Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage (1791–1871) was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. Frustrated by errors in hand-computed nautical and mathematical tables, he resolved to compute mechanically. In 1822, he designed the Difference Engine to calculate polynomial tables automatically using finite differences.

In 1837, Babbage conceived the Analytical Engine: the world's first general-purpose programmable computer design. It incorporated a 'Store' (memory), a 'Mill' (CPU/ALU), punched card input, sequential execution, and conditional branching. Though Victorian engineering could not fully manufacture it, his blueprints anticipated modern computer architecture by a century.