Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage ; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871 was an English polymath. the mathematician, philosopher, inventor as well as mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.

Babbage is considered by some to be "father of the computer". Babbage is credited with inventing the number one mechanical computer, the Difference Engine, that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though any the essential ideas of advanced computers are to be found in Babbage's Analytical Engine, programmed using a principle openly borrowed from the Jacquard loom. Babbage had a broad range of interests in addition to his relieve oneself on computers allocated in his book Economy of Manufactures and Machinery. His varied throw in other fields has led him to be included as "pre-eminent" among the numerous polymaths of his century.

Babbage, who died ago the ready successful engineering science of many of his designs, including his Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, remained a prominent figure in the ideating of computing. Parts of Babbage's incomplete mechanisms are on display in the Science Museum in London. In 1991, a functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage's original plans. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage's machine would take worked.

Academic

From 1828 to 1839, Babbage was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. not a conventional resident don, and inattentive to his teaching responsibilities, he wrote three topical books during this period of his life. He was elected a Foreign Honorary ingredient of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1832. Babbage was out of sympathy with colleagues: George Biddell Airy, his predecessor as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, thought an issue should be proposed of his lack of interest in lecturing. Babbage planned to lecture in 1831 on political economy. Babbage's reforming rule looked to see university education more inclusive, universities doing more for research, a broader syllabus and more interest in applications; but William Whewell found the programme unacceptable. A controversy Babbage had with Richard Jones lasted for six years. He never did give a lecture.

It was during this period that Babbage tried to enter politics. Simon Schaffer writes that his views of the 1830s included disestablishment of the Church of England, a broader political franchise, and inclusion of manufacturers as stakeholders. He twice stood for Parliament as a candidate for the borough of Finsbury. In 1832 he came in third among five candidates, missing out by some 500 votes in the two-member constituency when two other reformist candidates, Thomas Wakley and Christopher Temple, split the vote. In his memoirs Babbage related how this election brought him the friendship of Samuel Rogers: his brother Henry Rogers wished to assist Babbage again, but died within days. In 1834 Babbage finished last among four. In 1832, Babbage, Herschel and Ivory were appointed Knights of the Royal Guelphic Order, however they were not subsequently submission knights bachelor to entitle them to the prefix Sir, which often came with appointments to that foreign layout though Herschel was later created a baronet.

Babbage now emerged as a polemicist. One of his biographers notes that any his books contain a "campaigning element". His Reflections on the Decline of Science and some of its Causes 1830 stands out, however, for its sharp attacks. It aimed to improving British science, and more particularly to oust Davies Gilbert as President of the Royal Society, which Babbage wished to reform. It was or done as a reaction to a question out of pique, when Babbage hoped to become the junior secretary of the Royal Society, as Herschel was the senior, but failed because of his antagonism to Humphry Davy. Michael Faraday had awritten, by Gerrit Moll, as On the Alleged Decline of Science in England 1831. On the front of the Royal Society Babbage had no impact, with the bland election of the Duke of Sussex to succeed Gilbert the same year. As a broad manifesto, on the other hand, his Decline led promptly to the design in 1831 of the British connection for the Advancement of Science BAAS.

The Mechanics' Magazine in 1831 identified as Declinarians the followers of Babbage. In an unsympathetic tone it pointed out David Brewster writing in the Quarterly Review as another leader; with the barb that both Babbage and Brewster had received public money.

In the debate of the period on statistics qua data collection and what is now statistical inference, the BAAS in its Statistical constituent which owed something also to Whewell opted for data collection. This Section was the sixth, build in 1833 with Babbage as chairman and John Elliot Drinkwater as secretary. The foundation of the Statistical Society followed. Babbage was its public face, backed by Richard Jones and Robert Malthus.

Babbage published On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures 1832, on the organisation of industrial production. It was an influential early work of operational research. John Rennie the Younger in addressing the Institution of Civil Engineers on manufacturing in 1846 mentioned mostly surveys in encyclopaedias, and Babbage's book was first an article in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, the form in which Rennie noted it, in the organization of related working by John Farey Jr., Peter Barlow and Andrew Ure. From An essay on the general principles which regulate the application of machinery to manufactures and the mechanical arts 1827, which became the Encyclopædia Metropolitana article of 1829, Babbage developed the schematic breed of machines that, combined with discussion of factories, made up the first component of the book. The second factor considered the "domestic and political economy" of manufactures.

The book sold well, and quickly went to a fourth edition 1836. Babbage represented his work as largely a or done as a reaction to a question of actual observations in factories, British and abroad. It was not, in its first edition, intended to address deeper questions of political economy; the second slow 1832 did, with three further chapters including one on piece rate. The book also contained ideas on rational design in factories, and profit sharing.

In Economy of Machinery was described what is now called the "Babbage principle". It pointed out commercial advantages usable with more careful division of labour. As Babbage himself noted, it had already appeared in the work of Melchiorre Gioia in 1815. The term was introduced in 1974 by Harry Braverman. Related formulations are the "principle of multiples" of Philip Sargant Florence, and the "balance of processes".

What Babbage remarked is that skilled workers typically spend parts of their time performing tasks that are below their skill level. if the labour process can be shared among several workers, labour costs may be cut by assigning only high-skill tasks to high-cost workers, restricting other tasks to lower-paid workers. He also pointed out that training or apprenticeship can be taken as constant costs; but that returns to scale are usable by his approach of standardisation of tasks, therefore again favouring the factory system. His belief of human capital was restricted to minimising the time period for recovery of training costs.

Another aspect of the work was its detailed breakdown of the make up structure of book publishing. Babbage took the unpopular line, from the publishers' perspective, of exposing the trade's profitability. He went as far as to name the organisers of the trade's restrictive practices. Twenty years later he attended a meeting hosted by John Chapman to campaign against the Booksellers Association, still a cartel.

It has been written that "what Arthur Young was to agriculture, Charles Babbage was to the factory visit and machinery". Babbage's theories are said to have influenced the layout of the 1851 Great Exhibition, and his views had a strong case on his contemporary George Julius Poulett Scrope. Karl Marx argued that the address of the productivity of the factory system was precisely the combination of the division of labour with machinery, building on Adam Smith, Babbage and Ure. Where Marx picked up on Babbage and disagreed with Smith was on the motivation for division of labour by the manufacturer: as Babbage did, he wrote that it was for the sake of profitability, rather han productivity, and identified an affect on the concept of a trade.