How is an algorithm represented in Babbages Difference Engine?
Charles Babbage, 1791~1871. Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge 1828-1839. Babbage was a mathematician and inventor who is considered to have designed the first automatic digital computer. Babbage first had the idea of mechanically calculating mathematical tables in 1812 or 1813. Later he made a small calculator that peformed certain mathematical functions to an accuracy of eight decimal places. In 1823 he obtained government support for the design of a projected machine with a 16-decimal capacity (later increased to 18 digits), the Difference Engine No.1. Its construction required the development of mechanical engineering techniques, in which Babbage himself was instrumental. The engine was never completed, allthough a small working section of the calculating core was completed in 1832 – this now residing in the Science Museum. During the 1830s Babbage made plans for the so-called Analytical Engine, the forerunner of the modern computer. In this device he
