Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791 in Teignmouth, Devonshire UK. "He is known as the "Father of Computing" for his contributions to the basic to the basic design of the computer through the Analytical Machine." He made prototypes of his Difference Engine, which was a special purpose device intended to make tables. His other inventions included the cowcatcher, dynamometer, standard railroad gauge, uniform postal rates, occulting lights for lighthouses, Greenwich Time signals, heliograph ophthalmoscope.

 

"Some significant events in his life included the following: 1810: Entered Trinity College, Cambridge; 1814: graduated Peterhouse; 1817 received MA from Cambridge; 1820: founded the Analytical Society with Herschel and Peacock; 1823: started work on the Difference Engine through funding from the British Government; 1827: published a table of logarithms from 1 to 108000; 1828: appointed to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge (never presented a lecture); 1831: founded the British Association for the Advancement of Science; 1832: published "Economy of Manufactures and Machinery"; 1833: began work on the Analytical Engine; 1834: founded the Statistical Society of London; 1864: published Passages from the Life of a Philosopher; 1871: Died."

 

Babbage is very important to the computer revolution because he made the basic designs of the computer, which was the Analytical Machine. Howard Aiken designed the Mark I, the first computer ever, after his  Analytical Machine, which was never created.