Charles Babbage Biography

Charles Babbage was a 19th-century mathematician and inventor whose calculating machines earned him a top spot in the history of mechanical computing.

Charles Babbage’s early career was devoted to practical applied science, particularly in manufacturing. But he is most famous for his work on what he called the Difference Engine and, later, the Analytical Engine. As early as 1822 he speculated that a machine could be used to compute complex mathematical problems and calculate and correct errors in logarithm tables and astronomical charts. He obtained government grants and began work on the Difference Engine, only to decide later that it would be easier to scrap the work and start fresh on a new idea, the Analytical Engine.

The British government withdrew funding in 1842 and stuck the incomplete Difference Engine in the Science Museum, where it still sits. Charles Babbage, using his own money, spent the rest of his life working on the Analytical Engine, but never finished it. He was assisted by Lord Byron’s daughter, Ada Augusta, the Countess of Lovelace and an amateur mathematician. In spite of his failure to completely develop a working machine, Babbage (and Lady Lovelace) are legendary heroes in the prehistory of the computing age; he is sometimes called “the grandfather of modern computing.”