In 1819, Babbage and Herschel visited Paris and the Society of Arcueil, meeting leading French mathematicians and physicists. In 1816 he was a candidate for a teaching job at Haileybury College he had recommendations from James Ivory and John Playfair, but lost out to Henry Walter. After graduation, on the other hand, he applied for positions unsuccessfully, and had little in the way of a career. He lectured to the Royal Institution on astronomy in 1815, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816. After Cambridge Ĭonsidering his reputation, Babbage quickly made progress. He had defended a thesis that was considered blasphemous in the preliminary public disputation, but it is not known whether this fact is related to his not sitting the examination. He instead received a degree without examination in 1814. He was the top mathematician there, but did not graduate with honours. In 1812, Babbage transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge.
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. īabbage, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society in 1812 they were also close to Edward Ryan. As a result, he was disappointed in the standard mathematical instruction available at the university. He was already self-taught in some parts of contemporary mathematics he had read Robert Woodhouse, Joseph Louis Lagrange, and Marie Agnesi. The second was an Oxford tutor, under whom Babbage reached a level in Classics sufficient to be accepted by the University of Cambridge.īabbage arrived at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1810. He was brought home, to study at the Totnes school: this was at age 16 or 17. The first was a clergyman near Cambridge through him Babbage encountered Charles Simeon and his evangelical followers, but the tuition was not what he needed. He studied with two more private tutors after leaving the academy. The academy had a library that prompted Babbage's love of mathematics. īabbage then joined the 30-student Holmwood Academy, in Baker Street, Enfield, Middlesex, under the Reverend Stephen Freeman. 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. 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. His father was a banking partner of William Praed in founding Praed's & Co. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage's machine would have worked.īabbage was one of four children of Benjamin Babbage and Betsy Plumleigh Teape. In 1991, a functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage's original plans. Parts of Babbage's incomplete mechanisms are on display in the Science Museum in London. īabbage, who died before the complete successful engineering of many of his designs, including his Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, remained a prominent figure in the ideating of computing. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century. Babbage had a broad range of interests in addition to his work on computers covered in his book Economy of Manufactures and Machinery. Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, the Difference Engine, 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, programmed using a principle openly borrowed from the Jacquard loom. īabbage is considered by some to be " father of the computer". A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.
Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Ada LovelaceĬharles Babbage KH FRS ( / ˈ b æ b ɪ dʒ/ 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. Robert Woodhouse, Gaspard Monge, John Herschel
Mathematics, engineering, political economy, computer science
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