Knowra Charles Babbage Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (1791–1871) was an English mathematician and inventor whose mechanical computing designs, especially the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, anticipated programmable computers.
Finite difference : A method for calculating changes in a sequence of values, often used to evaluate polynomials without multiplication. Finite differences supplied the arithmetic method behind the Difference Engine.
Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 : A mechanical calculating engine designed by Babbage in the 1840s to calculate and print mathematical tables. Its detailed design shows how the Difference Engine could combine calculation with printing.
British Association for the Advancement of Science : A British scientific organization founded in 1831 to promote scientific research and public engagement. Babbage helped found the association amid his campaign to reform British science.
Difference Engine No. 2 (Science Museum) : A functioning reconstruction of Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2, completed by the Science Museum in 2002. The reconstruction tested whether Babbage’s elaborate design could operate as specified.
Analytical Engine : A proposed general-purpose mechanical computer designed to follow instructions using a store, a mill, and punched cards. Unlike the Difference Engine, it was intended to perform varied sequences of operations.
Jacquard loom : A loom that uses punched cards to control the patterns woven into fabric. Its punched-card control inspired a way to encode operations and data for the Analytical Engine.
Mill (Analytical Engine) : The arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine, designed to perform operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Babbage’s mill played a role analogous to a processor’s arithmetic unit.
George Scheutz : A Swedish inventor who built a working difference engine inspired by Babbage’s designs. His machine demonstrated that a version of Babbage’s table-making idea could be built.
Dorothy Stein : A historian of science who wrote a biography of Charles Babbage and examined his work in its social context. Her research challenged simplified accounts of Babbage as an isolated, purely technical genius.
Herman Hollerith : An American inventor whose punched-card tabulating machines processed data for the 1890 United States census. His practical card-controlled machines show a later use of punched-card computation.
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