THE ANALYTICAL ENGINE

In 1837, Charles Babbage described a steam powered, mechanical “engine” that predicted virtually everything computers are capable of doing today. He spent more than 34 years trying to build it. Made of brass, and at approximately 95 X 35 feet, it would not have been a laptop.

In the end, machining technologies of the time were not up to the task and the Analytical Engine was never completed. Nonetheless, according to computer technologists of the time and of the present, it would have worked.

The machine would have used punch cards for programming and would have applied a ten-based (decimal) system. It was designed with the memory to hold 1000 numbers of up to 50 digits. Next

For a very detailed discussion of the Analytical Engine check out The Analytical Engine Museum.

For a quick overview, go to the Wikipedia site.

Also see 1623 Wilhelm Schickard's "calculating clock."