While he was in his 20's, he was still working as a mathematician. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1816. The Difference Machine was started in 1821 but failed its test in 1833. In 1842 Charles Babbage created the Analytical Engine; he completely abandoned the Difference Machine. It was never completed but it helped improve Britain's machine-tool industry. In 1991, the National Museum of Science and Technology built a replica of the Difference Machine; it was a real working one. In 1879, Charles Babbage's son reassembled a section of the Difference Machine, which was auctioned for auction in London auctioned in Sydney for $282,000. On October the 18th 1871, London, UK, Charles Babbage died.
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Basically he got tired and frustrated working as a computer himself (at the time the word referred to a person whose job was to do calculations). He is said to have commented (something like) "these calculations should be done by steam!".
As he was never able to build either a Difference Engine or an Analytical Engine (because of lack of funding, not because the machinists of the day could not meet his precision requirements as many have incorrectly stated) he worked on other things.
One of the most helpful to the industry of his time (and in the long long run to computers when they were eventually built) was his work on a British government committee developing standardized screw threads to simplify ordering of nuts and bolts.
Charles Babbage is credited for the invention of the first mechanical computer and conceiving the concept of the programmable computer.
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage did not invent the computer. He improved and made what we call the computer. He finished it in 1812.He did not design the Analytical Engine until the 1840s and he never built it. He could not finish anything as he always got distracted by a better idea.
Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 - 18 October 1871) Charles Babbage was an English mathematician, philosopher, mechanical engineer and (proto-) computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. Working from Babbage's original plans, a computer was ultimately built and functioned perfectly. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the finished engine indicated that Babbage's machine would have worked. Babbage had even designed a printer; it featured astonishing complexity for a 19th century device.
Do you mean Charles Babbage? Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was an English mathematician, mechancal engineer and inventor. He is famous for designing the "difference engine" which was a machine which would calculate mathematical tables accurately. Babbage's design was in effect a programmable mechanical computer and is the forerunner of modern electronic computers.
Charles Babbage invented the computer Several people came up with various ideas for automatic computing devices at various times and working on different tasks, all were motivated by the common problem of having to do massive amounts of computations that were painfully tedious to do without error. The final result of this quest is the modern computer.