Charles Babbage
Alexander G Bell
Charles Babbage
Charles Goodyear
Guglielmo Marconi
John Logie Baird
Hernry Ford
Nikola Tesla
Wright Brothers
Archimedes
Enro Rubik
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| Charles
Babbage, Born
December 26, 1791 in Teignmouth, Devonshire UK, Died 1871, London; Known to
some as the "Father of Computing" for his contributions to the basic design of
the computer through his Analytical machine. His previous Difference Engine was
a special purpose device intended for the production of tables. While he did produce prototypes of portions of the Difference Engine, it was left to Georg and Edvard Schuetz to construct the first working devices to the same design which were successful in limited applications. In July of 1822, Charles Babbage wrote a letter to the president of the Royal Society, describing his plan for calculating and printing mathematical tables by machine. By June of 1823 Charles Babbage met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who granted money and told Charles Babbage to proceed with the engine. His initial scheme for the Difference Engine called for six decimal places and a second-order difference; now he began planning for 20 decimal places and a sixth-order difference.  For the next eight years, Babbage continued to apply to the government for a decision on whether to continue the suspended Difference Engine or begin the Analytical Engine. Finally, in November of 1842, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, having sought the opinion of Sir George Airy on the utility of the machine, and having been told it was "worthless", said he and Prime Minister Robert Peel regretted the necessity of abandoning the project. On the 11th of November, Charles Babbage finally met with Peel, and was told the bad news. |
