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, Summer: Royal Astronomical Society asks Babbage and Herschel to check astronomical tables; tedious work, Babbage says: "How I wish these calculations could be executed by steam!" (Essinger 2004, 66); sets him off thinking about Difference Engine
1821-1833: working on automatic cogwheel-based machine to calculate and print mathematical tables, the Difference Engine
1822, Spring: had assembled small cogwheel mechanism, demonstrates it to Royal Astronomical Society on June 2, 1822 and open letter to Sir Humphrey Davy, president of Royal Society, July 3, 1822, second paper to Royal Astronomical Society on 13 December
1823, July 21: gov't grant of 1500 pounds
1827, February 27: father Benjamin dies, he inherits his wealth
1827, August/September: wife Georgiana dies
1832: finishes 1/7th of Difference Engine
1834, December: conceives of Analytical Engine, not just for mathematical calculations, using punched cards of Jacquard's loom; on December 15, Lady Byron writes about his excitement over discovery in her journal (ESsinger 2004, 81-2)
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)
1840, August: leaves England for Paris then Lyons and Turin
1842, 3 November: letter from exchequer saying government was abandoning support for difference engine
1871: died
Tables of Constants in Nature and Art
Bibliography
Hacking 1990, chapter 7, discusses his interest in constants and developing the "Tables of Constants in Nature and Art"
Great paper on Ada Lovelace's computer program: https://twobithistory.org/2018/08/18/ada-lovelace-note-g.html#:~:text=She%2C%20too%2C%20wrote%20a%20program,the%20world's%20first%20computer%20program
Demo of Difference Engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlbQsKpq3Ak