Babbage and cars. Charles Babbage's computer. Biography, ideas and inventions of Charles Babbage

Zhytomyr State Pedagogical University named after Ivan Franko

“Charles Babbage is a man who was ahead of his time”

group students 52

Faculty of Physics and Mathematics

Kulish O.I.

Plan

1. Development computer science to C. Babbage. 3

2. Youth years Babbage. five

3. Babbage's Difference Engine. nine

4. The fate of the difference engine .. 12

5. Babbage's Analytical Engine. 15

6. Theoretical capabilities of the machine.. 18

7. Babbage's research various fields knowledge. 26

8. Conclusion. 33

9. Literature. 36

The development of computing technology before Ch. Babbage

People encountered the need to count in the Stone Age. There is evidence that in the Paleolithic notches on bone and stone products marked a certain amount.

With the development of society, the account became even more necessary; big numbers, calculations with which everything became more complicated. Naturally, there was a need for devices that would facilitate counting. The simplest of these "devices" has always been with a person - these are 10 fingers of his hands. In addition, they counted with the help of notches on sticks, bones and stones, knots on ropes and other primitive devices. But already in antiquity, counting instruments, which are combined by one common name- abacus. An abacus is understood to mean any counting device on which the locations of individual digits are marked, and the numbers are represented by the number of various small objects (pebbles, bones, etc.).

The Greeks, Slavs and other peoples used the letters of the alphabet to write numbers. However, in alphabetical numbering, arithmetic operations were not carried out; it was used mainly to record dates and calculation results. The calculations themselves were performed on a counting board. Arithmetic was embodied in the abacus, or rather, the counting board with its possibilities represented arithmetic; this continued until the spread of numbers convenient for calculation and the positional number system.

In the X-XII centuries. in Europe, many works devoted to computing on the abacus appeared. But in connection with the spread of the decimal positional number system, the gradual displacement of calculations on the abacus by written calculations began. This process went on in a sharp struggle, as it was then believed, between two sciences: mathematics on the abacus and mathematics without the abacus, on paper.

With the development of mathematics and the growth of the volume of calculations, there is a desire to simplify and facilitate computational work. For this purpose, not only computing devices are created, but also tables.

IN early XVII in. Scottish mathematician D. Napier (1550-1617), using one of the methods of multiplication common at that time (multiplication by a lattice), proposed a counting device, which is a specially written multiplication table, which he called counting sticks. The operations of multiplication and division were carried out by laying out sticks according to certain rules and reading the result.

The creator of the first mechanical computer was a professor at the University of Tübingen W. Schickard (1592-1635).

Schickard's machine consisted of three parts: an adder, a multiplier, and a mechanism for recording intermediate results. The summing device (six-digit machine) was a combination of gears. On each axle there was one gear with ten teeth and an auxiliary single-tooth wheel-finger. The finger served to discretely transfer ten to the next digit after accumulating ten units in the previous one.

Addition in the machine was carried out by turning the dial wheels of each category by the desired value, subtraction - by rotating the gears in reverse side. In the windows of the machine (reading windows) the dialed number was visible, as well as all subsequent results. The calculation of the sum and difference consisted only in a set of numbers and reading the result. Division was replaced by successive subtraction of the divisor from the dividend. The multiplier device of the machine consisted of multiplication tables written on paper, which were wound on six parallel rollers. When multiplying, it was necessary to turn the rollers accordingly and read the result according to certain rules.

The third device of the machine consisted of six axles with numbers printed on them and a panel with six windows. By turning the axes in the boxes, one could put a number that needed to be remembered, for example, some intermediate result. Thus, in Schickard's machine, only the summing part was mechanical, and the rest were movable tables.

The adding machine of B. Pascal (1623-1662) gained great fame. Fundamentally, it did not differ from the summing part of Schickard's machine. The first model of the machine, built in 1641, had many shortcomings, and after its completion, Pascal began to build a new machine, which he finished three years later. This, the second model, became the base: all subsequent machines that Pascal built differed very little from it, although some changes were made to each of them. Pascal built about 50 machines. Some of them have survived to this day.

For the first time, a machine suitable for computing, on which four arithmetic operations could be performed, was created by a native of Alsace, Carl Thomas de Colmar. He also established the first mass production of his machines. In 1818, Thomas designed and in 1820 built a calculating machine, which he called an adding machine. In 1821, Thomas presented his car to the Paris Academy.

Thus, by the middle of the XIX century. there was only one arithmometer satisfactory enough for practice - Thomas' arithmometer. All other computers were adapted either only for addition and subtraction, or were significantly inferior to Thomas' adding machine. Only Babbage in the same XIX century. was able to take a completely new approach to the design of computers, develop the basic principles of their functioning, especially in his main creation - the analytical engine, and lay the foundation for solving the main problems of modern computer technology, which made it possible to call him "the father of computers" a hundred years later .

Babbage's youth

Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791 in the southwest of England in the small town of Totnes, in Devonshire. His father, Benjamin Babbage, a banker at Praed, Mackworth and Babbage, subsequently left his son a fairly large fortune. Charles was a weak child and his parents were in no hurry to send him to school. Until the age of 11, he was taught by his mother (née Elizabeth Tip), whom Charles always spoke of with great respect. Already a well-known scientist, he often consulted with her on various issues.

From the age of 11, Babbage studied at private schools, first in Alphington, a small town in Devonshire, and then not far from London in the city of Enfield. At school, Charles became interested in mathematics, studied it a lot and with particular pleasure, as a result of which he received a thorough mathematical training. At this time, he studied in detail Ward's book "A Guide for Young Mathematicians", as well as a number of more fundamental works in mathematics: Wadhouse's Principles of Analytical Computation, Deaton's Fluxions, and even Lagrange's Theory of Functions.

Babbage from childhood showed interest in various mechanical automata, which were widespread in the 18th and early 19th centuries. When he received each new toy, he invariably asked: "What is inside it?" Charles himself very early began to try to build mechanical toys, which, by the way, he was not always good at.

In 1810, nineteen-year-old Babbage entered Trinity College, Cambridge University. In college, to his surprise, C. Babbage discovered that he knew mathematics better than his peers. Sometimes, with his questions, he baffled even teachers.

Charles was a sociable person and had a large circle of acquaintances, among whom were young people with rather diverse interests: lovers of mathematics, chess, horse riding, etc. John Herschel (1792-1871), the son of the famous astronomer W. Herschel, and George Peacock (1791-1858). The friends made an agreement "to make every effort to leave the world wiser than they found it."

In 1812, three friends (Babbage, Herschel and Peacock), together with other young Cambridge mathematicians, founded the "Analytical Society", the organization of which was a turning point for all British mathematics.

The "Analytical Society" began to hold regular meetings, at which its members made scientific reports, discussed the works appearing in the press. The "Analytical Society" developed a rather large publishing activity, in particular, it began to publish its works. Babbage, Herschel and Peacock in 1816 translated from French "Treatise on differential and integral calculus" by professor of the Polytechnic School in Paris S.F. Lacroix (1765 - 1843), supplementing it in 1820 with two volumes of examples. All three friends at this time did a lot of mathematics.

Babbage was a bright student and a good student, but he believed that his friends Herschel and Peacock achieved greater success in mathematics than he did. Not wanting to be the third among the best students at Trinity College upon graduation, in 1813 he moved to St. Peter's College. Indeed, he became the first student there and, after graduating from college, received a bachelor's degree in 1814.

In 1815, at the age of 24, Babbage married 23-year-old Georgia Whitmoor and moved to London.

Charles Babbage

The first computer was invented in 1834: a wooden "disk drive", cardboard punched cards, a "processor" on gears and levers...

Every morning, thousands of office workers filled the cramped streets of early 19th-century London. They hurried to their offices to plunge into the stuffy world of numbers - financial forecasts and tax reports, nautical astronomical tables and calendars. The power of the "Mistress of the Seas" relied, among other things, on an army of unknown calculators, patiently grinding myriads of numbers.

In 1812, Charles Babbage dozed over an open table of logarithms. A friend of the young mathematician woke him up with an exclamation: "What were you dreaming about?", to which Babbage replied:
"... But all these tables could be calculated using a machine!"

In an era when steamboats and locomotives were still considered a promising novelty, Charles Babbage decided to save people from the yoke of routine calculations. He said: "I am aware that my statements can be considered as something super-topical and that they will evoke the memory of the philosophers of Laputa ..." (Laputa is a flying island invented by Jonathan Swift. Wise men lived on Laputa, notable for their isolation from real life and lengthy pseudoscientific reasoning.) And for sure - not only ordinary people, but also many scientists doubted the possibility of creating an automatic computer.

CHARLES WAS BORN IN 1791 to Benjamin Babbage, a banker. Due to poor health, he studied at home until the age of 11. Then he was sent to one of the best private schools in England, where Charles was immediately captivated by a rich library. Among other things, there were excellent books on mathematics...

Babbage treated this science with trepidation throughout later life. Sometimes it came to curiosities.

Every minute a man dies
But every minute a person is born.

This fragment from Alfred Tennyson's poem forced Babbage to send a letter to the poet, where the mathematician meticulously remarked: erroneous calculations will be corrected as follows:

Every moment a man dies
But 1.16 people are born...

Maybe it was a kind of Babbage's humor? His attitude to the subject betrays the following addition: "I could give you a more precise figure -1.167; but this, of course, would break the rhythm of the verse..."

Also recklessly he was fond of invention. For example, having got into the opera for "Don Juan", he was mortally bored and after five minutes left the hall - to see how the stage mechanism works ...

Babbage tried to breathe life into the "heap" of shafts, gears and levers, which he called the "Difference Engine" for more than one year. At first, Her Majesty's Ministry of Finance allocated some funds to the scientist. But the research dragged on and Mr. Minister got bored of waiting. The scientist managed to build only individual components of his machine.

The failure of the Difference Engine did not discourage Babbage in the least. On the contrary, he immediately "swung" on a new, incomparably more complex unit.

In 1834, the designer, for the first time in the world, decided to create a mechanical device capable of not only counting, but also controlling the course own work, depending on the embedded program and the results of intermediate calculations! The progenitor of the computer was named by him "Analytical Engine". Babbage invented all the basic parts that make up a computer today: a drive for storing numbers, an arithmetic unit, a mechanism that controls the sequence of operations, input and output devices. Before him, no one had yet tried to create a truly universal calculator. Even Blaise Pascal's "arithmometer" assembled a few years earlier was, in fact, nothing more than complicated accounts.

The course of calculations in Babbage's machine was determined by punched cards with the program. And the first programmer in the world was Lady Ada Lovelace. Daughter of George Byron - she showed an incomparably greater interest in mathematics than in poetry, and in this she was like Babbage. Ada knew many scientists of her time, often hosted them at her home, acting not only as a hostess, but also as an active participant in scientific disputes.

Babbage "infected" Ada with the idea of creating a programmable computer, and she compiled several programs for his unit. They never had to be applied, but Lady Lovelace developed all the basic principles of programming that are still used today. One of the computer languages \u200b\u200bwas even named after her - "Ada".

CHARLES WAS READY TO GO on the most exotic adventures in order to raise funds for the construction of the "Analytical Engine" "First, together with Lady Lovelace, Babbage came up with a" win-win" system of betting on horse races. However, Ada's mathematical talent did not help: the inventors lost to the nines, and Lady Lovelace had to sell her family pearls.

Cheerful Babbage decided to write a novel in three volumes, expecting to get 500 pounds for it, but quickly lost interest in the idea. But on the other hand, he caught fire with a new project - a machine should bring him money ... for playing tic-tac-toe, with which Babbage planned to travel around the country. An acquaintance of Charles dissuaded him from this undertaking, assuring him that in this way it would not be possible to extract the required amount from the stiff English public. The tic-tac-toe machine was never created. As did the Analytical Engine itself, although Babbage continued to work on it until the end of his life.

Shortly after Babbage's death, Punch magazine wrote:

Serving science, he endured hardships.
His rock was disturbing and severe,
He was chosen by evil fate as a target
More blows than gifts...
(Translated by I. Lipkin.)
At the same time, the British Science Committee commented on his invention: "We believe that such machines, in addition to saving labor, will make feasible what is too close to the limits of human capabilities." Why did this recognition not appear during the lifetime of the inventor?

ONLY AFTER Babbage's death, his son Henry was able to build, according to his father's drawings, the central unit of the "Analytical Engine" - an arithmetic device that in 1888 calculated the products of the number "pi" by the numbers of the natural series from one to 32 with an accuracy of 29 digits! Babbage's machine was operational, but Charles did not see it.

From 1822 he worked on the construction of a difference engine. In 1833, he developed a project for a universal digital computer - a prototype of a modern computer.

Biography

Babbage's inventions

Small Difference Engine

Babbage first thought about creating a mechanism that would allow automatic complex calculations with great accuracy in 1812. These thoughts were prompted by the study of logarithmic tables, the recalculation of which revealed numerous errors in calculations due to the human factor. Even then, he began to comprehend the possibility of carrying out complex mathematical calculations using mechanical devices.

Also very big influence Babbage was influenced by the work of the French scientist Baron de Prony, who proposed the idea of a division of labor in calculating large tables (logarithmic, trigonometric, etc.). He proposed to divide the calculation process into three levels. The first level is a few eminent mathematicians preparing software. The second level is educated technologists who organized the routine process of computational work. And the third level was occupied by the calculators themselves, from which only the ability to add and subtract was required. Prony's ideas led Babbage to the idea of replacing the third level (computers) with a mechanical device.

However, Babbage did not immediately begin to develop the idea of building a computational mechanism. It was not until 1819, when he became interested in astronomy, that he defined his ideas more precisely and formulated the principles for calculating tables by the difference method using a machine, which he later called the difference machine. This machine was supposed to perform complex calculations using only the addition operation. In 1819, Charles Babbage began to create a small difference engine, and in 1822 he completed its construction and made a report to the Royal Astronomical Society on the use of a machine mechanism for calculating astronomical and mathematical tables. He demonstrated the operation of the machine by the example of calculating the terms of a sequence. The operation of the difference engine was based on the finite difference method. The small machine was completely mechanical and consisted of many gears and levers. It used the decimal number system. It operated with 18-bit numbers up to the eighth decimal place and provided the speed of calculating 12 members of the sequence in 1 minute. The small difference engine could calculate the values of polynomials of the 7th degree.

For the creation of the difference engine, Babbage was awarded the first gold medal of the Astronomical Society. However, the small difference engine was experimental because it had a small memory and could not be used for large calculations.

Big Difference Engine

In 1822, Babbage thought about creating a large difference engine that would replace the huge number of people involved in the calculation of various astronomical, navigational and mathematical tables. This would save labor costs, as well as get rid of errors associated with the human factor.

With his proposal to finance the creation of a large difference engine, Charles Babbage turned to the Royal and Astronomical Society. Both of them responded positively to this proposal. In 1823, Babbage received £1,500 and began to develop new car. He planned to construct the car in 3 years. However, Babbage did not take into account the complexity of the design, as well as the technical capabilities of that time. And by 1827, £3,500 had been spent (of which more than £1,000 was his personal money). The progress of work on the creation of a difference engine has slowed down greatly.

In addition, the design process of the machine was greatly influenced by tragic events in Babbage's life in 1827. This year he buried his father, wife and two children. After these events, his health deteriorated, and he could not engage in the design of the machine. To restore his health, he traveled across the continent.

Babbage developed the design of the Analytical Engine alone. He often visited industrial exhibitions, where various novelties of science and technology were presented. It was there that he met Ada Augusta Lovelace (daughter of George Byron), who became his very close friend, assistant and only like-minded person. In 1840, Babbage went to Turin at the invitation of Italian mathematicians, where he lectured about his machine. Luigi Menabrea, lecturer at the Turin Artillery Academy, created and published lecture notes on French. Ada Lovelace later translated these lectures into English language, supplementing them with comments in volume exceeding the original text. In the comments, Ada made a description of the digital computer and programming instructions for it. These were the first programs in the world. That is why Ada Lovelace is rightly called the first programmer. However, the Analytical Engine was never completed. Here is what Babbage wrote in 1851: “All developments related to the Analytical Engine were carried out at my expense. I conducted a number of experiments and reached the point beyond which my capabilities are not enough. In this regard, I am forced to refuse further work. Despite the fact that Babbage described in detail the design of the Analytical Engine and the principles of its operation, it was never built during his lifetime. There were many reasons for this, but the main ones were the complete lack of funding for the project to create an analytical engine and the low level of technology at that time. Babbage did not ask the government for help this time, because he understood that after the failure with the difference engine, he would still be refused.

Only after the death of Charles Babbage did his son, Henry Babbage, continue the work begun by his father. In 1888, Henry managed to build the central node of the analytical engine according to the drawings of his father. And in 1906, Henry, together with the Monroe firm, built a working model of an analytical engine, including an arithmetic unit and a device for printing results. Babbage's machine proved to be operational.
In 1864, Charles Babbage wrote: “It will probably be half a century before people are convinced that the funds that I leave behind cannot be dispensed with.” In his assumption, he was wrong by 30 years. Only 80 years after this statement, the MARK-I machine was built, which was called "Babbage's dream come true." The MARK-I architecture was very similar to the architecture of the Analytical Engine. Howard Aiken actually seriously studied the publications of Babbage and Ada Lovelace before building his machine, and his machine was ideologically marginally ahead of the unfinished Analytical Engine. The performance of MARK-I turned out to be only ten times higher than the calculated speed of the Analytical Engine.

Other achievements of Charles Babbage

Despite the fact that Charles Babbage is considered the inventor of computers, in fact he was a very versatile person. Babbage was engaged in the safety of railway traffic, for which he equipped the laboratory car with all kinds of sensors, the readings of which were recorded by recorders. Invented the speedometer. Participated in the invention of the tachometer. Created a device that drops random objects from the tracks in front of the locomotive.

In the course of work on the creation of computers, he made great progress in metalworking. He designed cross-planing and turret lathes, invented methods for manufacturing gears. Proposed a new method of tool sharpening and injection molding.

He contributed to the reform of the postal system in England. Compiled the first reliable insurance tables. He was engaged in the theory of functional analysis, experimental studies of electromagnetism, encryption issues, optics, geology, religious and philosophical issues. Moreover, he is known as the person who first cracked the Vigenère code.

In 1834 Babbage wrote one of the most important works Economics of Machines and Manufactures (1832), in which he proposed what is now called Operations Research.

In 1864, Babbage wrote his autobiography, "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher" ( Passages from the Life of Philosopher, 1864) - a kind of chronicle of his failures and achievements. In the chapter "Street riots" ( Street Nuisances) he described the struggle he fought alone against street musicians. During his lifetime, this struggle earned him greater fame than scientific achievements.

He was one of the founders of the London Statistical Society. Among his inventions were a speedometer, an ophthalmoscope, a seismograph, a device for pointing an artillery gun.

In addition, Babbage was a very sociable person. Often on Saturdays he used to gather guests at the house. Sometimes up to 200 or 300 people came, among them such famous people of the time as Foucault, Pierre Laplace, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Alexander Humboldt. In addition, he maintained close relations with Jung, Fourier, Poisson, Bessel, Malthus.

Babbage left a huge mark on history of the XIX century. And he made a revolution not only in mathematics and computing, but also in science in general.

Family

In 1814 Charles Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore and in 1815 they moved from Cambridge to London. During their thirteen years of marriage, they had eight children, but five of them died in childhood. Children:

After an hour and a half, most of the players were already jokingly looking at their own game.
The whole game focused on one Rostov. Instead of sixteen hundred rubles, he had a long column of figures written down, which he counted up to the tenth thousand, but which now, as he vaguely assumed, had already risen to fifteen thousand. In fact, the record already exceeded twenty thousand rubles. Dolokhov no longer listened and did not tell stories; he followed every movement of Rostov's hands and glanced briefly at his note behind him from time to time. He decided to continue the game until this record increased to forty-three thousand. This number was chosen by him because forty-three was the sum of his years combined with Sonya's. Rostov, leaning his head on both hands, sat in front of a table covered with writing, drenched in wine, littered with cards. One painful impression did not leave him: those broad-boned, reddish hands with hair visible from under his shirt, these hands, which he loved and hated, held him in their power.
“Six hundred rubles, an ace, a corner, a nine ... it’s impossible to win back! ... And how fun it would be at home ... Jack on a ne ... it can’t be! ... And why is he doing this to me? ... ”Rostov thought and recalled. Sometimes he played a big card; but Dolokhov refused to beat her, and he appointed the jackpot. Nicholas submitted to him, and then he prayed to God, as he prayed on the battlefield on the Amsteten bridge; now he guessed that the card that first fell into his hand from a pile of curved cards under the table would save him; either he calculated how many laces were on his jacket and with the same number of points he tried to bet the card on the entire loss, then he looked around at the other players for help, then he peered into Dolokhov’s now cold face, and tried to penetrate what was going on in it.
“Because he knows what this loss means to me. He can't want me to die, can he? After all, he was my friend. After all, I loved him ... But he is not to blame either; what should he do when he is lucky? It's not my fault, he told himself. I didn't do anything wrong. Have I killed someone, insulted, wished harm? Why such a terrible misfortune? And when did it start? Not so long ago, I approached this table with the idea of winning a hundred rubles, buying my mother this box for the name day and going home. I was so happy, so free, cheerful! And I did not understand then how happy I was! When did this end, and when did this new, terrible state begin? What marked this change? I still sat in this place, at this table, and also chose and put forward cards, and looked at these broad-boned, dexterous hands. When did this happen, and what happened? I am healthy, strong and still the same, and still in the same place. No, it can't be! Surely this will never end."
He was red-faced and covered in sweat, despite the fact that the room was not hot. And his face was terrifying and pitiful, especially due to the impotent desire to appear calm.
The record reached the fateful number of forty-three thousand. Rostov prepared a card, which was supposed to go at an angle from the three thousand rubles that had just been given to him, when Dolokhov, knocking with a deck, put it aside and, taking the chalk, began quickly with his clear, strong handwriting, breaking the chalk, to sum up Rostov's note.
"Dinner, it's dinner time!" Here come the gypsies! - Indeed, with their gypsy accent, some black men and women were already entering from the cold and saying something. Nikolai understood that everything was over; but he said in an indifferent voice:
"What, you won't?" And I have a nice card prepared. “As if he was most interested in the fun of the game itself.
"It's over, I'm gone! he thought. Now a bullet in the forehead - one thing remains, ”and at the same time he said in a cheerful voice:
Well, one more card.
- Good, - answered Dolokhov, having finished the summary, - good! 21 rubles are coming, - he said, pointing to the number 21, which equaled 43 thousand, and taking a deck, he prepared to throw. Rostov obediently turned back the corner and instead of the prepared 6,000, he diligently wrote 21.
“I don't care,” he said, “I just want to know if you kill or give me that ten.
Dolokhov seriously began to throw. Oh, how Rostov hated at that moment these hands, reddish with short fingers and with hair peeking out from under his shirt, having him in his power... Ten was given.
“You have 43 thousand behind you, Count,” Dolokhov said and stood up from the table, stretching. “But you get tired of sitting for so long,” he said.
"Yes, and I'm tired too," said Rostov.
Dolokhov, as if reminding him that it was indecent for him to joke, interrupted him: When will you order me to receive the money, count?
Rostov flushed and called Dolokhov into another room.
“I can’t suddenly pay everything, you will take the bill,” he said.
“Listen, Rostov,” Dolokhov said, smiling clearly and looking into Nikolai’s eyes, “you know the saying: “Happy in love, unhappy in cards.” Your cousin is in love with you. I know.
"ABOUT! it’s terrible to feel so at the mercy of this man,” thought Rostov. Rostov understood what a blow he would inflict on his father and mother by announcing this loss; he understood what happiness it would be to get rid of all this, and understood that Dolokhov knew that he could save him from this shame and grief, and now he still wanted to play with him, like a cat with a mouse.
“Your cousin…” Dolokhov wanted to say; but Nicholas interrupted him.
“My cousin has nothing to do with it, and there’s nothing to talk about her!” he shouted furiously.
So when do you get it? Dolokhov asked.
“Tomorrow,” said Rostov, and left the room.

It was not difficult to say "tomorrow" and maintain a tone of propriety; but to come home alone, to see sisters, brother, mother, father, confess and ask for money to which you have no right after the given word of honor, it was terrible.
Haven't slept at home yet. The youth of the Rostovs' house, having returned from the theatre, had supper, sat at the clavichord. As soon as Nikolai entered the hall, he was seized by that loving, poetic atmosphere that reigned that winter in their house and which now, after Dolokhov's proposal and Yogel's ball, seemed to thicken even more, like the air before a thunderstorm, over Sonya and Natasha. Sonya and Natasha, in the blue dresses they wore at the theatre, pretty and knowing it, were happy and smiling at the clavichord. Vera and Shinshin were playing chess in the living room. The old countess, expecting her son and husband, was playing solitaire with an old noblewoman who lived in their house. Denisov, with shining eyes and disheveled hair, was sitting with his leg thrown back at the clavichord, and clapping his short fingers on them, he took chords, and rolling his eyes, in his small, hoarse, but true voice, sang the poem he had composed "The Sorceress", to which he tried to find music.
Sorceress, tell me what power
Draws me to abandoned strings;
What kind of fire did you plant in your heart,
What delight spilled over the fingers!
He sang in a passionate voice, shining at the frightened and happy Natasha with his agate, black eyes.
- Wonderful! Great! Natasha screamed. “Another verse,” she said, not noticing Nikolai.
“They have everything the same,” thought Nikolai, looking into the living room, where he saw Vera and his mother with an old woman.
- BUT! here's Nikolenka! Natasha ran up to him.
- Is daddy at home? - he asked.
- I'm glad you came! - Without answering, Natasha said, - we have so much fun. Vassily Dmitritch stayed another day for me, you know?
“No, dad hasn’t arrived yet,” said Sonya.
- Coco, you have arrived, come to me, my friend! said the voice of the countess from the living room. Nikolai went up to his mother, kissed her hand, and, silently sitting down at her table, began to look at her hands, laying out the cards. Laughter and cheerful voices were heard from the hall, persuading Natasha.
“Well, all right, all right,” Denisov shouted, “now there is nothing to excuse, barcarolla is behind you, I beg you.
The Countess looked back at her silent son.
- What happened to you? Nikolai's mother asked.
“Ah, nothing,” he said, as if he was already tired of this one and the same question.
- Is daddy coming soon?
- I think.
“They have the same. They don't know anything! Where can I go? ” thought Nikolai and went back to the hall where the clavichords stood.
Sonya sat at the clavichord and played the prelude of that barcarolle that Denisov especially loved. Natasha was going to sing. Denisov looked at her with enthusiastic eyes.
Nikolai began to pace up and down the room.
“And here is the desire to make her sing? What can she sing? And there is nothing funny here, thought Nikolai.
Sonya took the first chord of the prelude.
“My God, I am lost, I am a dishonorable person. Bullet in the forehead, the only thing left, not to sing, he thought. Leave? but where to? anyway, let them sing!”
Nikolai gloomily, continuing to walk around the room, looked at Denisov and the girls, avoiding their eyes.
"Nikolenka, what's wrong with you?" asked Sonya's gaze fixed on him. She immediately saw that something had happened to him.
Nicholas turned away from her. Natasha, with her sensitivity, also instantly noticed the state of her brother. She noticed him, but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches, that she (as often happens with young people) deliberately deceived herself. No, I'm too happy now to spoil my fun with sympathy for someone else's grief, she felt, and said to herself:
"No, I'm sure I'm wrong, he must be as cheerful as I am." Well, Sonya, - she said and went to the very middle of the hall, where, in her opinion, the resonance was best. Raising her head, lowering her lifelessly hanging hands, as dancers do, Natasha, stepping from heel to tiptoe with an energetic movement, walked across the middle of the room and stopped.
"Here I am!" as if she were speaking, answering the enthusiastic look of Denisov, who was watching her.
“And what makes her happy! Nikolay thought, looking at his sister. And how she is not bored and not ashamed! Natasha took the first note, her throat widened, her chest straightened, her eyes took on a serious expression. She was not thinking of anyone or anything at that moment, and sounds poured out of the smile of her folded mouth, those sounds that anyone can make at the same intervals and at the same intervals, but which leave you cold a thousand times, in make you shudder and cry for the thousand and first time.
Natasha this winter began to sing seriously for the first time, and especially because Denisov admired her singing. She sang now not like a child, there was no longer in her singing that comic, childish diligence that had been in her before; but she did not yet sing well, as all the judges who heard her said. “Not processed, but a beautiful voice, it needs to be processed,” everyone said. But they usually said this long after her voice had fallen silent. At the same time, when this unprocessed voice sounded with incorrect aspirations and with efforts of transitions, even the experts of the judge did not say anything, and only enjoyed this unprocessed voice and only wished to hear it again. There was that virginal innocence in her voice, that ignorance of her own strengths and that still uncultivated velvety, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.
“What is this? Nikolai thought, hearing her voice and opening his eyes wide. - What happened to her? How does she sing today? he thought. And suddenly the whole world for him concentrated in anticipation of the next note, the next phrase, and everything in the world became divided into three tempos: “Oh mio crudele affetto ... [Oh my cruel love ...] One, two, three ... one, two ... three ... one… Oh mio crudele affetto… One, two, three… one. Oh, our stupid life! Nicholas thought. All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and malice, and honor - all this is nonsense ... but here it is real ... Hy, Natasha, well, my dear! well, mother! ... how will she take this si? took! Thank God!" - and he, without noticing that he was singing, in order to strengthen this si, took the second into a third high note. "My God! how good! Is this what I took? how happy!” he thought.
ABOUT! how this third trembled, and how something better that was in Rostov's soul was touched. And this something was independent of everything in the world, and above everything in the world. What losses here, and the Dolokhovs, and honestly! ... All nonsense! You can kill, steal and still be happy ...

For a long time Rostov had not experienced such pleasure from music as on that day. But as soon as Natasha finished her barcarolle, he remembered reality again. He left without saying anything and went downstairs to his room. A quarter of an hour later the old count, cheerful and contented, arrived from the club. Nikolai, hearing his arrival, went to him.
- Well, did you have fun? said Ilya Andreich, smiling joyfully and proudly at his son. Nikolai wanted to say yes, but he could not: he almost sobbed. The count lit his pipe and did not notice the state of his son.
"Oh, inevitably!" Nikolai thought for the first and last time. And suddenly, in the most careless tone, such that he seemed disgusting to himself, as if he was asking the carriage to go to the city, he said to his father.
- Dad, I came to you for business. I had and forgot. I need money.
"That's it," said the father, who was in a particularly cheerful spirit. “I told you that it won’t. Is it a lot?
“A lot,” said Nikolai, blushing and with a stupid, careless smile, which for a long time later he could not forgive himself. - I lost a little, that is, even a lot, a lot, 43 thousand.
- What? To whom?... You're kidding! shouted the Count, suddenly blushing apoplectically on his neck and the back of his head, as old people blush.
“I promised to pay tomorrow,” Nikolai said.
“Well!” said the old count, spreading his arms and sank helplessly on the sofa.
- What to do! Who hasn't this happened to? - said the son in a cheeky, bold tone, while in his soul he considered himself a scoundrel, a scoundrel who could not atone for his crime all his life. He would like to kiss his father's hands, on his knees to ask for his forgiveness, and he casually and even rudely said that this happens to everyone.
Count Ilya Andreich lowered his eyes on hearing these words of his son and hurried, looking for something.
“Yes, yes,” he said, “it’s hard, I’m afraid, it’s hard to get ... with anyone! yes, with whom it has not happened ... - And the count glanced at his son's face and went out of the room ... Nikolai was preparing to fight back, but did not expect this at all.
- Daddy! pa ... hemp! he shouted after him, sobbing; forgive me! And, seizing his father's hand, he pressed his lips to it and wept.

While the father was explaining himself to his son, an equally important explanation was taking place between the mother and her daughter. Natasha, excited, ran to her mother.
- Mom! ... Mom! ... he made me ...
- What did you do?
- Made an offer. Mother! Mother! she shouted. The Countess could not believe her ears. Denisov made an offer. To whom? This tiny girl Natasha, who until recently played with dolls and now still took lessons.
- Natasha, full of nonsense! she said, still hoping it was a joke.
- Well, nonsense! “I’m talking to you,” Natasha said angrily. - I came to ask what to do, and you tell me: "nonsense" ...
The countess shrugged.
- If it is true that Monsieur Denisov proposed to you, then tell him that he is a fool, that's all.
“No, he’s not a fool,” Natasha said offendedly and seriously.
- Well, what do you want? You are all in love these days. Well, in love, so marry him! said the Countess, laughing angrily. - With God!
“No, mother, I am not in love with him, I must not be in love with him.
“Well, just tell him that.
- Mom, are you angry? Don't be angry, my dear, what am I to blame for?
“No, what is it, my friend? If you want, I'll go and tell him, - said the countess, smiling.
- No, I myself, just teach. Everything is easy for you,” she added, answering her smile. “And if you saw how he told me this!” After all, I know that he did not want to say this, but he accidentally said it.
- Well, you still have to refuse.
- No, you don't have to. I feel so sorry for him! He is so cute.
Well, take the offer. And then it’s time to get married, ”the mother said angrily and mockingly.
“No, Mom, I feel so sorry for him. I don't know how I will say.
“Yes, you don’t have anything to say, I’ll say it myself,” said the countess, indignant at the fact that they dared to look at this little Natasha as a big one.
“No, no way, I’m on my own, and you listen at the door,” and Natasha ran through the living room into the hall, where Denisov was sitting on the same chair, at the clavichord, covering his face with his hands. He jumped up at the sound of her light footsteps.
- Natalie, - he said, approaching her with quick steps, - decide my fate. She is in your hands!
"Vasily Dmitritch, I'm so sorry for you!... No, but you're so nice... but don't... it's... but I'll always love you like that."
Denisov bent over her hand, and she heard strange sounds, incomprehensible to her. She kissed him on his black, matted, curly head. At that moment, the hasty noise of the countess's dress was heard. She approached them.
“Vasily Dmitritch, I thank you for the honor,” said the countess in an embarrassed voice, but which seemed strict to Denisov, “but my daughter is so young, and I thought that you, as a friend of my son, would first turn to me. In that case, you would not put me in the need for a refusal.
“Mr. Athena,” Denisov said with downcast eyes and a guilty look, he wanted to say something else and stumbled.

English polymath, mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who developed the concept of a universal digital computer in the 19th century, which is considered the prototype of modern computers.

In fact, Charles Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, which eventually led to more complex developments. In addition, he owns many outstanding works in other fields. Some of Babbage's unfinished mechanisms are on display at the London Science Museum. In 1991, according to the drawings of the inventor, a perfectly functioning so-called Charles Babbage Difference Engine was built. Babbage is often mentioned in steampunk novels. In 2008, a short film "Babbage" was made about him, shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

The future inventor was born on December 26, 1791 in London (London). He was one of four children of banker Benjamin Babbage and his wife Betsy Plumleigh Teape. When the boy was eight, he was sent to a boarding school in countryside to regain strength after a life-threatening fever. For some time he studied at the King Edward VI Grammar School, but poor health forced his parents to turn to the services of tutors. Babbage later became a student of the Holmwood academy in Middlesex, which had a wealthy scientific library It was there that his love for mathematics was awakened.

One way or another, teachers and tutors were able to prepare young Charles for exams at the University of Cambridge (University of Cambridge), and in October 1810 he became a student at Trinity College (Trinity College). Alas, the level of mathematics at Cambridge disappointed Babbage, who by that time had independently studied many works of outstanding contemporary mathematicians. In 1812, together with several friends, he founded the Analytical Society at the university, and in 1814 he received his degree without examination. He quickly achieved some success - a year later, the young Babbage lectured on astronomy at the Royal Institution (Royal Institution), in 1816 he became a member of the Royal Society of London (Royal Society), in 1819 he visited Paris (Paris), where he met with leading French mathematicians and physicists. On the other hand, he was not very lucky in terms of his career - despite his undoubted abilities and excellent recommendations, profitable and prestigious teaching positions always went to someone else, and Charles was forced to rely on his father's support. In 1827, after his death, Babbage inherited a large fortune for those times, about 100,000 pounds, which made him independent in his studies.

He married early, in 1814, he and his wife had eight children (although only four of them survived), and after the death of his wife, who died in 1827, he traveled widely. He was in Rome (Rome) when he learned that he had finally received a professorship at Cambridge, which had previously refused him three times.

Babbage's main passion was the creation of computers, but all his life he remained a man of broad interests. Babbage played important role in founding the Astronomical Society in 1820, developed the requirements for a modern postal system, taught at the University of Cambridge from 1828 to 1939 and published three important scientific works during this period, and in 1832 was elected an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (American Academy of Arts and Sciences). He had a great interest in political economy, tried to engage in politics (without special success) and was fond of theology, cryptography, metalworking in particular and technology in general, and also participated in public campaigns. Colleagues did not like him, because Babbage was always more interested in his own research than teaching, but they always gave him his due as a scientist and inventor. Among others famous inventions Babbage - so necessary in modern life items like seismograph, speedometer and ophthalmoscope.

At one time he was considered a genius, then they almost put him in a debt hole.
Indeed, the sums spent were fantastic for the beginning of the 19th century.
And the promised machine never worked. And he was already dreaming about the next one.
Along the way, he invented the tachometer. He went up with an expedition to Vesuvius,
plunged to the bottom of the lake in a diving bell, participated in archaeological
excavations, studied the occurrence of ores, descending into the mines.

For almost a year he was engaged in railway traffic safety and made
a lot of special equipment. Including created a speedometer.
In addition, he developed a lot of equipment for metal processing.

Charles Babbage was born December 26, 1791 in London. His father, Benjamin Babbage, was a banker. Mother's name was Elizabeth Babbage. Her maiden name Type (Teape). As a child, Charles had very poor health. At the age of 8, he was sent to a private school in Alphington to be raised by a priest. At that time, his father was already wealthy enough to allow Charles to study in private school. Benjamin Babbage asked the priest not to give Charles strong training loads due to poor health.
After school at Alphington, Charles was sent to the academy at Enfield, where, in essence, his real training began. It was there that Babbage began to show interest in mathematics, which was facilitated by a big library in Academy.

After studying at the academy, Babbage studied with two tutors. The first was a priest who lived near Cambridge. According to Charles, the priest would not have given him the knowledge that he could get by studying with a more experienced tutor. After the priest, Babbage had a tutor from Oxford. He was able to give Babbage the basic classical knowledge needed to get into college.

In 1810 Babbage entered Trinity College, Cambridge. However, he learned the basics of mathematics on his own from books. He carefully studied the works of Newton, Leibniz, Lagrange, Lacroix, Euler and other mathematicians of the academies of St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. Babbage quickly overtook his teachers in terms of knowledge and was very disappointed with the level of mathematics teaching at Cambridge. Moreover, he noticed that Britain as a whole lagged noticeably behind continental countries by the level of mathematical preparation.

In this regard, he decided to create a society whose goal was to bring modern European mathematics to the University of Cambridge. In 1812, Charles Babbage, his friends John Herschel and George Peacock, and several other young mathematicians founded the Analytical Society. They started holding meetings. Discuss various questions related to mathematics. We started publishing our work. For example, in 1816 they published a Treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus translated into English by the French mathematician Lacroix, and in 1820 they published two volumes of examples supplementing this treatise. The Analytical Society, with its activity, initiated the reform of mathematical education, first at Cambridge, and then at other universities in Britain.

In 1812 Babbage moved to St. Peter's College (Peterhouse). And in 1814 he received a bachelor's degree. In the same year, Charles Babbage married Georgia Whitmore (Georgiana Whitmore), and in 1815 they moved from Cambridge to London. During their thirteen years of marriage, they had eight children, but five of them died in childhood. In 1816 he became a member Royal Society London. By that time he had written several large scientific articles in various mathematical disciplines. In 1820 he became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1827 he buried his father, wife and two children. In 1827 he became professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a post he held for 12 years. After he left this post, he devoted most of his time to his life's work - the development of computers.

Part of difference oh car of Charles Babbage, assembled after the death of a scientist by his son, from parts found in his father's laboratory.

Small Difference Engine

However, Babbage did not immediately begin to develop the idea of building a computational mechanism. It was not until 1819, when he became interested in astronomy, that he defined his ideas more precisely and formulated the principles for calculating tables by the difference method using a machine, which he later called the difference machine. This machine was supposed to perform complex calculations using only the addition operation. In 1819, Charles Babbage began to create a small difference engine, and in 1822 he completed its construction and made a report to the Royal Astronomical Society on the use of a machine mechanism for calculating astronomical and mathematical tables. He demonstrated the operation of the machine by the example of calculating the terms of a sequence. The operation of the difference engine was based on the finite difference method. The small machine was completely mechanical and consisted of many gears and levers. It used the decimal number system. It operated with 18 bit numbers up to the eighth decimal place and ensured the speed of calculating 12 members of the sequence in 1 minute. The small difference engine could calculate the values of polynomials of the 7th degree.

A working copy of the Difference Engine at the Science Museum in London

IN In 1823, the British government gave him a grant of £1,500 (the total amount of government grants Babbage received for the project was £17,000 in the end).

When developing the machine, Babbage did not imagine all the difficulties associated with its implementation, and not only did not meet the promised three years, but nine years later he was forced to suspend his work. However, part of the machine still began to function and made calculations with even greater accuracy than expected.

The design of the difference engine was based on the use of the decimal number system. The mechanism was driven by special handles. When funding for the Difference Engine dried up, Babbage turned to designing a much more general analytical engine, but then still returned to the original development. The improved project he worked on between 1847 and 1849 was called "Difference Engine #2"(English) Difference Engine No. 2).

Based on the work and advice of Babbage, the Swedish publisher, inventor and translator Georg Schutz (Swed. Georg Scheutz) from 1854 managed to build several difference engines and even managed to sell one of them to the office of the British government in 1859. In 1855 Schutz difference engine received gold medal World Exhibition in Paris. Some time later, another inventor, Martin Wiberg (Swede. Martin Wiberg), improved the design of the Schutz machine and used it to calculate and publish printed logarithmic tables.

Schutz difference calculator

Babbage's Analytical Engine:

Though difference engine was not built by its inventor, the main thing for the future development of computer technology was something else: in the course of work, Babbage had the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a universal computer, which he called analytical and which became the prototype of the modern digital computer. In a single logical circuit, Babbage linked an arithmetic device (called by him a “mill”), memory registers combined into a single whole (“warehouse”), and an input / output device implemented using three types of punched cards. Operation punch cards switched the machine between addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication modes. Variable punch cards controlled the transfer of data from memory to the arithmetic unit and back. Numerical punched cards could be used both to enter data into the machine and to store the results of calculations if there was not enough memory.

In general, Babbage was summed up by the insufficient precision of metalworking of that time and, of course, the lack of funding.

Later, for almost a century, nothing similar to the Analytical Engine appeared, but the idea of using punched cards for data processing was tested quite soon. Twenty years after Babbage's death, the American inventor Herman Hollerith created an electromechanical tabulating machine, in which punched cards were used to process the results of the US census in 1890.

A printer! for Babbage's machine:

Babbage devoted the last years of his life to philosophy and political economy.
Charles Babbage died at the age of 79 on October 18, 1871.

Babbage's Difference Machine:

PS.

Much of what is known about this machine has come down to us through the scientific labors of the gifted amateur mathematician Augusta Ada Byron (Countess of Lovelace), daughter of the poet Lord Byron. In 1843, she translated an article on the Analytical Engine written by an Italian mathematician, providing her own detailed commentary on the potentialities of the machine.

Ada Lovelace, one of the few contemporaries of Charles Babbage who appreciated the Analytical Engine, is sometimes called the world's first computer programmer. She theoretically developed some techniques for controlling the sequence of calculations that are used in programming to this day. For example, she described commands that ensure that a certain sequence of steps is repeated until the given condition. Now such a construction is called a cycle.

A programming language named after Ada Lovelace...

IN Between 1989 and 1991, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Babbage, a working copy was assembled from his original work at the Science Museum in London Difference Engine No. 2. In 2000, a printer, also invented by Babbage for his machine, started working in the same museum. After eliminating small structural inaccuracies found in old drawings, both designs worked flawlessly. These experiments ended a long debate about the fundamental operability of Charles Babbage's designs (some researchers believe that Babbage deliberately introduced inaccuracies in his drawings, thus trying to protect his creations from unauthorized copying).

Sources:

1. Biography of Charles Babbage
2. Charles Babbage - inventor and ... political economist
3. We were run over by Babbage's wheels
4. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/stories/babbage.aspx