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The real beginnings of computers as we know them today, lay with an English mathematics professor, Charles Babbage (1791-1871). Frustrated at the many errors he found while examining
calculations for the Royal Astronomical Society, Babbage declared, "I wish to God these calculations had been performed by steam!" With those words, the
automation of computers had begun. By 1812, Babbage noticed a natural harmony between machines and mathematics: machines were best at performing tasks
repeatedly without mistake; while mathematics, particularly the production of mathematic tables, often required the simple repetition of steps. The problem
centered on applying the ability of machines to the needs of mathematics. Babbage's first attempt at solving this problem was in 1822 when he proposed a
machine to perform differential equations, called a "Difference Engine". Powered by steam and large as a locomotive,
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the machine would have a stored program and could perform calculations and print the results automatically. After working on the Difference Engine for 10 years, Babbage was suddenly inspired to begin work on the first general-purpose computer, which he called the Analytical Engine. Babbage's assistant, Augusta Ada King,
Countess of Lovelace (1815-1842) and daughter of English poet Lord Byron, was instrumental in the machine's design. One of the few people who understood the Engine's design as
well as Babbage, she helped revise plans, secure funding from the British government, and communicate the specifics of the Analytical Engine to the
public. Also, Lady Lovelace's fine understanding of the machine allowed her to create the instruction routines to be fed into the computer, making her the
first female computer programmer. In the 1980's, the U.S. Defense Department named a programming language ADA in her honor.
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