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Charles Babbage developed the idea for the DifferenceEngine in 1821 but failed to build it in 1833. In 1842, he developed the idea for the Analytical Engine; he completely abandoned the Difference Engine. It was never completed but it helped improve Britain's machine-tool industry. In 1991, the National Museum of Science and Technology built a replica of the Difference Engine #2 (a later improved design); it was a real working one. In 1879, Charles Babbage's son reassembled a small section of the Difference Engine, which was auctioned in London auctioned in Sydney for $282,000.

The Colossus computers used at Bletchley Park during World War II, for cryptanalysis purposes, are now widely acknowledged as the first programmable electronic digital computers.

Technically, the word 'computer' means 'one who computes', and doesn't refer to a machine, but rather people who were employed down the ages as 'computers' to decide on a persons tax liability. Such 'computers' also did mathematical tables, navigation tables, insurance actuary tables, aircraft design, etc. Babbage himself was a 'computer' when he got the inspiration for the Difference Engine. Up into the early 1950s all the aircraft manufacturers employed several hundred 'computers' to perform the calculations needed to design aircraft.

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11y ago

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