Innovation stems from the minds of individuals who recognize a need and strive to develop a new way to fill it. One such innovation was the difference engine, an automatic mechanical calculator designed in the 1820s by English polymath Charles Babbage. He designed this programmable device, to tabulate polynomial functions. The term “difference engine” comes from the algorithm of divided differences that are used to tabulate logarithms and trigonometric functions.
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Did the Difference Engine Work?
Babbage created several iterations of the difference engine, none of which were completed or used. His work on the difference engine lead him to invent the analytical engine, a device that, in theory, would have included all of the logical functions of modern computers, albeit in mechanical, not digital form. Despite the fact that this machine was never constructed, either, Babbage is considered to be the father of digital computing.
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Next Difference Engines
Inspired by the Babbage’s difference engine, the following inventors tried and managed to construct workable difference engines:
- Pehr Georg Scheutz and Edvard Scheutz
- Martin Wiberg
- George Grant
- Christel Hamann
- Alexander John Thompson
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