Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage was born at Walworth, Surrey England in December 26,1791. He achieved many great feats and belonged to many very distinguished groups before he died in October 18, 1871. Many people consider him to be the grandfather of computer science due to his great works with his Difference Engine (1821), which printed tables of polynomials, and his Analytical Engine (1856), which was intended as a general symbol manipulator. These inventions were far more complex than the work of any of his fellow inventors. Although there is no evidence that the computers of today are direct descendants of his work. He grew up with a passion for how mechanical objects worked. He also was an excellent mathematician. This was discovered at an early age when he employed a tutor only to find out he knew more about math than the tutor did. He was home schooled for a good many years before entering Cambridge University in 1810 an institution where he would later hold the position of Lucasian chair of mathematics from 1828 to 1839. His home schooling was in direct result of poor health in his youth. He was involved in many different fields of science. He was the first person to be presented the Gold Medal award given by the Astronomical Society. He was also a key figure in the founding of the Astronomical Society in 1820, the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831 and the Statistical Society of London in 1834. He is also the author of the very influential book On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. He also wrote a series of papers on many different topics such as optics and cryptology. Babbage excelled in many categories but being a politician wasn’t one of them. As a result he would not be able to persuade the government in England to give him a grant on working on the analytical engine. In Babbages early years he was quite social an pleasant to have around. In fact he was notorious for excellent dinner parties where many famous and prominent people would be in attendance. Although over the years and believed by some as a result from the death of his daughter Shelley, who drowned near La Spezia in July of 1822 and 5 years later the death of his 35-year-old wife Georgiana in August 1827 he became a very bitter old man.