CENTURY TOO SOON

WHO FIRST THOUGHT OF COMPUTERS?

The idea of the computer first occurred to British inventor Charles Babbage (pictured above) in about 1833. Others had made calculating machines before him, but Babbage was the first person to conceive of a machine that could be programmed to carry out different calculating operations, as a computer can.

Babbage designed a machine called the Analytical Engine (pictured above) that had the basic features of a modern computer. It was to be a mechanical computer, containing complex systems of shafts and gear wheels. However, only parts of the Analytical Engine were ever built. The engineering required to complete it was far beyond the techniques of the age, and Babbage died in 1871 without knowing whether his computer would work or not.

In fact, Babbage was far ahead of his time as the first computer, a British wartime decoder called Colossus (pictured above), was not built until 1943 and it used electronics, as mechanical operations were too slow. Colossus and all other computers since are really the descendants of Babbage's Analytical Engine.