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
Computer terminal access to a distant "terminal host" system. The terminal of the first working programmable, fully automatic digital Turing-complete computer, the Z3, had a keyboard and a row of lamps to show results. Early user terminals connected to computers were electromechanical teleprinters/teletypewriters (TeleTYpewriter, TTY), such as the Teletype Model 33 ASR, originally used for telegraphy or the Friden Flexowriter. Later printing terminals such as the DECwriter LA30 were developed. However printing terminals were limited by the speed at which paper could be printed, and for interactive use the paper record was unnecessary. By the early 1970s, many users in the computer