Charles Babbage biography. Charles Babbage's difference engine

Charles Babbage was an English mathematician and inventor who designed the first automatic digital computer. In addition, he helped create the modern English postal system and compiled the first reliable actuarial tables, invented a type of speedometer and a railway track clearer.

Biography of Charles Babbage

Born in London on December 26, 1791, the son of Praeds Bank partner Benjamin Babbage, owner of the Bitton Estate in Teignmouth, and Betsy Plumley Tip. In 1808 the family decided to move to the old Rowden House, located in East Teignmouth, and the father became warden of the nearby Church of St. Michael.

Charles's father was a wealthy man, so he was able to study at several elite schools. At the age of 8 he had to go to a rural school to recover from dangerous disease. His parents decided that the child's brain "wasn't worth stressing too much." According to Babbage, "this great idleness may have led to some of his childhood speculations."

He then attended King's Grammar School in Totnes, South Devon, a thriving secondary school, which is still in effect today, but health conditions forced Charles to temporarily turn to private teachers. Finally he ended up at a private academy for 30 students, run by the Rev. Stephen Freeman. The institution had an extensive library, which Babbage used to self-study mathematics and learned to love it. After leaving the academy, he had two more personal mentors. One of them was a Cambridge cleric, of whose teaching Charles said: “I am afraid that I have not received all the advantages that I might have received.” The other was a lecturer at Oxford. He taught Charles Babbage the classics so that he could be admitted to Cambridge.

Studying at the University

In October 1810, Babbage arrived in Cambridge and entered Trinity College. He had an excellent education - he knew Lagrange, Leibniz, Lacroix, Simpson and was seriously disappointed with the available mathematical programs. Therefore, he, along with John Herschel, George Peacock and other friends, decided to form the Analytical Society.

When Babbage transferred to Cambridge's Peterhouse in 1812, he was a top mathematician; but he did not graduate with honors. He received an honorary degree later, without even passing the exams, in 1814.

In 1814, Charles Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore. His father, for some reason, never blessed him. The family lived quietly in London at 5 Devonshire Street. Only three of their eight children lived to adulthood.

Charles's father, his wife and one of his sons died tragically in 1827.

Computer project

During the time of Charles Babbage, errors were often made when calculating mathematical tables, so he decided to find new method, which would do this mechanically, eliminating the factor of human error. This idea originated with him very early, back in 1812.

Three various factors influenced his decision:

he did not like sloppiness and imprecision;
Logarithmic tables were easy for him;
he was inspired by existing works by W. Schickard, B. Pascal and G. Leibniz.

He discussed the basic principles of calculating the device in a letter to Sir H. Davy at the beginning of 1822.

Difference engine

Babbage presented what he called the "difference engine" to the Royal Astronomical Society on June 14, 1822, in a paper entitled "Remarks on the Application of Machine Computation of Astronomical and Mathematical Tables." He could calculate polynomials using a numerical method called difference.

The public approved of the idea, and in 1823 the government gave him £1,500 to build it. Babbage set up a workshop in one of the rooms of his house and hired Joseph Clement to supervise the construction of the device. Each part had to be made by hand using special tools, many of which he designed himself. Charles made many industrial visits to better understand production processes. Based on these travels and my personal experience creation of the machine in 1832, Babbage published the work “On the Economics of Machinery and Production.” This was the first publication on what is today called “scientific organization of production.”

Personal tragedy and travel through Europe

The deaths of wife Georgiana, father Charles Babbage and his infant son interrupted construction in 1827. His work was putting a lot of pressure on him, and he was on the verge of a breakdown. John Herschel and several other friends convinced Babbage to travel to Europe to recuperate. He traveled through the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, visiting universities and industries.

In Italy he learned that he had been appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. Initially he wanted to refuse, but his friends convinced him otherwise. On his return to England in 1828 he moved to 1 Dorset Street.

Resumption of work

During Babbage's absence, the Difference Engine project came under fire. Rumors spread that he had wasted the government's money, that the machine did not work, and that it would be of no practical use if it were made. John Herschel and the Royal Society publicly defended the project. The government continued its support, providing £1,500 on April 29, 1829, £3,000 on December 3, and the same on February 24, 1830. The work continued, but Babbage constantly had difficulty obtaining money from the treasury.

Project abandonment

Charles Babbage's financial problems coincided with increasing differences with Clement. Babbage built a two-story, 15-meter-long workshop behind his house. It had a glass roof for lighting and a fireproof clean room to store the car. Clement refused to move to a new workshop and demanded money to travel around the city to supervise the work. In response, Babbage suggested that he receive his payment directly from the treasury. Clement refused and stopped working on the project.

Moreover, he refused to hand over the drawings and tools used to create the difference engine. After investing £23,000, including £6,000 own funds Babbage, work on the unfinished device ceased in 1834. In 1842, the government officially abandoned the project.

Charles Babbage and his Analytical Engine

Away from the difference engine, the inventor began to think about an improved version of it. Between 1833 and 1842, Charles tried to build a device that could be programmed to perform any calculation, not just those related to polynomial equations. The first breakthrough came when he redirected the machine's output to its input to solve further equations. He described it as a machine that "eats its own tail." It didn't take him long to identify the basic elements of an analytical engine.

Charles Babbage used punched cards borrowed from jacquard to enter data and indicate the order of necessary calculations. The device consisted of two parts: a mill and a storage facility. The mill, corresponding to the processor of a modern computer, performed operations on data received from storage, which can be considered memory. It was the world's first general purpose computer.

Charles Babbage's computer was designed in 1835. The scale of the work was truly incredible. Babbage and several assistants produced 500 large design drawings, 1,000 sheets of mechanical symbols, and 7,000 sheets of descriptions. The completed mill was 4.6 m high and 1.8 m in diameter. The 100-digit store extended 7.6 m. Babbage built only small test parts for his new machine. The apparatus was never completely completed. In 1842, after repeated unsuccessful attempts to obtain government funding, he approached Sir Robert Peel. He refused and instead offered him a knighthood. Babbage refused. He continued to change and improve the design over the years to come.

Countess Lovelace

In October 1842, Federico Luigi, an Italian general and mathematician, published a paper on the Analytical Engine. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, Babbage's longtime friend, transferred the work to English language. Charles suggested that she annotate the translation. Between 1842 and 1843, the couple jointly wrote 7 notes, the total length of which was three times the actual size of the articles. In one of them, Ada prepared a table of the execution of the program that Babbage created to calculate Bernoulli numbers. In another, she wrote about a generalized algebraic machine that could perform operations on symbols as well as on numbers. Lovelace was perhaps the first to understand the broader goals of Babbage's device, and is considered by some to be the world's first computer programmer. She began working on a book describing the Analytical Engine in more detail, but did not have time to finish it.

A miracle of mechanical engineering

Between October 1846 and March 1849, Babbage began designing a second difference engine, using the knowledge he had gained from creating the analytical one. It used only 8,000 parts, three times less than the first. It was a miracle of mechanical engineering.

Unlike the analytical one, which he constantly debugged and modified, Charles Babbage's second difference engine did not undergo changes after the completion of the initial development stage. Subsequently, the inventor made no attempts to build the device.

The 24 drawings remained in the archives of the Science Museum until Charles Babbage's ideas were realized in 1985-1991 with the creation of a full-size replica on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth. The dimensions of the device were 3.4 m in length, 2.1 m in height and 46 cm in depth, and its weight was 2.6 tons. The limits of accuracy were limited to the values that could be achieved at the time.

Achievements

In 1824, Babbage received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society "for his invention of a machine for calculating mathematical and astronomical tables."

From 1828 to 1839 Babbage was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. He wrote extensively for a number of scientific periodicals, and was also instrumental in the founding of the Astronomical Society in 1820 and the Statistical Society in 1834.

In 1837, in response to the 8 official Bridgewater Treatises, "On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God in Creation," he published the ninth Bridgewater Treatise, putting forward the thesis that God, possessing omnipotence and foresight, created a divine legislator who makes laws ( or programs) which then created species at appropriate times, thereby eliminating the need to perform miracles every time it was required to create the new kind. The book contains excerpts from the author's correspondence with John Herschel on this topic.

Charles Babbage also achieved noticeable results in cryptography. He broke the autokey cipher, as well as a much weaker cipher, which today is called Babbage's discovery was used by the British military and was published only a few years later. As a result, the right of primacy passed to Friedrich Kasiski, who came to the same result several years later.

In 1838, Babbage invented the track clearer, a metal frame attached to the front of locomotives that clears the tracks of obstructions. He also conducted a number of studies of the Great Western railway Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

He only tried to get involved in politics once, when in 1832 he participated in the elections in the town of Finsbury. According to the voting results, Babbage came in last place.

Parts of the unfinished computing mechanisms he created are available to visit at the Science Museum in London. In 1991, Charles Babbage's Difference Engine was built based on his original plans, and it functioned perfectly.

Despite the failure with the difference engine, Babbage in 1834 thought about creating a programmable computer, which he called analytical (the prototype of a modern computer). Unlike the difference engine, the analytical engine made it possible to solve a wider range of problems. It was this car that became his life’s work and brought posthumous fame. He assumed that building a new machine would require less time and money than modifying a difference machine, since it was supposed to consist of simpler mechanical elements. In 1834, Babbage began designing the Analytical Engine.

The architecture of a modern computer is in many ways similar to the architecture of an analytical engine. In the Analytical Engine, Babbage provided the following parts: a warehouse (store), a factory or mill (mill), a control element (control) and information input-output devices.

The warehouse was intended to store both the values of the variables with which operations are performed and the results of operations. In modern terminology this is called memory.

The mill (arithmetic-logical device, part of a modern processor) was supposed to perform operations on variables, as well as store in registers the value of variables with which this moment carries out the operation.

The third device, which Babbage did not give a name, controlled the sequence of operations, the placement of variables in and out of storage, and the output of results. It read sequences of operations and variables from punched cards. There were two types of punched cards: operational cards and variable cards. From the operating cards it was possible to compile a library of functions. In addition, according to Babbage's plan, the Analytical Engine was supposed to contain a printing device and a device for outputting results onto punched cards for subsequent use.

To create a computer in modern understanding All that remained was to come up with a stored program circuit, which was done 100 years later by Eckert, Mauchly and Von Neumann.

Babbage developed the design of the Analytical Engine alone. He often attended industrial exhibitions, where various new science and technology were presented. It was there that he met Ada Augusta Lovelace (daughter of George Byron), who became his very close friend, assistant and only like-minded person. In 1840, Babbage traveled at the invitation of Italian mathematicians to Turin, where he lectured about his machine. Luigi Menabrea, a teacher at the Turin Artillery Academy, created and published lecture notes on French. Later, Ada Lovelace translated these lectures into English, supplementing them with comments in volume exceeding the original text. In the comments, Ada made a description of the digital computer and programming instructions for it. These were the first programs in the world. That is why Ada Lovelace is rightly called the first programmer. However, the Analytical Engine was never completed. Here is what Babbage wrote in 1851: “All developments related to the Analytical Engine have been carried out at my expense. I conducted a number of experiments and reached the point where my capabilities are not enough. In this regard, I am forced to refuse further work.” Despite the fact that Babbage described in detail the design of the Analytical Engine and the principles of its operation, it was never built during his lifetime. There were many reasons for this. But the main ones were complete absence financing the project to create an analytical engine and low level technologies of that time. Babbage did not ask for help from the government this time, since he understood that after the failure with the difference engine, he would still be refused.

Only after the death of Charles Babbage did his son, Henry Babbage, continue the work begun by his father. In 1888, Henry managed to build the central unit of the Analytical Engine based on his father's drawings. And in 1906, Henry, together with the Monroe company, built a working model of an analytical engine, including an arithmetic unit and a device for printing results. Babbage's machine turned out to be functional, but Charles did not live to see these days.

In 1864, Charles Babbage wrote: “It will probably be half a century before people will be convinced that the means I leave behind cannot be dispensed with.” In his assumption, he was mistaken by 30 years. Only 80 years after this statement, the MARK-I machine was built, which was called “Babbage’s dream come true.” The architecture of MARK-I was very similar to the architecture of the Analytical Engine. Howard Aiken actually seriously studied the publications of Babbage and Ada Lovelace before creating his machine, and his machine ideologically slightly advanced compared to the unfinished Analytical Engine. The productivity of MARK-I turned out to be only ten times higher than the calculated speed of the analytical engine.

History knows many people who were clearly born earlier than they should have been. And, accordingly, they were ahead of their time. In a sense, they went beyond the level of scientific and technological development of their era. In the nineteenth century, one of these talents was Charles Babbage, an English scientist, mathematician, inventor... of the computer. Yes, exactly a computer, albeit a mechanical one.

How it all began

Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791 in London. Exactly at the time when humanity was barely ripe for the conquest of electricity and began to construct the first current sources.

The son of a successful banker, Charles studied first at a private school and then at Enfield Academy and Cambridge. The young man thought about automating calculations back in 1812. However, he began to build the mechanism only seven years later, having previously studied Blaise Pascal’s calculating device (“Pascalina”) and Gottfried Leibniz’s mechanical calculator.

Three years of hard work - and in 1822 the astonished Royal Astronomical Society listened to the young designer's report on a new apparatus called the Difference Engine.

Why such a strange name? In fact, there is nothing strange about it, because the so-called finite difference method was used.

In general, the rollers with gears began to move, spun a little - after a few minutes the result was ready. Both astronomers and mathematicians rejoiced: there is no more need to spend long hours on calculations, poring over papers in the light of candles and then looking for mistakes made due to fatigue.

Large difference machine

"Wow!" - the aforementioned Royal Astronomical Society exclaimed unanimously. - "Wow! Keep the gold medal! Charles Babbage answered something like this: “I want to build the same thing, but bigger. This one is just small. But funding is required...” The community reassured: “Do you need money? Let's give it! How can I not give it, it’s progress!” And the work began to boil.

The world's first mechanical computer was planned to be huge, the height of a one-story house. It was supposed to contain 25 thousand elements and weigh one and a half dozen tons. With RAM of a thousand cells with a capacity of fifty bits each.

However, the construction of the “Large Difference Engine” dragged on for many years. Either health failed, then personal life tragedies rained down one after another. Well, the main reason, of course, was the level of technical development of that era. In the first half of the nineteenth century, it was not so easy to produce thousands of parts.

Seeing such a thing, in 1842 the powers that be gave up on the project and stopped funding.

Analytical Engine

Mr. Babbage did not give up so easily and decided to make another computer - the “Analytical Engine.” Moreover, with an architecture similar to the basic block diagrams of modern computers. With RAM and cache (he called it store), with a processor (“mill”), controllers (control) and even input/output devices. In general, he described everything that a hundred years later Von Neumann, who was lucky enough to be born on time, provided the world.

The first computer programs in human history were created by the daughter of the poet George Byron, Ada Augusta Lovelace, with whom Mr. Babbage became friends. These were instructions for performing calculations on the Analytical Engine. She also introduced the concept of “cycle”.

However, in 1851, Mr. Babbage simply ran out of money. The work was completed by his son, Henry Babbage, and then only in 1906, when the current copy was launched. The inventor himself have a good day did not live, died on October 18, 1871.

Other inventions

In general, no matter how the circumstances develop, giftedness always bears at least some fruit, even if you cannot see the main dream of your life with your own eyes. An incomplete, but quite visual list of useful things created by Charles Babbage can be formatted something like this:

"small difference machine", a mechanical calculator, predecessor of adding machines;
speedometer (invented while working to improve railway safety);
cross-planing machine;
turret lathe;
seismograph;
ophthalmoscope for use by ophthalmologists.

Followers

In 1854, the Swede Georg Scheutz modified Babbage's calculator and also received a gold medal for his modification. But not in England, but at an exhibition in Paris. And, ironically, in 1859 he sold one copy to English officials from the government office, who refused to help their compatriot.

Another Swede, Martin Wiberg, looked at Schutz's version and continued to modernize it towards more convenient work with logarithms.

Well, there it was already not far from electromechanical options. This was created in 1890 by the American Herman Hollerith. His cabinets with glands inside that could count were called tabulators. It was then that the idea of using a punched card arose. This is how IBM was born.

Conclusion

Can Charles Babbage be considered the inventor of the computer? Yes, you can. Moreover, even by the most meticulous modern standards. Firstly, in 1822 the scientist presented a working prototype. Secondly, he independently developed a design for a more powerful computing device, which was built according to his drawings at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The benefits of other inventions, “side trifles” such as machines and instruments, perhaps, do not raise any doubts. Well, the original “difference engine”, recreated in 1991, was exhibited at the London Science Museum so that everyone could see material evidence of the talent of a truly talented person.

Previous publications:

Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791 in London. His father, Benjamin Babbage, was a banker. Mother's name was Elizabeth Babbage, her maiden name was Teape. As a child, Charles had very poor health. At the age of 8 he was sent to a private school in Alphington to be raised by a priest. At that time, his father was already wealthy enough to allow Charles to attend a private school. Benjamin Babbage asked the priest not to give Charles strong study loads due to poor health.

After school at Alphington, Charles was sent to the academy at Enfield, where his real training essentially began. It was there that Babbage began to show interest in mathematics, which was facilitated by a big library in Academy.

After studying at the academy, Babbage studied with two tutors. The first was a priest who lived near Cambridge. According to Charles, the priest would not have given him the knowledge that he could have gained from studying with a more experienced tutor. After the priest, Babbage had a tutor from Oxford. He was able to give Babbage enough basic classical knowledge to enter college.

In 1810 Babbage entered Trinity College, Cambridge. However, he taught himself the basics of mathematics from books. He carefully studied the works of Newton, Leibniz, Lagrange, Lacroix, Euler and other mathematicians of the academies of St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. Babbage very quickly overtook his teachers in knowledge and was very disappointed with the level of mathematics teaching at Cambridge. Moreover, he noted that Britain as a whole was noticeably behind continental countries in terms of mathematical proficiency.

In this regard, he decided to create a society whose goal was to bring modern European mathematics to the University of Cambridge. In 1812, Charles Babbage, his friends John Herschel and George Peacock and several other young mathematicians founded the Analytical Society. They started holding meetings. Discuss various questions related to mathematics. We began to publish our works. For example, in 1816 they published the French mathematician Lacroix’s “Treatise on Differential and Integral Calculus,” translated into English, and in 1820 they published two volumes of examples supplementing this treatise. Through its activity, the Analytical Society initiated the reform of mathematics education, first at Cambridge and then at other universities in Britain.

In 1812, Babbage moved to St. Peter's College (Peterhouse). And in 1814 he received a bachelor's degree. That same year, Charles Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore, and in 1815 they moved from Cambridge to London. During their thirteen years of marriage they had eight children, but five of them died in childhood. In 1816 he became a member of the Royal Society of London. By that time, he had written several large scientific articles in various mathematical disciplines. In 1820 he became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1827 he buried his father, wife and two children. In 1827 he became professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge, a post he held for 12 years. After he left this post, he most devoted his time to his life's work - the development of computers.

Babbage devoted the last years of his life to philosophy and political economy.

Babbage's inventions

Small difference engine

Babbage first thought about creating a mechanism that would allow complex calculations to be performed automatically with great accuracy in 1812. These thoughts were prompted by his study of logarithmic tables, during the recalculation of which numerous errors in calculations were revealed due to human factor. Even then, he began to comprehend the possibility of carrying out complex mathematical calculations using mechanical devices.

Babbage was also greatly influenced by the work of the French scientist Baron de Prony, who proposed the idea of division of labor when calculating large tables (logarithmic, trigonometric, etc.). He proposed dividing the calculation process into three levels. The first level consists of several outstanding mathematicians preparing mathematical software. The second level consists of educated technologists who organized the routine process of computational work. And the third level was occupied by the calculators themselves, from whom only the ability to add and subtract was required. Prony's ideas led Babbage to think about replacing the third level (calculators) with a mechanical device.

However, Babbage did not immediately begin to develop the idea of building a computing mechanism. It was not until 1819, when he became interested in astronomy, that he more precisely defined his ideas and formulated principles for calculating tables by the difference method using a machine that he later called a difference machine. This machine was supposed to perform a complex of calculations using only the addition operation. In 1819, Charles Babbage began building a small difference engine, and in 1822 he completed its construction and gave a presentation to the Royal Astronomical Society on the use of a machine mechanism for calculating astronomical and mathematical tables. He demonstrated the operation of the machine by calculating the terms of a sequence. The operation of the difference machine was based on the finite difference method. The small machine was completely mechanical and consisted of many gears and levers. It used the decimal number system. It operated with 18-bit numbers accurate to the eighth decimal place and provided a calculation speed of 12 sequence terms per minute. The small difference engine could count the values of polynomials of the 7th degree.

For the creation of the difference engine, Babbage was awarded the first gold medal of the Astronomical Society. However, the small difference engine was experimental because it had a small memory and could not be used for large calculations.

Large difference machine

In 1822, Babbage thought about creating a large difference engine that would replace great amount people involved in the calculation of various astronomical, navigational and mathematical tables. This would save labor costs and also eliminate human errors.

With his proposal to finance the creation of a large difference engine, Charles Babbage approached the Royal and Astronomical Societies. Both of them responded positively to this proposal. In 1823, Babbage received £1,500 and began developing a new machine. He planned to construct the car in 3 years. However, Babbage did not take into account the complexity of the design, as well as the technical capabilities of that time. And by 1827, 3,500 pounds sterling (more than 1,000 personal money) had been spent. The progress of work on creating a difference engine has slowed down greatly.

In addition, the tragic events in Babbage's life in 1827 had a great influence on the process of designing the machine. This year he buried his father, wife and two children. After these events, his health worsened, and he could not design the car. To restore his health, he went on a trip across the continent.

After traveling in 1828, Babbage continued development, but there was no more money. He approached many societies and the government asking for help. Only in 1830 did he receive another 9,000 pounds sterling from the government, after which he continued to design a difference engine.

In 1834, work on creating the machine was suspended. At that time, 17,000 pounds of public money and 6,000 of personal money had already been spent. From 1834 to 1842, the government debated whether or not to support the project. And in 1842 they refused to finance the project. The difference engine was never completed.

The large difference engine would have 25,000 parts, weigh almost 14 tons and be 2.5 meters tall. In addition, the difference engine had to be equipped with a printing device to display the results. The memory was designed for 1000 50-bit numbers.

Perhaps the reason for the failure of the difference engine to create, along with tragic events 1827 and the insufficient level of technology of that time, Babbage became excessively versatile. He climbed Vesuvius with an expedition, sank to the bottom of the lake in a diving bell, and participated in archaeological excavations, studied the occurrence of ores, going down into the mines. For almost a year he worked on railway safety and made a lot of special equipment - including creating a speedometer. In addition, when constructing the difference machine, he developed a lot of equipment for metal processing. In 1851, Charles Babbage attempted to construct an improved version of the difference engine, Difference Engine 2. But this project was not successful either.

However, Babbage's work on creating a difference engine was not in vain. In 1854, the Swedish inventor Scheutz built several difference engines based on the work of Babbage. And after some time, Martin Wiberg improved the Scheutz machine and used it for calculations and publication of logarithmic tables.

In 1891, Difference Engine 2 was built and is now in the London Science Museum.

Analytical Engine

Despite the failure with the difference engine, Babbage in 1834 thought about creating a programmable computer, which he called analytical (the prototype of the modern computer). Unlike the difference engine, the analytical engine made it possible to solve a wider range of problems. It was this car that became his life’s work and brought posthumous fame. He assumed that building a new machine would require less time and money than modifying a difference machine, since it was supposed to consist of simpler mechanical elements. In 1834, Babbage began designing the Analytical Engine.

The warehouse was intended to store both the values of the variables with which operations are performed and the results of operations. In modern terminology this is called memory.

The mill (arithmetic-logical device, part of a modern processor) was supposed to perform operations on variables, and also store in registers the value of the variables with which it is currently performing an operation.

To create a computer in the modern sense, all that was left was to come up with a circuit with a stored program, which was done 100 years later by Eckert, Mauchly and von Neumann.

Babbage developed the design of the Analytical Engine alone. He often attended industrial exhibitions, where various new science and technology were presented. It was there that he met Ada Augusta Lovelace (daughter of George Byron), who became his very close friend, assistant and only like-minded person. In 1840, Babbage traveled at the invitation of Italian mathematicians to Turin, where he lectured about his machine. Luigi Menabrea, a teacher at the Turin Artillery Academy, created and published lecture notes in French. Later, Ada Lovelace translated these lectures into English, supplementing them with comments in volume exceeding the original text. In the comments, Ada made a description of the digital computer and programming instructions for it. These were the first programs in the world. That is why Ada Lovelace is rightly called the first programmer. However, the Analytical Engine was never completed. Here is what Babbage wrote in 1851: “All developments related to the Analytical Engine have been carried out at my expense. I conducted a number of experiments and reached the point where my capabilities are not enough. In this regard, I am forced to refuse further work.” Despite the fact that Babbage described in detail the design of the Analytical Engine and the principles of its operation, it was never built during his lifetime. There were many reasons for this. But the main ones were the complete lack of funding for the project to create an analytical engine and the low level of technology at that time. Babbage did not ask for help from the government this time, since he understood that after the failure with the difference engine, he would still be refused.

Other merits of Charles Babbage

Despite the fact that Charles Babbage is considered the inventor of computers, he was actually a very versatile person. Babbage was involved in the safety of railway traffic, for which he equipped a laboratory car with all kinds of sensors, the readings of which were recorded by recorders. Invented the speedometer. Participated in the invention of the tachometer. Created a device that throws random objects from the tracks in front of the locomotive.

While working on the creation of computers, he made great progress in metalworking. Designed cross-planing and turret lathes, came up with manufacturing methods gear wheels. He proposed a new method for tool sharpening and injection molding.

He helped reform the postal system in England. Compiled the first reliable insurance tables. Studied theory functional analysis, experimental studies electromagnetism, encryption issues, optics, geology, religious and philosophical issues.

In 1834, Babbage wrote one of his most important works, The Economics of Technology and Manufacture, in which he proposed what is now called Operations Research.

He was one of the founders of the London Statistical Society. Among his inventions were a speedometer, an ophthalmoscope, a seismograph, and a device for aiming an artillery gun.

In addition, Babbage was a very sociable person. Often on Saturdays he gathered guests at his house. Sometimes from 200 to 300 guests came, among whom were such famous people of that time: Jean Foucault, Pierre Laplace, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Alexander Humboldt. In addition, he maintained close relationships with Jung, Fourier, Poisson, Bessel, and Malthus.

Babbage left a huge mark on the history of the 19th century. And he made a revolution not only in mathematics and computer technology, but also in science in general.

At one time he was considered a genius, then he was almost put into debt.
Indeed, the amounts spent were fantastic for the beginning of the 19th century.
But the promised machine never worked. And he was already dreaming of the next one.
Along the way, he invented the tachometer. He climbed with an expedition to Vesuvius,
dived to the bottom of the lake in a diving bell, participated in archaeological
excavations, studied the occurrence of ores, going down into the mines.

For almost a year he was involved in railway traffic safety and made
a lot of special equipment. Including creating a speedometer.
In addition, he developed a lot of equipment for metal processing.

Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791 in London. His father, Benjamin Babbage, was a banker. Mother's name was Elizabeth Babbage. Her maiden name Type. As a child, Charles was in very poor health. At the age of 8, he was sent to a private school in Alphington to be raised by a priest. At that time, his father was already wealthy enough to allow Charles to attend a private school. Benjamin Babbage asked the priest not to give Charles heavy academic work due to his poor health.
After school at Alphington, Charles was sent to the academy at Enfield, where his real training essentially began. It was there that Babbage began to show interest in mathematics, encouraged by the large library at the academy.

In 1810 Babbage entered Trinity College, Cambridge. However, he taught himself the basics of mathematics from books. He carefully studied the works of Newton, Leibniz, Lagrange, Lacroix, Euler and other mathematicians of the academies of St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. Babbage very quickly overtook his teachers in knowledge and was very disappointed with the level of mathematics teaching at Cambridge. Moreover, he noticed that Britain as a whole was noticeably behind continental countries in terms of the level of mathematical training.

In this regard, he decided to create a society whose goal was to bring modern European mathematics to the University of Cambridge. In 1812, Charles Babbage, his friends John Herschel and George Peacock and several other young mathematicians founded the Analytical Society. They started holding meetings. Discuss various questions related to mathematics. We began to publish our works. For example, in 1816 they published the French mathematician Lacroix's Treatise on Differential and Integral Calculus, translated into English, and in 1820 they published two volumes of examples supplementing this treatise. Through its activity, the Analytical Society initiated the reform of mathematics education, first at Cambridge and then at other universities in Britain.

In 1812 Babbage moved to St. Peter's College (Peterhouse). And in 1814 he received a bachelor's degree. That same year, Charles Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore, and in 1815 they moved from Cambridge to London. During their thirteen years of marriage they had eight children, but five of them died in childhood. In 1816 he became a member of the Royal Society of London. By that time, he had written several large scientific articles in various mathematical disciplines. In 1820 he became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1827 he buried his father, wife and two children. In 1827 he became professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge, a post he held for 12 years. After he left this post, he devoted most of his time to his life's work - the development of computers.

Difference part Charles Babbage's machine, assembled after the death of a scientist by his son from parts found in his father's laboratory.

Small difference engine

Babbage first thought about creating a mechanism that would allow complex calculations to be performed automatically with great accuracy in 1812. These thoughts were prompted by his study of logarithmic tables, the recalculation of which revealed numerous errors in calculations caused by the human factor. Even then, he began to comprehend the possibility of carrying out complex mathematical calculations using mechanical devices.

A working replica of the difference engine at the London Science Museum

IN In 1823, the British government provided him with a subsidy of £1,500 (the total amount of government subsidies Babbage received for the project ultimately amounted to £17,000).

While developing the machine, Babbage did not imagine all the difficulties associated with its implementation, and not only did not meet the promised three years, but nine years later he was forced to suspend his work. However, part of the machine did begin to function and performed calculations with even greater accuracy than expected.

The design of the difference machine was based on the use of the decimal number system. The mechanism was driven by special handles. When funding for the Difference Engine ceased, Babbage began designing a much more general analytical engine, but then still returned to the original development. The improved project he worked on between 1847 and 1849 was called "Difference Engine No. 2"(English) Difference Engine No. 2).

Based on Babbage's works and advice, Swedish publisher, inventor and translator Georg Schutz (Swedish. Georg Scheutz) starting in 1854, managed to build several difference engines and even managed to sell one of them to the British government office in 1859. In 1855 Schutz difference engine received a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. Some time later, another inventor, Martin Wiberg (Swedish. Martin Wiberg), improved the design of the Schutz machine and used it to calculate and publish printed logarithmic tables.

Schutz difference calculator

Babbage's Analytical Engine:

Although difference engine was not built by its inventor for future development computer technology the main thing was something else: in the course of his work, Babbage had the idea of creating a universal computing machine, which he called analytical and which became the prototype of the modern digital computer. Babbage linked an arithmetic device (which he called a “mill”), memory registers combined into a single whole (“warehouse”), and an input/output device implemented using punched cards into a single logical circuit three types. Punched operation cards switched the machine between addition, subtraction, division and multiplication modes. Variable punch cards controlled the transfer of data from memory to the arithmetic unit and back. Numerical punch cards could be used both to enter data into the machine and to store the results of calculations if memory was insufficient.

In general, Babbage was let down by the insufficient precision of metalworking of that time and, of course, the lack of funding

Subsequently, for almost a century, nothing similar to the Analytical Engine appeared, but the idea of using punched cards for data processing was tested quite soon. 20 years after Babbage's death, the American inventor Herman Hollerith created an electromechanical calculating machine - a tabulator, in which punched cards were used to process the results of the population census conducted in the United States in 1890.

A printer! for Babbage's machine:

Babbage devoted the last years of his life to philosophy and political economy.
Charles Babbage died at the age of 79 on October 18, 1871.

Babbage's Difference Machine:

PS.

Much of what is known about this car has come to us thanks to scientific works gifted amateur mathematician Augusta Ada Byron (Countess Lovelace), daughter of the poet Lord Byron. In 1843, she translated an article on the Analytical Engine written by an Italian mathematician, providing it with her own detailed comments regarding the potential capabilities of the machine.

Ada Lovelace, one of the few contemporaries of Charles Babbage who was able to evaluate the Analytical Engine, is sometimes called the world's first programmer. She theoretically developed some techniques for controlling the sequence of calculations that are still used in programming today. For example, she described commands that ensure that a specific sequence of steps is repeated until a specified condition is met. Now such a construction is called a loop.

One of the programming languages is named after Ada Lovelace...

IN period 1989 to 1991, for the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Babbage, a working copy was assembled based on his original works at the London Science Museum difference engine No. 2. In 2000, a printer, also invented by Babbage for his machine, began operating in the same museum. After eliminating minor design inaccuracies found in old drawings, both designs worked flawlessly. These experiments brought an end to the long debate about the fundamental operability of Charles Babbage's designs (some researchers believe that Babbage deliberately introduced inaccuracies into his drawings, thus trying to protect his creations from unauthorized copying).

Sources:

1. Biography of Charles Babbage
2. Charles Babbage - inventor and... political economist
3. Babbage's wheels ran over us
4. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/stories/babbage.aspx