Click on Charles Babbage to go to this web site.

Charles Babbage was an English inventor and mathematician who, in the 1800's, believed he could build a computing machine. In 1827, after convincing the British government to finance his project, he worked for years on his Difference Engine, a device intended for the production of tables. While he produced prototypes of portions of the Difference Engine, eventually he gave up. In 1854, he decided to build an Analytical Engine, which he also left unfinished. Nonetheless, his proposals for mechanical computers predated the modern reinvenion of computers by almost a century. Because of this accomplishment, Charles Babbage has earned his place in history as the "Father of Computing." Bibliography: R.A. Hyman, Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer, Oxford University Press, 1982. R.A. Hyman (ed.), Science and Reform: Selected Works of Charles Babbage Cambridge University Press, 1989. J. Palfreman and D. Swade, The Dream Machine, BBC Books, London, 1991. D. Swade, Charles Babbage and his Calculating Engines, Science Museum, London, 1991. F. Spufford and J. Uglow, eds; Cultural Babbage: Technology, Time and Invention, Faber and Faber, London, 1996.