Charles Babbage
British mathematician Charles Babbage invented an analytical machine, based on similar principles to those that modern computers use.
This English polymath, philosopher, and mechanical engineer originated the concept of a digital programmable. Some persons consider Babbage a "father of the computer" and credit him with the first that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though one finds all essential ideas in his engine. His varied work in other fields led people to describe him as "preeminent" among the many polymaths of his century.
The science museum in London displays incomplete parts of Babbage. In 1991 from original plans of Babbage, people constructed a functioning difference engine. Built to achievable tolerances in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage worked.
“I find no flaw in your reasoning about the Analytical Engine; I admire it; but you are aware that it rests entirely on the hypothesis that I care for the 'whole human race.”
“On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”