Could This Have Been The World's First Computer? [View all]

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One of 250 drawings made by Charles Babbage of his 'analytical engine.' © Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

Timelines of computer history usually take us back to the early 20th century and no further. But believe it or not, a tinkerer named Charles Babbage got close enough to creating the world’s first computer in 1837. Babbage called his machine the “analytical engine” and it would have been the size of a small locomotive, powered by steam. He wrote thousands of pages of notes and 250 drawings, but it never got close to being built — until now.

Today a few of his modern-day contemporaries are raising money to work off Babbage’s original plans and build his “analytical engine,” using tools and processes from the time he was alive. That was a good century before Alan Turing kicked off what we now call the computer age.

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/10/24/could-this-have-been-the-worlds-first-computer/