Overview

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was an English polymath - a mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the idea of a digital programmable computer. He is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in his Analytical Engine. His varied work in other fields has earned him the reputation of being 'pre-eminent' among the many polymaths of the 19th century. In 1814 Babbage received a degree without examination from Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he had been the top mathematician, and he made swift progress - lecturing to the Royal Institution on astronomy in 1815 and being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816. In 1820 he was instrumental in founding the Royal Astronomical Society whose aim was to reduce astronomical calculations to a more standard form, closely connected to Babbage's ideas on computation, and in 1824 he won its Gold Medal for 'his invention of an engine for calculating mathematical and astronomical tables'. He had begun work on his Difference Engine in 1822, and after his attempt at making the first difference engine fell through he worked on designing a more complex machine called the Analytical Engine which marked the transition from mechanised arithmetic to fully-fledged general purpose computation. It is on this that his standing as a computer pioneer rests, though it was not a single physical machine but rather a succession of designs that Babbage tinkered with until his death. Published in 1864, his Passages from the Life of a Philosopher gives an account of the creation of his Difference and Analytical Engines together with an insight into his many and varied interests over a long and prestigious career. This edition includes a frontispiece showing a portion of the Difference Engine and a small numer of diagrams within the text.

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