Charles Babbage Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Considered by some to be a "father of the computer", Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's analytical engine. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century. Parts of Babbage's incomplete
David Hartley (computer scientist) of the Computer Conservation Society from 2007 to 2011. Dr. Hartley became an undergraduate at Clare College, University of Cambridge in 1956. He read Mathematics for the first two years and studied Numerical Analysis and Automatic Computing in his third year, graduating BA in 1959. He then became a research student of Computer science developing the first programming language "Autocode", and its compiler for the EDSAC 2 computer, for which he was awarded a PhD in 1963. His thesis was entitled "Automatic Programming for Digital Computers". As a member of the staff of the university's Mathematical Laboratory he was joint