What is the name of the earliest calculating machine which was based on concepts found in modern computers but was unfortunately never built?
Babbage's Difference Engine is the name of the earliest calculating machine which was based on concepts found in modern computers but was unfortunately never built.
The Difference Engine, designed in the 1820s by the English mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage , was intended to automatically compute mathematical tables which, until that time, had been tediously calculated by hand and were prone to error. Babbage saw an opportunity to revolutionize the field.
According to Babbage's design, the Difference Engine was to be steam-powered and as large as a locomotive. The Difference Engine was eventually built in 1991, the bicentennial of Babbage's birth, using the technology of the era as proof that Babbage's designs were valid. A working model resides today in the Science Museum in London.