Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage was a nineteenth-century English mathematician and inventor who designed mechanical computing machines—the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine—that anticipated modern computers by over a century.
Though never completed in his lifetime, his designs included concepts like memory, processing, and programmable instructions.
His collaborator Ada Lovelace wrote what many consider the first computer program for his machines.
Gear-driven mathematical calculator
- punch cardsPerforated data entry medium
- cogwheelToothed rotating machine part
- programmingWriting software instructions
- algorithmFinite problem-solving procedure
Mathematical analysis system
- number theoryPure math studying integers
- algebraMath using symbols
- functionPurpose or duty
- logarithmExponent-determining mathematical operation
equation · proof · theorem · actuary · Cambridge · statistics · probability · notation
Of a prim era
- industrializationTransition to factory-based economy
- steam engineThermal vapor motor
- gaslightDistort someone's reality
- Great Exhibition1851 London industrial showcase
telegraph · locomotive · daguerreotype · Royal Society · gentleman · scientific society · nineteenth century · British Empire
Imaginative planner of futures
- prophetDivinely inspired messenger
- unfinishedNot yet complete
- LondonEngland's capital city
- blueprintDetailed technical drawing
prototype · funding · government grant · unrealized · vindication · reconstruction
difference engine
Gear-driven mathematical calculator
- punch cardsPerforated data entry medium
- cogwheelToothed rotating machine part
- programmingWriting software instructions
algorithm · Ada Lovelace · computation · mill · polynomial
calculus
Mathematical analysis system
- number theoryPure math studying integers
- algebraMath using symbols
- functionPurpose or duty
logarithm · equation · proof · theorem · actuary · Cambridge · statistics · probability · notation
Victorian
Of a prim era
- industrializationTransition to factory-based economy
- steam engineThermal vapor motor
- gaslightDistort someone's reality
Great Exhibition · telegraph · locomotive · daguerreotype · Royal Society · gentleman · scientific society · nineteenth century · British Empire · industrial revolution
visionary
Imaginative planner of futures
- prophetDivinely inspired messenger
- unfinishedNot yet complete
- LondonEngland's capital city
blueprint · prototype · funding · government grant · unrealized · vindication · reconstruction
- InventorsThomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, Eli Whitney
- Computing HistoryENIAC, UNIVAC, mainframe, mainframes, punch card
- British InnovatorsJames Watt, George Stephenson, Michael Faraday, Thomas Telford, Ada Lovelace
- British MathematiciansIsaac Newton, Alan Turing
- British ScientistsIsaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Stephen Hawking, Francis Crick, Joseph Priestley
- Tech PioneersAlan Turing, Shannon, Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace, Margaret Hamilton
Charles BabbageWilliam Blake
William Wordsworth · John Keats · Percy Bysshe Shelley · Ralph Waldo Emerson