History of charles babbage

Another age must be the judge. 1837

Vital Statistics

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was born in Walworth, Surrey, on December 26, 1791. He was one of four children born to the banker Benjamin Babbage and Elizabeth Teape. He attended Trinity, Cambridge, in 1810 to study mathematics, graduated without honors from Peterhouse in 1814 and received an MA in 1817. In 1814 he married Georgiana Whitmore with whom he had eight children, only three of whom lived to adulthood. The couple made their home in London off Portland Place in 1815. His wife, father, and two of his children died in 1827. In 1828 Babbage moved to 1 Dorset Street, Marylebone, which remained his home till his death in 1871. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1816 and occupied the Lucasian chair of mathematics at Cambridge University from 1828 to 1839. He died on October 18, 1871 and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery in London.

Gentleman of Science

Science was not an established profession, and Babbage, like many of his contemporaries, was a 'gentleman scientist' - an independently wealthy amateur well able to support his interests from his own means. The scope of Babbage's interests was polymathically wide even by the generous standards of the day. Between 1813 and 1868 he published six full-length works and nearly ninety papers. He was a prolific inventor, mathematician, scientist, reforming critic of the scientific establishment and political economist. He pioneered lighthouse signalling, invented the ophthalmoscope, proposed 'black box' recorders for monitoring the conditions preceding railway catastrophes, advocated decimal currency, proposed the use of tidal power once coal reserves were exhausted, designed a cow-catcher for the front end of railway locomotives, failsafe quick release couplings for railway carriages, multi-colored theatre lighting, an altimeter, a seismic detector, a tugboat for winching vessels upstream, a 'hydrofoil' and an arcade game for members of

English mathematician, philosopher, and engineer (1791–1871)

"Babbage" redirects here. For other uses, see Babbage (disambiguation).

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

Babbage is considered by some to be "father of the computer". He 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 his Analytical Engine, programmed using a principle openly borrowed from the Jacquard loom. Babbage had a broad range of interests in addition to his work on computers covered in his 1832 book Economy of Manufactures and Machinery. He was an important figure in the social scene in London, and is credited with importing the "scientific soirée" from France with his well-attended Saturday evening soirées. His varied work in oth

Contributed by Puja Laroia, OMS-III MSUCOM

Charles Babbage was born on December 26 1791 into a wealthy London banking family. He was one of 4 children of Benjamin Babbage and Betsy Plumleigh Teape.[1]

Babbage was a well-known English mathematician and inventor with knowledge across many fields of study who is widely regarded as the father of computing. He is credited with developing the Difference Engine, the first mechanical computer, which led to more complicated electrical designs of modern-day computers.[2]

As a young boy, Babbage would spend his time at the library.[3] Reading sparked his joy for mathematics, and he devoted his entire life to it. By the age of 16, he was offered a seat at the University of Cambridge.[4] He quickly rose to the position of head mathematician and graduated.

He then went on to lecture at the Royal Institution on topics in astronomy and was nominated to be a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816.[5,6] In 1820, Babbage was fundamental in establishing the Royal Astronomical Society, originally known as the Astronomical Society of London.[4,5,6] Its early goals were to standardize astronomical computations.[4,5] In 1824 he was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society for inventing an engine for calculating mathematical and astronomical tables.[4] He was appointed the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1828, a position formerly held by Sir Isaac Newton; he maintained the position for ten years without giving a lecture.[2,4,5]

In his career, Babbage dabbled with ophthalmology twice—the ophthalmoscope and color vision.[1] Hermann von Helmholtz invented the ophthalmoscope in 1850, which revolutionized ophthalmology.[1] Yet, just three years before, Babbage came dangerously close to creating it.[1] It is believed that Babbage suffered from bilateral monocular diplopia, which he was able to partially remedy using a pinhole or concave lens.[1] Babbage invented a model ophthalmoscope in 1847, which was beli

Charles Babbage  ©Babbage was a British mathematician, an original and innovative thinker and a pioneer of computing.

Charles Babbage was born on 26 December 1791, probably in London, the son of a banker. He was often unwell as a child and was educated mainly at home. By the time he went to Cambridge University in 1810 he was very interested in mathematics.

After graduation Babbage was hired by the Royal Institution to lecture on calculus. Within two years he had been elected a member of the Royal Society and, with his Cambridge friends, was instrumental in setting up the Astronomical Society in 1820, the first to challenge the dominance of the Royal Society. From 1828 to 1839, Babbage was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.

The 1820s saw Babbage work on his 'Difference Engine', a machine which could perform mathematical calculations. A six-wheeled model was initially constructed and demonstrated to a number of audiences. He then developed plans for a bigger, better, machine - Difference Engine 2. He also worked on another invention, the more complex Analytical Engine, a revolutionary device on which his fame as a computer pioneer now largely rests. It was intended to be able to perform any arithmetical calculation using punched cards that would deliver the instructions, as well as a memory unit to store numbers and many other fundamental components of today's computers. The remarkable British mathematician Ada Lovelace completed a program for the Analytical Engine but neither it, nor Difference Engine 2, were finished in Babbage's lifetime.

Babbage also worked in the fields of philosophy and code-breaking, as well as campaigning for reform in British science. He died at his home in London on 18 October 1871.