Charles Babbage

In 1991, a functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage's original plans.

A difference engine, first created by Charles Babbage, is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions.

Babbage's birthplace is disputed, but according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography he was most likely born at 44 Crosby Row, Walworth Road, London, England.

Charles Babbage, the Victorian mathematician and computer pioneer, was probably born at 44 Crosby Row, now Larcom Street, Walworth Road on 26 December 1791.

In 1812 Babbage transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Peterhouse alumni are notably eminent within the natural sciences, including scientists Lord Kelvin, Henry Cavendish, Charles Babbage, James Clerk Maxwell, James Dewar, Frank Whittle, and five Nobel prize winners in science: Sir John Kendrew, Sir Aaron Klug, Archer Martin, Max Perutz, and Michael Levitt.

Babbage, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society in 1812; they were also close to Edward Ryan.

He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1814 and while at Cambridge, he became friends with John Herschel, Charles Babbage, and George Peacock.

Babbage, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society in 1812; they were also close to Edward Ryan.

It was during his time as an undergraduate that he became friends with the mathematicians Charles Babbage and George Peacock.

These directions were closely connected with Babbage's ideas on computation, and in 1824 he won its Gold Medal, cited "for his invention of an engine for calculating mathematical and astronomical tables".

Babbage, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society in 1812; they were also close to Edward Ryan.

Peacock, in common with many other students of his own standing, was profoundly impressed with the need of reforming Cambridge's position ignoring the differential notation for calculus, and while still an undergraduate formed a league with Babbage and Herschel to adopt measures to bring it about.

Herschel found the method impressive, Babbage knew of it, and it was later noted by Ada Lovelace as compatible with the analytical engine.

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine.

Considered by some to be a "father of the computer", Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's Analytical Engine.

Herschel found the method impressive, Babbage knew of it, and it was later noted by Ada Lovelace as compatible with the analytical engine. Considered by some to be a "father of the computer", Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's Analytical Engine.

The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage.

Babbage's motivation to overcome errors in tables by mechanisation has been a commonplace since Dionysius Lardner wrote about it in 1834 in the Edinburgh Review (under Babbage's guidance).

Lardner showed himself to be a successful populariser of science, giving talks on contemporary topics such as Babbage's Difference Engine (1834).

Babbage, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society in 1812; they were also close to Edward Ryan.

The Society was first envisioned by Charles Babbage as a parody on the debate of whether Bible texts should be annotated, with Babbage having the notion that his textbook by Sylvestre Lacroix was without need for interpretation once translated.

As a broad manifesto, on the other hand, his Decline led promptly to the formation in 1831 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS).

Charles Babbage, William Whewell and J. F. W. Johnston are also considered to be founding members.

From 1828 to 1839 Babbage was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.

It was described by The Daily Telegraph as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world and its former holders include Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, George Stokes, Joseph Larmor, Paul Dirac and Stephen Hawking.

As a student, Babbage was also a member of other societies such as The Ghost Club, concerned with investigating supernatural phenomena, and the Extractors Club, dedicated to liberating its members from the madhouse, should any be committed to one.

It pointed out commercial advantages available with more careful division of labour.

Accordingly many classical economists as well as some mechanical engineers such as Charles Babbage were proponents of division of labour.

The foundation of the Statistical Society followed.

Instrumental in founding the LSS were Richard Jones, Charles Babbage, Adolphe Quetelet, William Whewell, and Thomas Malthus.

For a short time he attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Totnes, South Devon, but his health forced him back to private tutors for a time.

It was an influential early work of operational research.

Charles Babbage's research into the cost of transportation and sorting of mail led to England's universal "Penny Post" in 1840, and to studies into the dynamical behaviour of railway vehicles in defence of the GWR's broad gauge.

Babbage purchased the actuarial tables of George Barrett, who died in 1821 leaving unpublished work, and surveyed the field in 1826 in Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives.

The tables were purchased by Charles Babbage, who made use of them in his Comparative View.

He made a home in Marylebone in London, and founded a large family.

1 Dorset Street resided mid-Victorian scientist Charles Babbage, inventor of the analytical engine.

The parish register of St. Mary's, Newington, London, shows that Babbage was baptised on 6 January 1792, supporting a birth year of 1791.

Charles Babbage the promoter of the first computing machine was born in Walworth Road; William Jowett, a 19th-century missionary and author, was born in Newington in 1787, Also born in Newington, in Surrey Square in 1805, was the English artist Samuel Palmer, as was William John Swainson, the ornithologist and natural history artist (1789–1855) and Tom Smith (1823-1869), the creator of the Christmas cracker.

Around the age of eight, Babbage was sent to a country school in Alphington near Exeter to recover from a life-threatening fever.

In 1808, the Babbage family moved into the old Rowdens house in East Teignmouth.

Charles Babbage (1791–1871), the mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, who originated the idea of a programmable computer, also lived here for some years.

He was already self-taught in some parts of contemporary mathematics; he had read in Robert Woodhouse, Joseph Louis Lagrange, and Marie Agnesi.

Woodhouse did not exercise much influence on the majority of his contemporaries, and the movement might have died away for the time being if it had not been for the advocacy of George Peacock, Charles Babbage, and John Herschel, who formed the Analytical Society, with the object of advocating the general use in the university of analytical methods and of the differential notation.