The Analytical Engine

This was the first fully-automatic calculating machine. British computing pioneer Charles Babbage (1791-1871) first conceived the idea of an advanced calculating machine to calculate and print mathematical tables in 1812. This machine, conceived by Babbage in 1834, was designed to evaluate any mathematical formula and to have even higher powers of analysis than his original Difference engine of the 1820s. Only part of the machine was completed before his death in 1871. This is a portion of the mill with a printing mechanism. Babbage was also a reformer, mathematician, philosopher, inventor and political economist.

The analytical Engine, world’s first computer. Credits: Science Museum London

It was designed by Charles Babbage, a polymath in 19th century. He designed the machine but was never able to build a complete working model in his lifetime due to constraints of fundings. It would take nearly over a century before someone attempted to design a General-purpose computer

Importance of Analytical Engine does not end here. While describing the Analytical Engine in a paper, Ada Lovelace wrote multiple complex progams which could be executed by the Analytical Engine.

This paper arguably makes Ada Lovelace, the first computer Programmer.

The Analytical Engine slid into obscurity in early 20th century. However with the rise of computing in 1940s and 1950s, it was brought into limelight again.

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