiana had eight children Charles' wife Georgiana died in Worcester on 1 September 1827, the same year as his father, their second son (also named Charles) and their newborn son Alexander. His youngest son, Henry Prevost Babbage (1824–1918), went on to create six small demonstration pieces for Difference Engine No. 1 based on his father's designs, one of which was sent to Harvard University where it was later discovered by Howard H. Aiken pioneer of the Harvard Mark I Henry Prevost's 1910 Analytical Engine Mill, previously on display at Dudmaston Hall, is now on display at the Science Museum. Henry Prevost Babbage

The Team Evagelia Athanasiadou Polychronia Doiranli Christina Thanasoula Fotini Theodoridou

Difference Engines No. 1 And No. 2

Difference Engine No. 1, portion,1832 edit: Science Museum This design shows a machine calculating with sixteen digits and six orders of difference. The Engine called for some 25,000 parts shared equally between the calculating section and the printer. Had it been built it would have weighed about 15 tons and stood about 2.5 meters high.

Babbage began in 1821 with Difference Engine No Babbage began in 1821 with Difference Engine No. 1, designed to calculate and tabulate polynomial functions. The design describes a machine to calculate a series of values and print results automatically in a table. There is a printing apparatus mechanically coupled to the calculating section and integral to it. Difference Engine No. 1 is the first complete design for an automatic calculating engine. Babbage's calculating engines are decimal digital machines. They are decimal in that they use the familiar ten numbers '0' to '9' and they are digital in the sense that only whole numbers are recognized as valid. Number values are represented by gear wheels and each digit of a number has its own wheel. If a wheel comes to rest in a position intermediate between whole number values, the value is regarded as indeterminate and the engine is designed to jam to indicate that the integrity of the calculation has been compromised. Jamming is a form of error-detection. From time to time Babbage changed the capacity of the Engine. After a dispute with the engineer, Joseph Clement he stopped the construction of the Engine in 1832.

 Could Babbage have built his engine, and had he done so, would it have worked? In 1985 the Science Museum in London set out to construct a working Difference Engine No. 2 built faithfully to Babbage's original designs dating from 1847-9. 

Difference Engine No. 2, portion,1832 edit: Science Museum The first complete Babbage Engine was completed in London in 2002, 153 years after it was designed. Difference Engine No. 2, built faithfully to the original drawings, consists of 8,000 parts, weighs five tons, and measures 3.35meters long.

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