The Computing Revolution So Far

Intro

Charles Babbage was known as many things, he was as a mathematician, a scientist

and an economist, however, this is not what he is best known for. He is best known

for providing the foundation that modern computing was built on. It was his ideas and

work that were used when creating the first modern computers. Not bad for someone

who was born 150 years before the first modern computers, in an age that didn’t even

have electricity yet.

Modern computing really only began in World War 2 (WW2) in 1940’s, with the

creation of colossus. A computer that was kept secret until after the war. After the war

people were claiming to have built the first computer, it was only then that colossus

was revealed. Colossus had been built during the war to break German code and for

this reason was kept secret until after the fact.

The reason this great feat can be linked to Charles Babbage, is that it was his work

from 100 years earlier that was used as the foundation for the way colossus and sub

sequent computers worked. The time frame of events explains the significance of

Babbage’s work, well. There was a seemingly wondrous time at the end of the 19th

century, when we said goodbye to the age of steam and hello to the modern age of

electricity, telephones and movies amongst other things. And chronologically it was

approx 60 years later that colossus was built. This time line demonstrates that Charles

Babbage was a man ahead of his time because he lived and died during the steam age

and yet his work was used in the modern age approx 100 years apart.

Charles Babbage first worked on a machine called a difference engine in the

1820’s; this led him to work on the difference engine number 2 which in turn led him

to the analytical engine. It is this work on the Analytical Engine that was used for the

first computers and given him prominence in the history of computing. The first of his

major works, the Difference Engine 1, was designed to calculate numerical differ

ences for the purpose of error free tables of data like financial reports or nautical ta

bles. All calculations of the time were done by human calculators and were often sub

ject to lots of errors, so much so, that, lists of errors were often posted for tables and

then those lists could contain errors and so on. Babbage was reported to hate this error

situation and set about with his difference engines. In this age of steam in which he

lived, the engine was going to have to be all mechanical, very cumbersome by today’s

standard.

His first machine was never finished due to lack of funding by the British govern

ment and disputes with his partner. His work was later taken up by a Swedish father

and son team and which bought his work to fruition and before his death, Babbage

actually saw there machine work.

In the rest of the report I will go into more detail of Babbage’s relationship to

modern computing and discuss anyone who dispute Babbage’s title. I will also discuss

further his background and achievements ,especially the Analytical Engine.

Babbage’s relationship To Modern Computing

By almost unanimous decision, Charles Babbage is considered to be a male patri

arch of modern computing. There does seem to be some dispute as to the exact form

of his relationship, for example, (Spiller, N.)2002, has him as the father of modern

computing, (Thornton, J.)2007, has him as the grandfather to modern computing and

(Wilkes, M, V.)1992, has him as the great uncle of modern computing. All these de

scriptions have the common elements of putting Babbage as a male patriarchal figure.

I believe these effectuates are for no other reason than to create the link between a

significant event, i.e. the first modern computer, and the man who laid the foundation

for that significant event, so many years before it actually happened.


Martin Campbell-Kelly is the author of a book about Babbage titled “Passages

from the Life of a Philosopher”. In Campbell-Kelly’s book ,according to (Spiller,

N)2002,he writes that to call Babbage the inventor of the modern computer is errone

ous because others have equal right to that claim e.g. john Von Neumann or Alan

Turing. This comment seems to be erroneous because my research has shown that al

though babbage is referred to as the father etc, of modern computing no one claims

that he invented the modern computer however his ideas are the ideas that were used

in the first computer. I am therefore bemused that an author of a book seems to not

know his topic.

Background and Other Important Information

There is some dispute about Charles Babbage’s place of birth and his exact date of

birth. Charles Babbage was born on either 26 December 1791 or 92 in the little village

of Teignmount in Devon, England or the nearby town of Totnes or the London suburb

of Walworth. He was educated at Schools in Devon and in London. It is said he had a

natural propensity for mathematics, so much so that by the end of his first year at

Cambridge University he had exhausted the knowledge of his maths tutors and from

then on pursued his own research. After graduation he became prominent in London

as a member of various scientific and astronomical societies, he also became Lucian

professor at Cambridge University in 1828, this was a prestigious position even once

held by Isaac Newton. This shows that he was already a standout of his time. But it

was earlier (1820) that Babbage started out on a path that would culminate in the title

of the male patriarch of modern computing. It was in 1820 that he had started on the

first of his difference engines as mentioned above and it was this work that led to the

Analytical engine and it was for this work that he became the great computational fig

ure in history that he is.


His first project, the Difference Engine, was fraught with mishap. The technology

of the day was not up to the task of creating the machine parts easily and it took years

to get some of the parts made he even learnt the skills to make the parts himself. He

was eventually forced to take a partner that could make parts. Joseph Clements was

his partners name and they fought regularly until eventually Clements dissolved the

partnership and took with him all the parts of the machine which he never assembled.

It would seem that Babbage didn’t care between (1847 -49) Babbage worked on the

second of his engines. The Difference Engine 2 was more powerful used less moving

parts but was still 11 feet long and weighed 2.6 tonnes. He was plagued by funding

cuts by the British government who had helped pay for his work and the machine was

never finished by him. A completed version was made by the Science Museum in

London in 1991 to commemorate the bicentennial of his birth.

All this previous work eventually led to what he was most famous for. Charles

Babbage was most famous for his work on the Analytical Engine. The Analytical En

gine was designed to be a general purpose calculating machine that could perform any

series of algebraic or arithmetic operations. This is where he has created a design that

was essentially what was used in the modern computers, except he did this over 100

years beforehand even before electricity.

There were several features of Babbage’s design that should be noted as remark

able in the context of how his work relates to modern computing. Babbage envi

sioned a “store” and “mill”. The “store” was to store and move numerical values. This

is equivalent to the modern computing use of memory. The “mill” performed all the

basic operations of arithmetic that would be automatically controlled by instructions

encoded on punch cards and is equivalent of the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of the

modern computer.

This punched card idea was based on the jacquard Loom. The Jacquard Loom is

capable of weaving any design which the imagination of man can envision. Plaster

board cards are hole punched so that when these cards are placed in the loom, the

loom will weave a particular pattern. Babbage planned to use this hole punched card

system to put into his engine to perform calculations.

Babbage never saw his invention come to fruition and when he died all interest in

his work was all but forgotten. It wasn’t until WW2 in the 1940’s that his work was

dusted of and looked at again. Britain needed to break the German code to end the war

sooner and to do this they set about crating the first modern day computer. The design

was based on Babbage’s “store” and “mill” or memory and CPU and punched cards.

Even though we don’t see punched cards these days, they were being used in com

puters by IBM 100years after Babbage .


Babbage’s work even has a value today

Charles Babbage has had such an influence on modern day computing that he has

an institute named after him and his work will fetch large amounts of money these

days. The Charles Babbage institute was founded in 1977 and sponsors research into

the history of computing and the reprinting of selected materials that are considered

to be of some value to the history of computing. The institute has been housed at the

university of Minnesota since 1980. So there are those out there who still consider

Babbage to be important to our current place in history, this is also exampled by the

fact that his work has recently fetched a high price at auction.

A recent auction by Christiews in New York established that some items of vin

tage computer artifacts have significant value . In Christies “origins of Cyber-space”

auction. The auction attracted $714,000, and the highest price ($78,000) was paid for

an 1842 manuscript and sketch notes expressing the thoughts and writings of Charles
Babbage.

Conclusion

Charles Babbage could definitely be seen as a man ahead of his time. He created the

means by which modern computers work. H e did this in the age of steam , the age he

lived in was probably the reason that he couldn’t bring his ideas to fruition. He simply

didn’t have the technology available to him to put his ideas into reality. This was un

fortunate but nevertheless his ideas were used in modern computing as technology

allowed. For this he stands alone as the only male patriarch of modern computing.

And his work is seen to have great money value as shown by the fact that it can fetch

such a high price in the modern world at auction.

Does Earth Have A Critical Mass

Earth Critical Mass
It seems that we have reached a critical point in our evolution. We can move faster than the speed of sound with the aid of machinery and communicate instantly across the globe , we have evolved to the point now where we can shape our environment to suit our needs we can put buildings hundreds of stories in to the air. We reign supreme as the most advanced forms of life this planet has ever seen, we stand alone at the top of the food chain, we have no equal. But at what cost, are we wrecking this fragile mix of earth and oxygen that supports us and so much other life. Have we gone or are we going to go to far , the thrust of human evolution has bought such wonders as to boggle the mind we can cure all manner of ill, and our artists have created the most beautiful of artworks, but what of the pollution and the cutting down of trees faster than they are being replaced, they are our shame as a race, we are as responsible for these things how did we forget about he child that goes hungry while the first world countries grow obese and and ethics and morality are just words in the dictionary that don't have a place in the modern world it seems that the catch cry of the modern era is "do it to them before they do it to you", and its never anything nice. Businesses are ripping off pensioners and families with kids and driving around in there Ferrari's and BMW's because the law allows such things to occur, a moral or ethical person wouldn't allow those things to happen in there business. Pensioners would be able to retire in the comfort that is the reward for a life time of work and families would be able to educate there kids and have presents at Christmas time.
What drives us to behave in such away, have we forgotten the good feeling of doing a good deed , it seems so. And what happens ultimately? Does this tiny planet earth protest and refuse to support such life, what are some of the things that would mean we are going to far ? Would there be savage changes to the weather patterns on earth, is this a sign of the earth trying to right out wrongs like a giant living organism trying to restore the balance that we are wrecking with our reckless approach to civilization, Who is in charge i ask you ? Who is in charge of this careening oout of control evolution ? I 'll tell you who is not in charge , the governments of this planet are not in charge, the politicians are not in charge they are unable to stop crime and abuses and environmental disasters, they even create death and destruction in war , it has gotten to the point now where war is used to solve problems, we cant rely on the geniuses of thepast anymore like the father of computing Charles Babbage. Its not working it hasn't worked ever we are out of control, we behave as kids with no one to monitor and educate us. So whats the solution you ask? The solution is take charge yourself do the right things, be polite put rubbish in the bins don't cheat or steal , be ethical be moral and together lets take this civilization to the greatest heights imaginable, it's up to you,thats who its up to, thats who has to be in control.