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
Automatic Digital Network Automatic Digital Network The Automatic Digital Network System, known as AUTODIN or ADNS, is a legacy data communications service in the United States Department of Defense. AUTODIN originally consisted of numerous AUTODIN Switching Centers (ASCs) located in the United States and in countries such as England and Japan. The design of the system, originally named "ComLogNet", began in 1958 by a team of Western Union, RCA and IBM. The customer was the U.S. Air Force and the system's purpose was to improve the speed and reliability of logistics traffic (spare parts for missiles) between five logistics centers and roughly 350