CHARLES BABBAGE: BIOGRAPHY, INVENTIONS AND OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was a mathematician and engineer by profession who partially developed the first mechanical calculator. Considered the father of computing, his intention was to make the necessary calculations more reliable so that different sectors of industrialization avoid errors that could be fatal.

He lived and developed his successful career in the 19th century, in England convulsed by the dramatic changes experienced by society due to the maelstrom that the Industrial Revolution then meant.

Towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the development of mathematics was very well established by geniuses who left solid foundations for geometry, trigonometry, algebra, etc. However, the calculations were significantly tedious and complex to execute, often leading to errors.

Babbage's concern about these inaccuracies frequently committed in formulations of a certain complexity that resulted in loss of time, money and even lives, motivated him to devise a device that was fast, accurate and reliable for such purposes.

Babbage is an example of those great visionaries who dedicated their lives to seeking paths never before explored, with the firm intention of producing elements that would solve the most critical problems of the moment.

Biography

It was the first year of the last decade of the 18th century when the day after Christmas a boy named Charles came into the world at the Babbage house, who years later left a significant mark on various areas of human knowledge.

His father, Benjamin Jr., was a banker and merchant. He, along with Charles's mother, Elizabeth, had a fairly wealthy home in the town of Teignmouth, south-west Britain, and both were amazed at the extreme curiosity that little Charles showed from a very young age.

At a very early age he liked to take apart the toys he received, seeking answers about their operation and configuration. Such was his eagerness to know that he learned the fundamentals of algebra on his own, thanks to his great interest in mathematics.

Training

After receiving his first notions from tutors who visited him at home, he was enrolled in 1810 at Trinity College, an exclusive educational institute in Cambridge. Such was his preparation at the time that on many occasions he demonstrated even greater knowledge than his teachers.

Thus began his academic career and a year after graduating from Cambridge (in 1815) he became involved in the creation of the Analitical Society, joining a group of colleagues who sought to deepen the knowledge imparted at the time in the areas of mathematics.

Precisely because of his passionate participation in this nascent lodge and for daring to question principles coming from Isaac Newton himself in the search for new scientific horizons, Babbage was called to be part of the Royal Society in 1816.

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge -as its full name is- was the most prestigious and oldest scientific society in Europe, which gave it the opportunity to rub shoulders with the scientific and thinking elite of the moment.

Likewise, throughout his career he was part of many academic organizations in Europe and America, so he never stopped interacting with the academic environment and committing himself body and soul to knowledge and scientific research.

Personal life

In his personal life, we cannot say that he had a completely fortunate destiny, since his wife Giorgiana Whitmore, whom he had married in 1814 (the same year in which he received his degree at Cambridge) died prematurely in 1827.

They both fathered eight children, of whom only three reached adulthood. Perhaps for this reason, Charles Babbage focused his whole being on what was his great passion: applying everything he knew in the field of mathematics to bring to life inventions that would facilitate human activity.

Creative motivation

The idea of ​​creating a machine to perform calculations arose in him after realizing the dangerous mistakes that a person could make when trying to formulate the tables that at that time were used as the basis of more complex calculations.

For example, these errors were the cause of shipwrecks that failed in the formulation of their navigation routes or serious failures in buildings that engineering undertook confident in the veracity of the figures.

That is why he realized that the existence of an infallible instrument was necessary for such purposes. In this context, Charles Babbage was a senior lecturer at the University of Cambridge; He held this position from 1828.

Professional development

Charles Babbage not only limited himself to leaving a strictly academic legacy but also contributed philosophical, administrative and managerial ideas, creating inventions of the most diverse range.

As a full professor at the University of Cambridge, he had the opportunity to dedicate much of his time to invention, seeking to improve mathematical processes that led to the creation of what can be considered the first calculator that existed, an invention that saw the light of day in 1822.

His ideas around this prototype were highly transcendent and influenced the creators of computers.

Death

This visionary English scientist and academic died in London on October 18, 1871, just over a month before his 80th birthday, suffering from severe kidney problems. His mortal remains rest in the Kensal Green Cemetery in the English capital.

Inventions

The ingenuity that Charles Babbage displayed during his lifetime was undoubtedly far ahead of the average person who lived at the time.

He was always inclined to mechanical engineering and to apply his deep mathematical knowledge in creating elements to solve problems and satisfy needs.

Although it seems extremely paradoxical, there is no doubt that Babbage's most important contributions came from ideas that he never fully realized. The demands of its models exceeded existing technology, so the parts used were far from perfect.

All of this undermined Babbage's success and significantly retarded progress on his project. Producing each one of the pieces, assembling the gears, adjusting the results and all the complications of such an undertaking, was a titanic task.

Although these projects did not fully crystallize, the foundations on which he tried to build them remained floating in the scientific environment, bearing fruit once the technological limitations were overcome and his ideas and intentions resumed.

Differential machine

Since 1820, the unwavering desire to find a way to bring that device to life was already boiling in his head that would help to calculate accurately. In 1822 he presented the first prototype of what can be said was the first calculator.

Of course, it was a machine with many limitations and somewhat bizarre for what little it accomplished. The interlocking gears assisted by the action of a crank were capable of calculating to up to eight decimal places. Thus was born what he called the differential machine.

Analytical machine

After this first big step, Charles Babbage managed to convince the English government to sponsor his studies to improve his invention. This is how in 1823 he received support to create a second version whose objective was to obtain up to 20 decimal places.

However, given the modest results obtained and his new interest in developing the analytical machine (which opened a long period dedicated to projecting, designing and manufacturing it), the British State decided not to continue supporting him in this new adventure.

In fact, Babbage did not realize this intention given the technological limitations; however, it planted the seeds of what a hundred years later were the foundations that gave rise to the computer. It was a project that he baptized as the analytical machine, which theoretically would be capable of solving any mathematical problem.

Other contributions

Charles Babbage's contributions to humanity were the most diverse, spanning disciplines ranging from mechanical engineering, computer science, management, economics, philosophy, and what we broadly define today as managerial thinking.

Babbage made notable contributions in the most diverse areas of knowledge within the academic world, but also contributed ideas to an English society that was already entering the imminent Industrial Revolution.

Although his ideas took longer than their existence to crystallize, Babbage was the first known person who was concerned with delineating and designing devices to solve calculations and equations, so he somehow laid the initial foundations and premises for what later they would make up the first computers.

Postal system

For example, Babbage intervened in the establishment of the English postal system, devising how it should function to be optimal and reliable. He also made the first reliable actuarial table, supported by his dense mathematical knowledge.

Cryptography

Likewise, he developed work related to cryptography, which allowed sending secret encrypted messages based on certain protocols only known to the sender and receiver, to avoid being decrypted.

Education

He also put his talent and ingenuity at the service of education, being a full professor of mathematics at Cambridge after graduating as an engineer in the second decade of the 19th century.

Terminology

Among the terms introduced by Babbage, memory, the central processing unit, the reader, the printer, and others that were used to configure modern computers, this time not based on mechanical but electronic parts, were already mentioned.

Never before had anyone devised such a device for such a purpose. Hence, it is rightly stated that Charles Babbage is the father of computing, since these concepts were the ones that evolved and gave rise to the modern solutions that exist everywhere in the area of ​​computing today.

Perforated Tape Technology

His initiative to adapt perforated tape technology - used at the time to run a machine used in looms - opened the possibility of supplying instructions to the analytical machine he intended to build.

This route would later be the means through which the first computers were programmed.

Algorithm coding

The ability to execute conditional instructions envisioned for his analytical engine paved the way for the coding of algorithms based on branches that branch according to values ​​stored in memory, which are the basis of computer programming.

Health and transportation

Additionally, he invented a kind of odometer, the device used by ophthalmologists for their medical examinations. He also designed and implemented a device in the trains that prevented their derailments.

Plays

Babbage leaves behind an important legacy of written works of a technical nature that reflect the projection and scope of his ideas, which encouraged researchers who later deepened his plans and sketches, achieving what he once intended.

He wrote a considerable amount of essays, academic papers and books in which he reflected his works and thoughts. These include The Economy of machinery and manufacturers, Reflections of the decline of science in England, Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, Science and Reform, and Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.

Likewise, in his technical essays he left a true legacy that not only prepared the ground for subsequent inventors, but also established an opinion on social and economic issues that facilitated the understanding of the changes that were taking place in England, as a result of the imposed division of labor. by the industrial age.

The bases with which Charles Babbage projected the creation of the differential engine and then the analytical engine, served later scientists and entrepreneurs to make their dreams come true and more. Everything on which the computer industry is based today has its origins in the ideas of English.

Posthumous recognition

In 1991, as a posthumous tribute and at the same time as a recognition of his work, the Museum of London completed the second version of its differential machine, which is exhibited today in this same institution as one of the iconic pieces of computer technology.

References

1. Charles Babbage. Biography and facts ”(October 14, 2018) in Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved on November 13, 2018 from Encyclopedia Britannica: com
2. "Charles Babbage (1791-1871)" on the BBC. Retrieved on November 13, 2018 from BBC: bbc.co.uk
3. "Charles Babbage" in New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved on November 13, 2018 from New World Encyclopedia: newworldencyclopedia.org
4. "Babbage, Charles" in Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved on November 13, 2018 from Notable Biographies: com
5. BBC documentary: calculating ada - The Countess of Computing 2015 from YouTube. Retrieved on November 13, 2018 from YouTube: youtube.com