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Charles Babbage

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Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage (December 26 1791 – October 18 1871) was an English mathematician, analytical philosopher and (proto-) computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991, working from Babbage's original plans, a difference engine was completed, and functioned perfectly. It was built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, indicating that Babbage's machine would have worked.

Life

Charles Babbage was born in London on December 26, 1791, most likely at 44 Crosby Row, Walworth Road, London. His father, Benjamin Babbage, was a banking partner of the Praeds who owned the Bitton Estate in Teignmouth. His mother was Betsy Plumleigh Babbage. In 1808 the Babbage family moved into the old Rowdens house in East Teignmouth, and Benjamin Babbage became a warden of the nearby St. Michael’s Church.

Education

His father's money allowed Charles to receive instruction from several schools and tutors during the course of his elementary education. Around age eight he was sent to a country school to recover from a life-threatening fever. His parents ordered that his "brain was not to be taxed too much" and Babbage felt that "this great idleness may have led to some of my childish reasonings." He was sent to King Edward VI Grammar School in Totnes, South Devon, a thriving comprehensive school still extant today, but his health forced him back to private tutors for a time. He then joined a 30-student academy under Reverend Stephen Freeman. The academy had a well-stocked library that prompted Babbage's love of mathematics. He studied with two more private tutors after leaving the academy. Of the first, a clergyman near Cambridge, Babbage said, "I fear I did not derive from it all the advantages that I might have done." The second was an Oxford tutor from whom Babbage learned enough of the Classics to be accepted to Cambridge.

Babbage arrived at Trinity College, Cambridge in October 1810. He had read extensively in Leibniz, Lagrange, Simpson, and Lacroix and was seriously disappointed in the mathematical instruction available at Cambridge. In response, he, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society.

In 1812 Babbage transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was the top mathematician at Peterhouse, but failed to graduate with honours. He instead received an honorary degree without examination in 1814.

Marriage

On July 25, 1814, Charles Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore at St. Michael's Church in Teignmouth, Devon. His father did not approve of the marriage. The couple lived happily at 5 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, London. They had eight children, but only three lived to adulthood. Charles' father, his wife Georgiana Babbage, and one son all died in 1827.

Children

Design of computers

In recognition of the high error rate in the calculation of mathematical tables, Babbage wanted to find a method by which they could be calculated mechanically, removing human sources of error. Three different factors seem to have influenced him: a dislike of untidiness; his experience working on logarithmic tables; and existing work on calculating machines carried out by Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibniz. He first discussed the principles of a calculating engine in a letter to Sir Humphrey Davy in 1822.

 
Part of Babbage's difference engine, assembled after his death by Babbage's son, using parts found in his laboratory.

Difference engine

Babbage presented a model of what he called a difference engine. It calculated polynomials using a numerical method called the differences method. The Society approved the idea, prompting the government to grant £1500 for its construction in 1823. Every part had to be formed by hand using custom machine tools, many of which Babbage himself designed. He took extensive tours of industry to better understand manufacturing processes. In Italy he learned he had been named the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. He initially wanted to turn down the position but several friends convinced him to accept.

Analytical engine

In the thirties, Babbage conceived the idea for a much more general engine called the analytical engine, which would compute any mathematical function. Essentially, this would have been a giant mechanical version of the modern computer, running a program stored on punched cards. Babbage spent much of the later part of his life tinkering with designs for the analytical engine, but for various reasons including funding problems and personality issues (but not, apparently, any insurmountable technical obstacles) only small fragments of the machine were ever completed.

Other accomplishments

In 1824 Babbage won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society "for his invention of an engine for calculating mathematical and astronomical tables".

From 1828 to 1839 Babbage was Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge. He contributed largely to several scientific periodicals, and was instrumental in founding the Astronomical Society in 1820 and the Statistical Society in 1834.

In 1837, responding to the official eight Bridgewater Treatises "On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation", he published his Ninth Bridgewater Treatise putting forward the thesis that God had the omnipotence and foresight to create as a divine legislator, making laws (or programs) which then produced species at the appropriate times, rather than continually interfering with ad hoc miracles each time a new species was required. The book incorporated extracts from correspondence he had been having with John Herschel on the subject.

Charles Babbage also achieved notable results in cryptography. He broke Vigenère's autokey cipher as well as the much weaker cipher that is called Vigenère cipher today. The autokey cipher was generally called "the undecipherable cipher", though owing to popular confusion, many thought that the weaker polyalphabetic cipher was the "undecipherable" one. Babbage's discovery was used to aid English military campaigns, and was not published until several years later; as a result credit for the development was instead given to Friedrich Kasiski, who made the same discovery some years after Babbage.

Babbage also invented the pilot (also called a cow-catcher), the metal frame attached to the front of locomotives that clears the tracks of obstacles in 1838. He also performed several studies on Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway.

He only once endeavoured to enter public life, when, in 1832, he stood unsuccessfully for the borough of Finsbury. He came in last in the polls.

References

  • Charles Babbage. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. ISBN 1851960406
  • Anthony Hyman. Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer. ISBN 0691023778
  • Maboth Moseley. Irascible Genius: A Life of Charles Babbage, Inventor.
  • Doron Swade. The Cogwheel Brain. ISBN 03166484772

See also

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Charles Babbage.
  • O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Charles Babbage", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  • Science Museum's exhibit on the Difference engine
  • Economy of Machinery and Manufactures at Archive for the History of Economic Thought
  • Works by Charles Babbage at Project Gutenberg
  • The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise
  • Francis Baily, "On Mr. Babbage's new machine for calculating and printing mathematical and astronomical tables" Astronomische Nachrichten, 2 (1824) 407/408
  • "Address of the President of the Astronomical Society of London, on presenting the Gold Medal of the Society to Charles Baggage [sic], Esq." Astronomische Nachrichten, 3 (1825) 169/170
  • Obituary of Charles Babbage in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 32 (1872) 101
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