Charles Babbage
Timeline
1791, December 26: born
1814: graduates with BA from Cambridge
1814, July 2: marries Georgiana
1815: series of lectures on astronomy to the Royal institution
1816: elected member of the Royal Society
1819: travels with his friend John Herschel to France, meeting intellectuals; probably sees Le Tables du Cadastre of the French Ordnance Survey undertaken by Baron Gaspard de Prony; de Prony organizes 3 commitees to make and check calculations, result is logarithmic tables in 17 folio ms volumes, wanted to print them but proved to be difficult/costly (Essinger 2004, 60)
1821-1833: working on automatic cogwheel-based machine to calculate and print mathematical tables, the Difference Engine
1827: father Benjamin dies, he inherits his wealth
1839, December: writes letter to François Jean Dominique Arago requesting copy of Jacquard portrait woven by Jacquard loom and any memoirs about him (Essinger 2004, 46-7)
1871: died