150-Year-Old Charles Babbage's Computer Brought to Life

Charles Babbage created the first computer designs but never had a chance to create the machine until it was created recently 150 years later.

Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor, is credited for coming up with the concept for the automatic digital computer.

In 1812 he created the first mechanical calculator that could perform certain mathematical computations to eight decimals. Later he produced another device to calculate up to 20 decimals.

In the mid-1830s, Babbage came up with the plans for the Analytical Engine, the forerunner for the modern digital computer.

In this new device, he dreamed of performing any mathematical operations based on the instructions from punched cards (memory unit to store numbers), sequential control and other operations. However Babbage was unable to complete the Analytical Engine, until his notes were discovered in 1937.

In 1991, British scientists worked on these notes and created Difference Engine No. accurate to 31 digits based on Babbage’s specifications. They were able to work on logarithm and trigonometry calculations with this model.

Only two devices were built from Babbage’s designs, and one of them is currently on display at the “Computer History Museum” in Mountain View, California.

Babbage's automatic computing engine consists of 8,000 bronze, cast iron and steel parts, weighs five tons, and measures eleven feet (3.4 meters) long and seven feet (2.1 meters) high.

The museum’s guest curator Doron Swade built this engine from Babbage’s notebooks. This design must have taken him thousands of hours to create it.

Besides the Analytical Engine and calculator inventions, Babbage created dynamometer, standard railway gauge, heliograph ophthalmoscope, Greenwich Time signals, occulting lights at the lighthouse and the locomotive cowcatcher. He is also credited for establishing the modern postal system in England.

You can watch the slideshow of the Babbage's Analytic Engine here.