Welcome!
Home Who Was Babbage? Who Was Lovelace? Influence on Modern Technology How does the Engine work? Reference, Further Reading

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine was said to have influenced the modern computer as we know it today. It was the first of its kind; a calculating mechanism capable of a precision of up to 20 decimal places. At the time, the people tasked with working out these advanced sums (and occasionally getting answers wrong) were called 'Computers', which is a rather interesting notion - in comparison to what we think of when we hear 'computer' today.

The Difference Engine paved the way for machine automated calculation, and (later on) electronic processing; things that humans can do, but machinery is better, and far more efficient at doing.