Charles Babbage: a Biography
“At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.”
~Charles Babbage
On December 26th, 1791, a young boy by the name of Charles Babbage was born to Benjamin Babbage, a rich London banker and Elizabeth Teape, in what is now Southwark, London. Little did they know that 41 years later, their little Charles would invent the first “computer” and that centuries later he would go on to invent numerous other innovative ways to solving problems and be known to many as the “Father of Computing”. Babbage was born as the industrial revolution was just beginning, and by the time he died, Britain was by far the most industrialized country the world had ever seen. Babbage played a crucial role in the scientific and technical development of the period. Charles Babbage is best known for inventing the Difference Machine and the Analytical Machine, both prototype computer/calculators that were designed to eliminate human error in mathematical calculations. Babbage 's Analytical Engine was to be the world 's first general use programmable computer, a machine designed not just for solving one particular problem, but to carry out a range of calculations ordered by its operator. Babbage also invented the locomotive part of the cowcatcher, lock-picking tools, the dynamometer (a device for measuring an engine 's load-bearing performance), the Standard railroad gauge, occult lighthouse lights (the revolving type), the locomotive speedometer, Greenwich time signals (a means of transmitting time telegraphically), the heliograph ophthalmoscope (instrument for examining the interior of the eye), a printer to go with his calculating engines, and a recording device now known as a black box that’s is carried on nearly all commercial and military aircraft today. Babbage also wrote many books as well and his published works include: Table of Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from 1 to 108, 000 (1827), Reflections on the Decline of
~Charles Babbage
On December 26th, 1791, a young boy by the name of Charles Babbage was born to Benjamin Babbage, a rich London banker and Elizabeth Teape, in what is now Southwark, London. Little did they know that 41 years later, their little Charles would invent the first “computer” and that centuries later he would go on to invent numerous other innovative ways to solving problems and be known to many as the “Father of Computing”. Babbage was born as the industrial revolution was just beginning, and by the time he died, Britain was by far the most industrialized country the world had ever seen. Babbage played a crucial role in the scientific and technical development of the period. Charles Babbage is best known for inventing the Difference Machine and the Analytical Machine, both prototype computer/calculators that were designed to eliminate human error in mathematical calculations. Babbage 's Analytical Engine was to be the world 's first general use programmable computer, a machine designed not just for solving one particular problem, but to carry out a range of calculations ordered by its operator. Babbage also invented the locomotive part of the cowcatcher, lock-picking tools, the dynamometer (a device for measuring an engine 's load-bearing performance), the Standard railroad gauge, occult lighthouse lights (the revolving type), the locomotive speedometer, Greenwich time signals (a means of transmitting time telegraphically), the heliograph ophthalmoscope (instrument for examining the interior of the eye), a printer to go with his calculating engines, and a recording device now known as a black box that’s is carried on nearly all commercial and military aircraft today. Babbage also wrote many books as well and his published works include: Table of Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from 1 to 108, 000 (1827), Reflections on the Decline of
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