The Life of Charles Babbage :: Free Essay Writer

The Life of Charles Babbage Charles Babbage 1791-1871 Born December 26, 1791 in Teignmouth, Devonshire UK, Charles Babbage was known as the â€Å"Father of Computing† for his contributions to the basic design of the computer through his Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine was the earliest expression of an all-purpose, programmable computer. His previous Difference Engine was a special purpose device intended for the production of tables. Both the Difference and Analytical Engines were the earliest direct progenitors of modern computers. Even as a little boy, he always tinkered with little mechanical things. He loved to take apart and dissect things. Eventually, Babbage was put in the care of a church school near Exeter, where the minister was told by his family to make sure that he was healthy, rather than well educated. Because of this concern, the minister didn't give Babbage enough work to keep him interested and occupied. Superstitious, despite a thorough Protestant upbringing, he developed an obsession with the Devil. He asked his classmates to tell him every folk tales they knew about what forms the Devil appeared in. In 1812, he began his formal education at Trinity College and the University of Cambridge where he discovered his ability and interest in mathematics history. During that same year, he helped found the Analytical Society, whose object was to introduce developments from the European continent into English mathematics. He graduated from Peterhouse in 1814. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1816 and was active in the founding of the Royal Astronomical and the Statistical societies. He received his Masters in 1817 and began working as a mathematician, concentrating in calculating functions. It was his work with these complex calculations that led him to his most significant inventions: The Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. By previous standards, these engines were monumental in conception, size, and complexity. In 1821, Babbage began the task of mechanizing the production of tables. In 1822, he proposed to build a machine called the Difference Engine to automatically calculate mathematical tables. The idea was to invent a calculating machine that could not only calculate without error but also automatically print the results. Difference engines were designed to calculate using the method of finite differences, a well-used principle of the time. It was only partially completed when he conceived the idea of a more sophisticated machine called the Analytical Engine.