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Babbage was the first man to design and (partially) build a computer, and he did it in the 19th century.

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Charles Babbage is best known for inventing the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine, machines designed to eliminate human error in mathematical calculations, and precursors to the modern computer.

Some of his other inventions include:

  • The cowcatcher (locomotive part)
  • The dynamometer (device for measuring an engine's load-bearing performance)
  • Standard railroad gauge
  • Occult lighthouse lights (the revolving type)
  • Locomotive speedometer
  • Greenwich time signals (a means of transmitting time telegraphically)
  • Heliograph opthalmoscope (instrument for examining the interior of the eye)
  • Designed (but did not build) a printer to go with his calculating engines

The Analytical Engine, the world's first general purpose programmable automatic computer. He was never able to get funding to build it. It was entirely mechanical and directly powered by a steam engine.

The first general purpose programmable automatic computer actually built was ENIAC about a century later. It was electronic.

Neither machine had any Random Access Memory and both stored the program and data on different mechanisms (making them what would now be called Harvard Architecture computers).

It is important to realize that the key difference between a computer and a calculating device (e.g. Abacus, Slide Rule, Adding machine) is that a computer must be fully automatic once the program is started running requiring no further human attention in solving the problem, calculating devices are not automatic and require manual operation and/or interaction with the human at (almost) every step of the problem.
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6y ago
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13y ago
Charles BabbageBorn 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. Significant Events in His Life:1791: Born; 1810: Entered Trinity College, Cambridge; 1814: graduated Peterhouse; 1817 received MA from Cambridge; 1820: founded the Analytical Society with Herschel and Peacock; 1823: started work on the Difference Engine through funding from the British Government; 1827: published a table of logarithms from 1 to 108000; 1828: appointed to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge (never presented a lecture); 1831: founded the British Association for the Advancement of Science; 1832: published "Economy of Manufactures and Machinery"; 1833: began work on the Analytical Engine; 1834: founded the Statistical Society of London; 1864: published Passages from the Life of a Philosopher; 1871: Died. Other Inventions:The cowcatcher, dynamometer, standard railroad gauge, uniform postal rates, occulting lights for lighthouses, Greenwich time signals, heliograph opthalmoscope. He also had an interest in ciphers and lock-picking.
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14y ago

It was called the Analytical Engine or Analytical Machine. Here's a link if you want to see a picture or know more: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/I031/10301732.aspx

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11y ago

he discovered what an big fat idiot he really is he doesn't even have common sense the moron freak pagal guy

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11y ago

Charles Babbage invented the first computer. It was a computer that can solve mathematical problems.

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11y ago

charles babbage was an inventor and he designed the first computer

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9y ago

Charles Babbage is best remembered for inventing the concept of the programmable computer. In addition to being an inventor, he was also a mathematician, philosopher, and mechanical engineer.

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12y ago

a mechanical computer

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14y ago

he invented the Difference Engine.

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