THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Series Three: The Papers of Charles Babbage, 1791-1971

Part 1: Correspondence and Scientific Papers from the British Library, London

Brief Biography

Charles Babbage was born in Teignmouth, Devon, on 26 December 1792. The son of a banker (Benjamin Babbage) he made the acquaintance of Frederick Marryat (later author of the Hornblower books) while at school. He went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1810, where he was a contemporary of John Herschel and George Peacock. He founded the Analytical Society there in 1812 to reform the British interpretation of calculus and to advance the study of mathematics. He worked in the fields of probability, algebra, geometry and infinite series and invented the calculus of functions. He later transferred to Peterhouse College, and graduated in 1814.

In June 1814 he married Georgiana, aged 22. Over the next 13 years she bore him 8 children, sadly culminating in her death in 1827, aged 35. He bought a house at 5 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, London in 1815 (this remained his residence until 1827).

He made his first contribution to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1815, writing on the calculus of functions. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1816. He received his MA degree in 1817. He played a prominent part in founding the Astronomical Society in 1820 and acted successively as Secretary, Vice-President, Foreign Secretary and Member of Council. He worked closely with Herschel on magnetism and in 1820 started his work on mechanical computation.

By 1822 Babbage had completed his design for the Difference Engine and he started work on creating it with a Government grant in 1823. From 1827 to 1839 Babbage served as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, but did not lecture. In 1827 his wife and father both died and Babbage moved to 1 Dorset Street, Manchester Square, London, where he built extensive workshops and furnaces. Acting on medical advice he went to Europe in 1828 where he attended the Congress of Savants in Berlin organised by Humboldt. He also studied European factories and his classic work on operational research - On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures - was published in 1832 as a result. The Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, was given a tour of the works concerning the Difference Engine in 1829 and made a further grant.

In 1830 Babbage ran into difficulties with Joseph Clement, his Engineer, and work on the Engine ceased. He started the design for the Analytical Engine in 1834 but could not interest Lord Melbourne, the new Prime Minister, in the new machine. In all £17,000 of public money had been spent on the project, as well as at least £6,000 from Babbage’s own pockets. On 11 November 1842 Prime Minister Robert Peel delegated his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Goulburn, to tell Babbage that the Government could no longer support the project. Babbage stood twice for Parliament in 1832 and 1834 as the Whig candidate for Finsbury, but was unsuccessful. His friend and collaborator, Augusta Ada Byron (1815-1852), later King, then Lovelace, died in 1852.

His publications included A Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives (1826) (on actuarial theory), Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830) (which prompted him to found the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831) On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1834) (in which he describes Operational Research), the Ninth Bridgewater Treatise (1837) (on natural religion) The Exposition of 1851 (1851) and Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864).

He died in London on 18 October 1871 in London.

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