Charles Babbage (December 26, 1791, London, England - October 18, 1871, ibid.) - English mathematician, inventor of the first analytical computing machine.
Charles was sick a lot in his childhood, and at the age of eight he was even sent to school in the countryside to improve his health after a strong fever that almost interrupted his life. And after that, for reasons of health, he often had to study at home with private teachers.
While studying, Charles became seriously interested in mathematics. Enrolling in Cambridge in October 1810, and after graduating there a little, Charles was disappointed with the local level of teaching mathematics.
In 1812, he sat in one of his rooms, and looked at logarithmic tables full of errors. And suddenly he got the idea of automatic calculations of these numbers with the help of machines. The French government has developed a new method for calculating tables. 3-4 mathematicians solved calculation questions, a dozen more broke up the work into simpler parts, and the routine work itself, consisting of addition and multiplication, was given to the mercy of 80 workers and counters, who did not understand anything more in mathematics simple actions. Thus, mass production was first used for mathematical purposes. Babbage was seized by the idea that the work of inexperienced accountants can be completely replaced by mechanisms that would work more reliably and quickly ..
In 1822, Babbage published an article describing a machine capable of replacing human calculators, and soon began its practical creation. As a mathematician, Babbage was known method of approximation of functions by polynomials and the calculation of finite differences. In order to automate this process, he began to design the machine, which was called so - differential. This machine should have been able to calculate the values of polynomials up to the sixth degree up to the 18th digit.
Unfortunately, the inventor could not build a fully working version of the machine he conceived during his life. Instead of three years, he spent more than 9 years on it, the budget for its creation grew 10 times, but he could not foresee all the difficulties associated with the implementation of his idea.
After the government refused to allocate additional funds to finance the failed project, Babbage took up a more general version of the mechanical computer, the “analytical machine”, which he called “Difference Machine No. 2”.
After his death in the second half of the 19th century, other inventors were able to build working versions of differential machines, one of which was even used for its intended purpose, to calculate and publish logarithmic tables.
The analytical machine, invented by the inventor, is a direct prototype of the modern digital computer. In a single logical scheme, Babbage linked an arithmetic unit (called a “mill”), memory registers combined into a single whole (“warehouse”), and an input-output device implemented using three types of punched cards. Punch card operations switched the machine between the modes of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Punch cards of variables controlled the transfer of data from memory to the arithmetic unit and back. Numeric punch cards could be used both to enter data into the machine, and to save the results of calculations, if the memory was not enough.
While working on the analytic machine, Babbage corresponded with the British mathematician Ada Lovelace. They met Babbage when she was only 17 years old. Subsequently, she not only gave him ideas on the design of the machine, but also developed an algorithm for her work to calculate Bernoulli numbers. In this regard, it is often called the first programmer in history.
The brain of Charles Babbage was removed after his death and kept for 36 years in the Hunter Museum in Glasgow. Subsequently, he was dissected by Professor Charles Stewart. The British Royal Society of Art published the results and photographs of the preparation in the book “Description of the Brain of Mr. Charles Babba” (Description of the Brain of Mr. Charles Babba).
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Charles Babbage (December 26, 1791, London, England - October 18, 1871, ibid.) - English mathematician, inventor of the first analytical computing machine.
Charles was sick a lot in his childhood, and at the age of eight he was even sent to school in the countryside to improve his health after a strong fever that almost interrupted his life. And after that, for reasons of health, he often had to study at home with private teachers.
While studying, Charles became seriously interested in mathematics. Enrolling in Cambridge in October 1810, and after graduating there a little, Charles was disappointed with the local level of teaching mathematics.
In 1812, he sat in one of his rooms, and looked at logarithmic tables full of errors. And suddenly he got the idea of automatic calculations of these numbers with the help of machines. The French government has developed a new method for calculating tables. 3-4 mathematicians solved calculation questions, a dozen more broke up the work into simpler parts, and the routine work itself, consisting of addition and multiplication, was given to the mercy of 80 workers and counters, who did not understand anything more in mathematics simple actions. Thus, mass production was first used for mathematical purposes. Babbage was seized by the idea that the work of inexperienced accountants can be completely replaced by mechanisms that would work more reliably and quickly ..
In 1822, Babbage published an article describing a machine capable of replacing human calculators, and soon began its practical creation. As a mathematician, Babbage was known method of approximation of functions by polynomials and the calculation of finite differences. In order to automate this process, he began to design the machine, which was called so - differential. This machine should have been able to calculate the values of polynomials up to the sixth degree up to the 18th digit.
Unfortunately, the inventor could not build a fully working version of the machine he conceived during his life. Instead of three years, he spent more than 9 years on it, the budget for its creation grew 10 times, but he could not foresee all the difficulties associated with the implementation of his idea.
After the government refused to allocate additional funds to finance the failed project, Babbage took up a more general version of the mechanical computer, the “analytical machine”, which he called “Difference Machine No. 2”.
After his death in the second half of the 19th century, other inventors were able to build working versions of differential machines, one of which was even used for its intended purpose, to calculate and publish logarithmic tables.
The analytical machine, invented by the inventor, is a direct prototype of the modern digital computer. In a single logical scheme, Babbage linked an arithmetic unit (called a “mill”), memory registers combined into a single whole (“warehouse”), and an input-output device implemented using three types of punched cards. Punch card operations switched the machine between the modes of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Punch cards of variables controlled the transfer of data from memory to the arithmetic unit and back. Numeric punch cards could be used both to enter data into the machine, and to save the results of calculations, if the memory was not enough.
While working on the analytic machine, Babbage corresponded with the British mathematician Ada Lovelace. They met Babbage when she was only 17 years old. Subsequently, she not only gave him ideas on the design of the machine, but also developed an algorithm for her work to calculate Bernoulli numbers. In this regard, it is often called the first programmer in history.
The brain of Charles Babbage was removed after his death and kept for 36 years in the Hunter Museum in Glasgow. Subsequently, he was dissected by Professor Charles Stewart. The British Royal Society of Art published the results and photographs of the preparation in the book “Description of the Brain of Mr. Charles Babba” (Description of the Brain of Mr. Charles Babba).