Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the ComputerThis book discusses the career of Charles Babbage (1791-1871), British advocate of the systematic use of science in industry and creator of machines that were precursors of the modern computer. Babbage used his immense personal charm and vitality in an attempt to change the thinking of contemporary industrialists who had little use for the higher reaches of science. Shifting his own energies from pure mathematics, he planned engines that would "calculate by steam": the Difference Engines, designed to compute tables according to the method of finite differences, and the more complex Analytical Engines, forerunners of the modern computer.
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From inside the book
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... application of science to industry and commerce . He played an important part in the development of both pure science and technology , and with a few of his friends made a great impact on British industrial development . They had seen ...
... application of scientific method to industrial problems , he had allies among the engineers , including Fairbairn and Whitworth , But Babbage was the central figure , and he continually pursued the application of statistical methods to ...
... applying science to the requirements of society . But they were premature : neither science nor society was ready . Nevertheless , their ideas were among the principal formative influences on the Royal Society and their interest in the ...
... application of science to the useful arts , can scarcely be estimated . To carry out the plan fully , however , would require much labor and perhaps the united effort of different institutions and individuals , devoted to special lines ...
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Contents
Childhood | 5 |
Cambridge | 20 |
Marriage Early Years of a Philosopher in London | 31 |
Science in Action Start on the First Engine | 47 |
The Death of Georgiana Continental Travel | 62 |
Reform | 75 |
Science and Reform The Royal Society | 88 |
On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures | 103 |
The Analytical Engines Social Life | 164 |
Analytical Engines and the Circumlocution Office | 190 |
The Great Exhibition | 211 |
The Death of Ada A Family Reunion | 225 |
Final Passages in the Life of a Philosopher | 241 |
From the Analytical Engines to the Modern Computer | 254 |
Published Works of Charles Babbage | 255 |
From Passages from the Life of a Philosopher | 261 |