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The Father of Computing : Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage was an English mathematician, engineer, and inventor. He is credited with originating the concept of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991, a perfectly functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage’s original plans. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage’s machine would have worked. One hundred and fifty years before computers were invented by other people, Charles Babbage designed one — and it took them until 1991 to build one that functioned exactly as he had planned for it to work!
Charles Babbage was born in Devonshire, England on December 26th, 1791. He was the first child of Benjamin Babbage and Elizabeth Gutch. His father owned a farm near Teignmouth. The family had been in the area for several generations; Benjamin’s grandfather John Babbage had moved from Tiverton to Teignmouth to become a clothier and wine merchant in 1735.
Charles’s mother Elizabeth died when he was six years old — she succumbed to an illness which historians believe may have been a form of tuberculosis (called consumption at the time). Charles went to live with his uncle Anthony Gutch and aunt Ann Gutch. They lived in Exeter where Anthony worked as a lawyer; Ann was a midwife who helped deliver babies around town (and delivered Charles himself).
As a child, Charles Babbage was extremely intelligent. He excelled in school and learned very quickly. When he was only six years old, he could read Greek. In 1810, when he was seventeen years old (the age at which most young men were beginning their university education), one of his tutors recommended that Babbage should be sent directly to Cambridge University instead of completing his final year at school because “he had already learnt as much as we could teach him.”
Babbage was only 20 when he attended Cambridge University, where he studied mathematics and engineering. He was a child prodigy who would go on to have an illustrious career in both fields. At age 14, Babbage wrote an essay titled “On the principles of…
