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…