1. Celebrate Charles Babbage’s Machines (December 26th)
Charles was a mathematician, inventor, mechanical engineer, and computer designer whose inventions and designs were the base for what we know as the digital programable computer. He is known for designing two engines; the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. They are both named after mathematical principles, which are the basis of these machines. The Difference engine could crunch numbers and calculations by repeating addition following the method of finite differences; it was a giant calculator that couldn’t do arithmetical calculations. After finishing designing this engine, he went and jumped on making an upgrade, but at the same time, a different machine.
The Analytical Engine could go beyond being a calculator, and it could mark a progression from the mechanical version of calculation to an all-purpose computation. Even with all the wealth and sources he had to make these machines a reality, many rocks were put on his way, which we are still trying to figure out. However, history believes he had engineers who had disputes about Babbage’s inventions, making it impossible for him to continue working. Sadly he never saw it come to a reality. It wasn’t until the 1980s when Allan G. Bromley, a professor at the University of Sydney, studied Babbage’s drawings and papers. Over two hundred years after Babbage’s cherished engine, a fully working Difference engine was built and displayed at the Intellectual Ventures in Seattle just outside the main lobby for everyone to admire.