Charles Babbage

was a mathematics professor from Cambridge, in England. He designed an automatic mechanical calculating machine which he called a difference engine. He started fabrication in 1823 with the financial help of government. This engine was steam powered, fully automatic, including the printing of the resulting tables, and commanded by a fixed instruction program. Babbage worked on it 10 years. In 1833, he lost interest for this project and he had a better idea : The Analytical Engine.