A steam-powered computer designed by the 19th century mathematician could finally be built after a campaign was launched to bring his dream to life
The Analytical Engine – conceived in 1837 – remains one of the greatest inventions that never was as Babbage died before he could see out its construction.
However, John Graham-Cumming, a programmer and science blogger, now hopes to realise Babbage’s vision by raising £400,000 to build the giant brass and iron contraption.
He plans to use Babbage’s original blueprints for the device, which are contained in a collection of the inventor’s notebooks held at the Science Museum in London.
The campaign has already attracted 1,600 supporters who have pledged funds to kick-start the project.
Elements of the engine have been built over the last 173 years, but this would be the first complete working model of the machine.
“It’s an inspirational piece of equipment,” said Mr Graham-Cumming, author of the Geek Atlas.
“A hundred years ago, before computers were available, Babbage had envisaged this machine. What you realise when you read Babbage’s papers is that this was the first real computer. It had expandable memory, a CPU, microcode, a printer, a plotter and was programmable with punch cards. It was the size of a small lorry and powered by steam but it was recognisable as a computer.”
Computer historian Dr Doron Swade said that rebuilding the machine could answer “profound historical questions”.
However, before any building work can be done, the team would first have to digitise Babbage’s designs and decipher the annotations.
The next step would then be to build a three-dimensional simulation of the gadget on a computer before attempting the operation in the flesh.
Babbage is regarded as the father of computing having pioneered the concept a century before the creation of the world’s first general purpose computers.
He began work on the analytical engine after creating a calculator, called the difference engine, and continued honing the design until his death in 1871.
Due to the complexity of the device and protracted wrangles over government funding for the project, the contraption was never built.
