c S
 26 December 1792

c S

 Teignmouth, Devonshire, England
c  18 October 1871
c S    Inventor of the Difference Engine
Charles Babbage was a 19th century mathematician and
inventor whose calculating machines earned him a top
spot in the history of mechanical computing. 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. 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."
Babbage created the first reliable actuarial tables,
invented skeleton keys and the locomotive cowcatcher...
In 1847 he invented an ophthalmoscope to study the
retina, but didn't announce the invention and didn't get
any credit for it... Lady Lovelace also joined Babbage in
his failed attempts to create an infallible system of
betting on horse races... The work of Babbage and Lady
Lovelace is central to the speculative novel M




 

(1992), written by Bruce Sterling
and William Gibson.

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