English

How Charles Babbage invented the Computer

Hardware Architecture 2023-11-09 v1 Numerical Analysis Numerical Analysis History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the successive stages in the development of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, based on the blueprints held in the Babbage Papers Archive, accessible online through the Science Museum in London. The first person to decipher these schematics was Allan Bromley, whose contributions in the 1980s and 1990s significantly advanced our understanding of Babbage's pioneering work. The Science Museum's digitization of the Babbage Papers enables a chronological exploration of the evolution of Babbage's machines. The focus is on the Analytical Engine, shedding light on its lesser known but crucial transitional phases.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.04371,
  title  = {How Charles Babbage invented the Computer},
  author = {Raul Rojas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.04371},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

18 pages, 15 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T13:14:39.905Z