Charles Babbage

(1791 – 1871)

• 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 rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

• "I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam."
  • Notes: Babbage said this in 1821 while he and John Herschel were proofreading mathematical tables for the Astronomical Society.

• "The whole of arithmetic now appeared within the grasp of mechanism."
  • Notes: Babbage said this with regard to his Analytical Engine.

• "Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossiblity in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple."
  • Notes: Babbage said this with regard to his Analytical Engine, thus becoming the world's first programmer.