Difference Engine
The real beginnings of computers as we
know them today, however, lay with an English mathematics professor, Charles
Babbage. Frustrated at the many errors he found while examining calculations for
the Royal Astronomical Society, Babbage declared, "I wish to God these
calculations had been performed by steam!" With those words, the automation of
computers had begun. By 1812, Babbage noticed a natural harmony between machines
and mathematics: machines were best at performing tasks repeatedly without
mistake; while mathematics, particularly the production of mathematic tables,
often required the simple repetition of steps.
The problem centered on applying the ability of machines to the needs of mathematics. Babbage's first attempt at solving this problem was in 1822 when he proposed a machine to perform differential equations, called a Difference Engine. Powered by steam and large as a locomotive, the machine would have a stored program and could perform calculations and print the results automatically. After working on the Difference Engine for 10 years, Babbage was suddenly inspired to begin work on the first general-purpose computer, which he called the Analytical Engine.