History of Tech #2: The Computer From the 1830's "Difference Engine"

Did you know that the first ever computer was invented as early as the 1830's? An English mathematician by the name Charles Babbage designed the very first automatic computing engine called the "Difference Engine".

This mechanical computer was designed to automatically produce error-free mathematical tables, that used to take a huge amount of time and a number of mathematicians to produce and even though these mathematicians spent a lot of time calculating, mathematical errors were still far too common, this was a major problem. So the man that was far ahead of his time, Charles Babbage, set out on a futuristic mission to replace humans with a computer!

It is reported that Babbage was very temperamental and stubborn, he always needed to correct people and hated being corrected. To give you an insider to his personality, he once wrote a letter to a poet called Tennyson and slayed him for a verse in one of his poems that reads, "Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born.". Babbage says in his letter, "It must be manifest that if this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill". Babbage goes on to even suggest a better verse "I would suggest that in the next edition of your poem you have it read – "Every moment dies a man, Every moment 1 1/16 is born.""( You can read the full letter here). So I think it's safe to say that Babbage was the type of person that really would not mind working with machines rather than humans. However, I'm sure we can all understand why Babbage dedicated so much time trying to design a machine that helps someone calculate math problems, I can barely do simple addition without whipping out my phone to help me.

Even though the government funded Babbage's research, the funding was far too little to afford all the components, which is said to be well over 8000 different components and that each had to be made with utter precision. After running out of funds to make a device that's as big as a piano, Babbage decided to make a much more complex device that would have been the size of a locomotive! Don't ask me why in the world he thought that he'll be able to afford an even bigger device. He called this device the "Analytical Engine". While coming up with the designs of the Analytical Engine, Babbage thought of a way to make the Difference Engine do more, with less components. However, the government refused to put any more funds into the Difference Engine and simply told him to move on. Sadly, that's exactly what Babbage did. He never built the Difference Engine nor the Analytical Engine, but fast forward to 1991, the Science Museum in London actually built the second version of the Difference Engine and it actually works perfectly.

If you liked this post on the history of tech then you'll like next weeks, because next week I'll be posting about Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a truly spectacularly designed machine. So make sure to upvote this post, follow and resteem.

As a lover of computers, I'm truly gratefully for Charles Babbage's research. My only issue with his devices is that it can't run Crisis!