Charles Babbage (born December 26, 1791; died October 18, 1871) was an English expert in many areas, including mathematics, philosophy, invention, and engineering. He first proposed the idea of a digital computer that could be programmed.

Some people believe Babbage deserves the title "father of the computer." He designed the first mechanical computer, called the difference engine, which inspired later electronic computers. His analytical engine, which could be programmed using ideas from the Jacquard loom, included all the basic parts of modern computers. He also created the first computer printers. In addition to computers, Babbage wrote about manufacturing and machinery in his 1832 book Economy of Manufactures and Machinery. He was active in London’s social circles and introduced "scientific soirées" to England, hosting popular Saturday evening events. His work in many fields made him a highly respected polymath.

Babbage died before completing many of his designs, including the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine. Parts of his unfinished machines are displayed at the Science Museum in London. In 1991, engineers built a working difference engine based on Babbage’s original plans. The machine was made with precision levels possible in the 1800s, proving that his design could have functioned successfully.

Early life

There is some disagreement about where Charles Babbage was born. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he was most likely born at 44 Crosby Row, Walworth Road, London, England. A blue plaque at the intersection of Larcom Street and Walworth Road marks this location.

An obituary in The Times listed his birthdate as December 26, 1792. Later, a letter from a relative claimed he was born one year earlier, in 1791. Church records from St. Mary's in Newington, London, show he was baptized on January 6, 1792, supporting the 1791 birth year.

Babbage was one of four children born to Benjamin Babbage and Betsy Plumleigh Teape. His father worked with William Praed to start a bank called Praed's & Co. in Fleet Street, London, in 1801. In 1808, the Babbage family moved into the Rowdens house in East Teignmouth. When he was about eight years old, he attended a country school in Alphington near Exeter to recover from a serious illness. He briefly studied at King Edward VI Grammar School in Totnes, South Devon, but his health required him to return to private tutors for a time.

Babbage later enrolled at Holmwood Academy in Baker Street, Enfield, Middlesex, where Reverend Stephen Freeman taught 30 students. The academy’s library sparked his interest in mathematics. After leaving the academy, he studied with two private tutors. The first was a clergyman near Cambridge, through whom he met Charles Simeon and his followers, but the lessons did not meet his needs. He returned home to study at Totnes school at age 16 or 17. His second tutor was from Oxford, and under this teacher, Babbage gained enough knowledge in Classics to be accepted into the University of Cambridge.

At the University of Cambridge

Charles Babbage arrived at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1810. He had already learned some advanced mathematics on his own, studying the works of Robert Woodhouse, Joseph Louis Lagrange, and Maria Gaetana Agnesi. He was not happy with the math classes at the university because they did not match his level of knowledge.

In 1812, Babbage and friends, including John Herschel and George Peacock, started the Analytical Society. They were also close to Edward Ryan. As a student, Babbage joined other groups, like The Ghost Club, which looked into supernatural events, and the Extractors Club, which aimed to help members leave mental hospitals if needed.

In 1812, Babbage moved to Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was the best math student there but did not graduate with honors. Instead, he received a degree without taking exams in 1814. His thesis was seen as offensive, but it is not clear if that is why he skipped the exams.

After Cambridge

Charles Babbage quickly gained recognition for his work. In 1815, he gave lectures on astronomy at the Royal Institution, and in 1816, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. After finishing his studies, he applied for several jobs but was not successful. In 1816, he was considered for a teaching position at Haileybury College, with support from James Ivory and John Playfair, but the job went to Henry Walter. In 1819, Babbage and Herschel traveled to Paris to meet French scientists. That same year, Babbage applied for a professorship at the University of Edinburgh, with a recommendation from Pierre Simon Laplace, but the position was given to William Wallace.

Babbage and Herschel studied the electrodynamics of Arago's rotations, publishing their findings in 1825. Their work was later expanded by Michael Faraday. These discoveries are now part of the theory of eddy currents. Babbage and Herschel did not fully understand all the connections needed to unify electromagnetic theory, as they focused on Ampère's force law.

Babbage purchased the actuarial tables of George Barrett, who had died in 1821, and in 1826, he wrote a book titled Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives. This interest began with a plan to start an insurance company, suggested by Francis Baily in 1824, though the plan was never carried out. Babbage created actuarial tables for this project using data from the Equitable Society dating back to 1762.

During this time, Babbage relied on his father’s financial support, especially after his father disapproved of his early marriage in 1814, when he married Edward Ryan’s sister. Babbage lived in Marylebone, London, and had a large family. After his father died in 1827, Babbage inherited a large estate worth about £100,000 (equivalent to £9.14 million or $12.5 million today), making him independently wealthy. After his wife died the same year, Babbage traveled. In Italy, he met Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and later visited Piedmont. In April 1828, while in Rome, Babbage learned he had been appointed a professor at Cambridge, a position he had tried to obtain three times before (in 1820, 1823, and 1826).

Babbage helped start the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820, originally called the Astronomical Society of London. The society aimed to standardize astronomical calculations and share data. These goals connected with Babbage’s ideas about computation. In 1824, he received the society’s Gold Medal for inventing a machine to calculate mathematical and astronomical tables.

Babbage’s goal to reduce errors in tables through mechanization was a common idea at the time, discussed by Dionysius Lardner in the Edinburgh Review in 1834. Babbage described the origin of the difference engine as a response to the Astronomical Society’s desire to improve The Nautical Almanac. Babbage and Herschel were asked to recalculate parts of the tables, discovering discrepancies in 1821 or 1822. This experience led Babbage to develop his idea for mechanical computation. The issue with The Nautical Almanac is now linked to a divide in British science after the death of Sir Joseph Banks in 1820.

Babbage worked with Thomas Frederick Colby to study how to create a modern postal system. They proposed a uniform rate, which was later used in the Uniform Fourpenny Post, replaced by the Uniform Penny Post in 1839 and 1840. Colby was also involved in the Survey of Ireland. Babbage and Herschel were present during a key survey operation, the remeasuring of the Lough Foyle baseline.

The Analytical Society began as a student project but later achieved important results. In 1816, Babbage, Herschel, and Peacock translated the calculus lectures of Sylvestre Lacroix, a leading textbook at the time.

References to Lagrange in calculus relate to formal power series, which British mathematicians used from around 1730 to 1760. These series were reintroduced not just as notations in calculus but as tools for solving functional equations and differential equations. The difference between difference and differential equations was symbolically represented by changing the notation from Δ to D. These methods became popular in operational calculus but eventually reached a limit. The concept of limits, as developed by Cauchy, was not widely adopted. Woodhouse had already started a second "British Lagrangian School," treating Taylor series as formal.

Expressing function composition was complex because the chain rule did not apply simply to higher derivatives. This issue was known to Woodhouse by 1803, who used a method later called Faà di Bruno’s formula, originally developed by Louis François Antoine Arbogast. This method was also used by Abraham De Moivre in 1697. Herschel found the approach impressive, and Babbage was aware of it. Ada Lovelace later noted its compatibility with the analytical engine. Between 1815 and 1820, Babbage focused on functional equations, avoiding traditional finite differences and Arbogast’s approach. However, through Herschel, he was influenced by Arbogast’s ideas on function iteration. In a major paper on functional equations published in the Philosophical Transactions (1815/6), Babbage stated his work was inspired by Gaspard Monge.

Academic

From 1828 to 1839, Charles Babbage held the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He did not follow the usual rules for professors and did not focus much on teaching. During this time, he wrote three books on important topics. In 1832, he was elected as a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Babbage did not get along well with some of his colleagues. George Biddell Airy, who had been the Lucasian Professor before Babbage, believed that Babbage should have been held accountable for not giving lectures. Babbage planned to teach a class on political economy in 1831. He wanted to make university education more open to more people, encourage more research, expand the subjects taught, and focus more on practical applications. However, William Whewell disagreed with this plan. Babbage had a long disagreement with Richard Jones that lasted six years. He never gave a lecture.

During this time, Babbage tried to become involved in politics. Simon Schaffer wrote that Babbage supported ideas in the 1830s, such as ending the special status of the Church of England, giving more people the right to vote, and including factory owners in decision-making. He ran for a seat in Parliament twice for the borough of Finsbury. In 1832, he came in third place among five candidates, losing by about 500 votes because two other reformers split the vote. In his memoirs, Babbage wrote that this election brought him close to Samuel Rogers. Babbage’s brother, Henry Rogers, had wanted to support him again, but died shortly after. In 1834, Babbage finished last among four candidates. In 1832, Babbage, Herschel, and Ivory were appointed to the Royal Guelphic Order, but they were not later made knights, which would have allowed them to use the title "Sir."

Babbage became known for writing strongly about issues. His book Reflections on the Decline of Science and Some of Its Causes (1830) was especially critical. It aimed to improve British science and challenge Davies Gilbert, who was president of the Royal Society, which Babbage wanted to reform. Babbage wrote the book because he was upset when he was not chosen as a junior secretary of the Royal Society, a position he had hoped for. Michael Faraday had a response written by Gerrit Moll called On the Alleged Decline of Science in England (1831). Babbage’s ideas did not change the Royal Society, as the Duke of Sussex was elected to replace Gilbert that same year. However, Babbage’s work helped lead to the creation of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) in 1831.

In 1831, The Mechanics' Magazine called followers of Babbage “Declinarians.” It also noted that David Brewster, who wrote for the Quarterly Review, was another leader, and pointed out that both Babbage and Brewster had received public money.

During debates about statistics and data collection, the BAAS, through its Statistical Section (which also involved William Whewell), focused on collecting data. This section was created in 1833, with Babbage as chairman and John Elliot Drinkwater as secretary. The Statistical Society was later formed, with Babbage as its main public figure, supported by Richard Jones and Robert Malthus.

Babbage published On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1832), which discussed how to organize industrial production. This book was an early example of operational research. John Rennie the Younger, speaking to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1846, mentioned surveys from encyclopedias, including Babbage’s book, which had first appeared as an article in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana. Babbage expanded on ideas from his earlier work, An Essay on the General Principles Which Regulate the Application of Machinery to Manufactures and the Mechanical Arts (1827), which became an article in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana in 1829. This work included a classification of machines and discussions about factories. The second part of the book focused on the economic aspects of manufacturing.

The book was popular and reached a fourth edition by 1836. Babbage claimed his work was based on observations in factories in Britain and abroad. The first edition did not address deeper economic questions, but the second edition (late 1832) added three chapters, including one about piece-rate pay. The book also included ideas about designing factories efficiently and sharing profits with workers.

In On the Economy of Machinery, Babbage described what is now called the “Babbage principle,” which highlights the benefits of dividing labor more carefully to reduce costs. He noted that this idea had appeared earlier in the work of Melchiorre Gioia in 1815. The term “Babbage principle” was coined in 1974 by Harry Braverman. Similar ideas include the “principle of multiples” by Philip Sargant Florence and the “balance of processes.”

Babbage explained that skilled workers often perform tasks below their skill level. By dividing tasks among workers, factories could save money by assigning high-skill tasks to high-cost workers and lower-skill tasks to lower-paid workers. He also noted that training costs are fixed, but standardizing tasks allows for greater efficiency, supporting the factory system. His view of human capital focused on reducing the time needed to recover training costs.

Another part of the book detailed the costs of book publishing. Babbage criticized the publishing industry’s profitability and exposed practices that limited competition. Twenty years later, he attended a meeting to oppose the Booksellers Association, which still acted as a cartel.

It has been said that “what Arthur Young was to agriculture, Charles Babbage was to the factory visit and machinery.” His theories influenced the layout of the 1851 Great Exhibition. His ideas also affected his contemporary George Julius Poulett Scrope. Karl Marx argued that the productivity of factories came from combining the division of labor with machinery, building on the work of Adam Smith, Babbage, and Andrew Ure. Marx agreed with Babbage that the division of labor was driven by the need for profitability, not just productivity, and noted its impact on trade.

John Ruskin strongly opposed Babbage’s ideas about manufacturing. Babbage’s work also influenced John Stuart Mill’s economic thinking. George Holyoake saw Babbage’s discussion of profit sharing as meaningful, similar to ideas from Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, but requiring a kind leader to implement.

From 1828 into the 1840s, Babbage held Saturday night gatherings that brought together scientists, writers, and members of the aristocracy. These events are credited with introducing the “scientific soirée” to England.

Works by Babbage and Andrew Ure were translated into French in 1830, including On the Economy of Machinery.

Later life

The British Association was modeled after the Deutsche Naturforscher-Versammlung, which was created in 1822. It rejected romantic science and metaphysics, and it helped separate science from literature and professionals from amateurs. As a member of the "Wattite" group in the BAAS, especially represented by James Watt the younger, Babbage closely aligned with industrialists. He wanted to move quickly in the same direction and had little interest in the more gentlemanly members of the association. He believed that industrial society was the final stage of human development, a view he shared with Herschel. A disagreement with Roderick Murchison in 1838 led to his leaving the association. Later that year, he resigned as Lucasian professor, also stepping away from a conflict with Whewell at Cambridge. His focus shifted to computation, meteorology, and international connections.

Babbage proposed a project to list all physical constants, which he called "constants of nature," a term he created. He was a pioneer in "absolute measurement," building on the work of Johann Christian Poggendorff. He shared these ideas with Brewster in 1832. His plan included 19 categories of constants, which some, like Ian Hacking, say reflected his unusual interests. His paper, On Tables of the Constants of Nature and Art, was reprinted in 1856 by the Smithsonian Institution, with a note that Arnold Henry Guyot’s physical tables would be part of the project.

Precise measurement was essential for developing machine tools. Babbage was a pioneer in this area, along with Henry Maudslay, William Sellers, and Joseph Whitworth.

Through the Royal Society, Babbage became friends with engineer Marc Brunel. Brunel introduced him to Joseph Clement, who worked with artisans Babbage studied for his work on manufacturing. Babbage helped Isambard Kingdom Brunel connect with the Bristol & Birmingham Railway in 1830. Around 1838, Babbage studied and showed that the broad gauge used by Brunel’s Great Western Railway was better for trains.

In 1838, Babbage invented the pilot, also called a cow-catcher, a metal frame on locomotives that clears obstacles from tracks. He also built a dynamometer car. His eldest son, Benjamin Herschel Babbage, worked as an engineer for Brunel on railways before moving to Australia in the 1850s.

Babbage also created an ophthalmoscope, which he gave to Thomas Wharton Jones for testing. Jones did not use it, and the device was later independently invented by Hermann von Helmholtz.

Babbage made important contributions to cryptography, though this was not widely known until a century after his death. Letter frequency was category 18 of his project to tabulate constants. Joseph Henry later argued that studying letter frequency was useful for managing movable type.

As early as 1845, Babbage solved a cipher challenge set by his nephew, Henry Hollier. He discovered that using a keyword to encrypt text made the cipher subject to modular arithmetic. During the Crimean War of the 1850s, Babbage cracked Vigenère’s autokey cipher and the simpler Vigenère cipher used today. He planned to write a book, The Philosophy of Deciphering, but never published it. His findings were kept secret, and credit for the discovery went to Friedrich Kasiski, a Prussian officer, who reached the same conclusion later. However, in 1854, Babbage published a solution to a Vigenère cipher that had appeared in the Journal of the Society of Arts. In 1855, he also published a short letter, "Cypher Writing," in the same journal. His role in breaking ciphers was not officially recognized until 1985.

Babbage was involved in public campaigns against nuisances, even though they were unpopular. In 1857, he counted 464 broken glass panes in a factory and published a report showing that 14 were caused by "drunken men, women, or boys."

Babbage disliked common people, or "the Mob," and wrote Observations of Street Nuisances in 1864. He recorded 165 "nuisances" over 80 days, especially hating street music, particularly from organ grinders. He criticized them in many places. For example, he once said:

Babbage was not alone in his efforts. Michael Thomas Bass, an MP, supported his cause.

In the 1860s, Babbage also opposed hoop-rolling, a game where boys rolled iron hoops. He claimed that this activity caused accidents when hoops were driven under horses’ legs, often leading to horses breaking their legs. Babbage became well-known for his campaign, and in 1864, he was criticized in Parliament for starting a "crusade" against the games of tip-cat and hoop-rolling.

Computing pioneer

Charles Babbage’s machines were among the first mechanical computers. They were not completed mainly because of funding issues and personal disagreements, especially with George Biddell Airy, the Astronomer Royal.

Babbage oversaw the building of some steam-powered machines that had some success, showing that calculations could be done mechanically. For over ten years, the government funded his project with £17,000, but eventually, the Treasury lost confidence in him.

Although Babbage’s machines were mechanical and bulky, their basic design was similar to modern computers. They separated data and program memory, used instructions to operate, had a control unit that could change steps based on conditions, and included a separate input/output unit.

In Babbage’s time, printed math tables were calculated by people, who did the work by hand. These tables were important for navigation, science, engineering, and math. Errors sometimes happened during copying or calculations.

At Cambridge, Babbage noticed the problems with this process and saw the chance to use machines to help. He wrote about a time when he became interested in improving math tables. He was familiar with a French project led by Gaspard de Prony, which faced challenges. After the Napoleonic Wars ended, scientists began communicating more directly. In 1819, Charles Blagden visited Paris to check on the stalled de Prony project and asked for the Royal Society’s support. Babbage later wrote about this project in his works from the 1820s and 1830s.

In 1822, Babbage started building what he called the difference engine, a machine to calculate polynomial function values automatically. It used a method called finite differences to avoid needing multiplication or division.

To build a prototype difference engine, Babbage hired Joseph Clement in 1823. Clement worked carefully, but his tools were very complex. At the time, he could charge for building them and keep ownership. Babbage and Clement had a disagreement about costs around 1831.

Parts of the prototype are now in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. This prototype became the “first difference engine,” but it was never finished. The completed part is at the Science Museum in London. The first difference engine would have had about 25,000 parts, weighed 13,600 kg, and stood 2.4 meters tall. Though Babbage received funding, the project was not completed. Later, from 1847 to 1849, he created detailed plans for an improved version called the “Difference Engine No. 2,” but he did not get government funding. His design was finally built in 1989–1991 using 19th-century tools. It performed its first calculation at the Science Museum, returning results accurate to 31 digits.

In 2000, the Science Museum completed the printer Babbage designed for the difference engine. His printers were the first computer printers ever invented.

The Science Museum has built two Difference Engines based on Babbage’s plans for the Difference Engine No. 2. One is owned by the museum, and the other, owned by Nathan Myhrvold, was displayed at the Computer History Museum in California in 2008. These are not copies.

After the first difference engine project failed, Babbage worked on a more complex machine called the Analytical Engine. He hired C. G. Jarvis, who had worked with Clement before. The Analytical Engine marked the shift from mechanical arithmetic to general-purpose computation. Babbage’s reputation as a computer pioneer is largely based on this machine.

The biggest innovation was that the Analytical Engine would use punched cards for programming. It would use loops of Jacquard’s punched cards to control a mechanical calculator, which could use results from earlier calculations. It also included features used in modern computers, such as following steps in order, repeating steps, and changing steps. It would have been the first mechanical device capable of performing any computation, in theory. Babbage wrote programs for the Analytical Engine from 1837 to 1840. The first program was completed in 1837. The Analytical Engine was not a single machine but a series of designs Babbage refined until his death in 1871.

Ada Lovelace, who communicated with Babbage during the Analytical Engine’s development, is credited with creating an algorithm to calculate Bernoulli numbers. Some scholars debate how much of the idea was Lovelace’s own. She is often called the first computer programmer, even though no programming language existed yet.

Lovelace also translated and wrote about the project. She compared the engine’s use of punched cards to a Jacquard loom weaving patterns: “We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.”

In 1840, Babbage visited Turin at the invitation of Giovanni Plana, who had created an analog computing machine in 1831. There, Babbage gave the only public explanation of the Analytical Engine. In 1842, Charles Wheatstone asked Lovelace to translate a paper by Luigi Menabrea, who had taken notes from Babbage’s Turin lectures. Babbage also asked her to add her own ideas. Fortunato Prandi, an interpreter in Turin, was an Italian exile who supported Giuseppe Mazzini.

Per Georg Scheutz wrote about the difference engine in 1830 and experimented with automated computation. After 1834 and an article by Lardner in the Edinburgh Review, he started his own project with his son, Edvard Scheutz. Another Swedish engine was built by Martin Wiberg in 1860.

In 2011, researchers in Britain proposed a project called “Plan 28” to build Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Since Babbage’s plans were constantly changing and never completed, they wanted the public to help decide what to build. The machine would have memory equivalent to 675 bytes and run at about 7 Hz. They aimed to finish it by 2021, the 150th anniversary of Babbage’s death.

Recent advances in MEMS and nanotechnology have led to new experiments in mechanical computation. These machines could work in high radiation or high temperature environments. These modern versions were highlighted in The Economist in a special “end of the millennium” issue with the title “Babbage’s Last Laugh.”

Because of his connection to the town, Babbage was chosen to appear on the 5 Totnes pound note in 2007. An image of Babbage is also in the British cultural icons section of the redesigned British passport from 2015.

Family

In 1814, Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore, the sister of William Wolryche-Whitmore, a member of the British Parliament. The ceremony took place at St. Michael's Church in Teignmouth, Devon. Babbage and Georgiana lived at Dudmaston Hall in Shropshire, where he designed the heating system. In 1815, they moved to 5 Devonshire Street in London.

Charles and Georgiana had eight children, but only four—Benjamin Herschel, Georgiana Whitmore, Dugald Bromhead, and Henry Prevost—lived past childhood. Georgiana died in Worcester on September 1, 1827, the same year that Babbage’s father, their second son (also named Charles), and their newborn son Alexander passed away.

Children:
• Benjamin Herschel Babbage (1815–1878)
• Charles Whitmore Babbage (1817–1827)
• Georgiana Whitmore Babbage (1818–26 September 1834)
• Edward Stewart Babbage (1819–1821)
• Francis Moore Babbage (1821–? ???)
• Dugald Bromhead (Bromheald?) Babbage (1823–1901)
• (Maj-Gen) Henry Prevost Babbage (1824–1918)
• Alexander Forbes Babbage (1827–1827)

Henry Prevost Babbage, the youngest child who survived, made six small models of the Difference Engine No. 1 based on his father’s designs. One of these models was sent to Harvard University, where it was later found by Howard H. Aiken, who helped create the Harvard Mark I. A machine called the 1910 Analytical Engine Mill, once displayed at Dudmaston Hall, is now shown at the Science Museum.

Death

Charles Babbage lived and worked at 1 Dorset Street, Marylebone, for more than 40 years. He died there on October 18, 1871, at the age of 79. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. According to Horsley, Babbage died from kidney problems caused by a bladder infection. He refused to accept a knighthood or a baronetcy. He also believed that life peerages were better than hereditary peerages.

In 1983, an autopsy report about Charles Babbage was found and later published by his great-great-grandson. A copy of the original report is also available. One half of Babbage’s brain is kept at the Hunterian Museum in London. The other half is displayed at the Science Museum in London.

Memorials

There is a black plaque that honors the 40 years Charles Babbage lived at 1 Dorset Street, London. Places, organizations, and other items named after Babbage include:

• A crater on the Moon named Babbage
• The Charles Babbage Institute, which is an archive and research center for information technology at the University of Minnesota
• Babbage River Falls in Yukon, Canada
• The Charles Babbage Premium, an annual award for computing
• British Rail named a train after Charles Babbage in the 1990s
• Babbage Island in Western Australia
• The Babbage Building at the University of Plymouth, which houses the university's school of computing
• The Babbage programming language used for GEC 4000 series minicomputers
• "Babbage," a science and technology blog in The Economist
• The former retail store "Babbage's," which sold computers and video games (now known as GameStop), was named after him.

In fiction and film

Charles Babbage is often featured in steampunk stories; he is considered a well-known figure in this genre. Other works that include Babbage are:

• A 2008 short film titled Babbage, which was shown at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. It later became a 2009 finalist with Haydenfilms and was displayed at the 2009 HollyShorts Film Festival and other international film events. The film portrays Babbage at a dinner party where guests discuss his life and work.
• Sydney Padua created The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, a comic that presents an alternate version of history. In this story, Babbage and Lovelace successfully build the Analytical Engine. The comic includes quotes from writings by Lovelace, Babbage, and people from their time.
• Kate Beaton, the creator of the webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, made a comic strip about Charles and Georgiana Babbage.
• The Doctor Who episode "Spyfall, Part 2" (Season 12, episode 2) includes Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace as characters who help the Doctor during an event in the year 1834.

Publications

• A report on repeating M. Arago's experiments about magnetism in rotating materials. London: William Nicol. 1825.
• Babbage, Charles (1826). A Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives. London: J. Mawman. Charles Babbage.
• Babbage, Charles (1830). Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes. London: B. Fellowes. Charles Babbage.
• Summary of a paper titled Observations on the Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli. London: Richard Taylor. 1834.
• Babbage, Charles (1835). On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (4th ed.). London: Charles Knight.
• Babbage, Charles (1837). The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, a Fragment. London: John Murray. Charles Babbage. (Reprinted by Cambridge University Press in 2009, ISBN 978-1-108-00000-0.)
• Babbage, Charles (1841). Table of the Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from 1 to 108000. London: William Clowes and Sons. Charles Babbage. (The LOCOMAT site contains a reconstruction of this table.)
• Babbage, Charles (1851). The Exposition of 1851. London: John Murray. Charles Babbage.
• Laws of mechanical notation. 1851. London: [Publisher not specified].
• Babbage, Charles (1864). Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. London: Longman.
• Babbage, Charles (1989). Hyman, Anthony (ed.). Science and Reform: Selected Works of Charles Babbage. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-34311-4.
• Babbage, Charles (1989) [1815]. "Charles Babbage's Lectures On Astronomy." London.