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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... problem of securing access to banking records ; Michael Laithwaite identified John Babbage's house ; Mr Erwin Tomash provided photocopies of American doctoral theses , and Mr V. Bonham - Carter showed me the typescript of his book ...
... 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 economic and social problems . What Condorcet ...
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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 |