Steven Payne plays Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage
Born: 26 December 1791, London, England
Died: 18 October 1871 (aged 79) Marylebone, London, England
Charles Babbage, the star of our film, is often known as, "The Father of Computing". He was a man at the forefront of the industrial revolution, a mathematician, scientist and philosopher. His lifelong obsession was to invent a calculating machine that would move man and the modern world onto the next level of existence. The Difference Engine, his first invention was intended to be a machine designed to remove human error from industrial calculations. The more complex Analytical Engine was intended to be a multi purpose machine that resembles what we would now view as a programable computer. Despite Babbage's industrious devotion to his work neither machine ever got built. The story is one of invention, passion, rivalry, failure and tragic loss.
Babbage was an eccentric willing to place himself in any situation in the name of science, no matter the danger. This included baking himself in an oven at 265 F, lowering himself into the mouth of volcanos and attempting to walk on water. His fascination with the world allowed him to see beauty in all things natural and mechanical. As a spiritual modernist he did not see a conflict between science and religion, man's mastery over nature deepening his religious beliefs rather than contradicting them. A restless innovator constantly searching for answers and invention, his story should be one of joyous discovery but sadly Charles Babbage has never really benefitted from man's pleasure in celebrating genius. He has never gained the status associated with his friends and peers such as Dickens, Brunel and Darwin.
Babbage's failure has been put down to many things; The engineering possibilities of the time has been discredited as reason for failure, the betrayal of his engineer Clement played a significant role in Babbage's inabilty to complete The Difference Engine. His long running conflict with Prime Minister Robert Peel was a disaster in terms of state backing for any of Babbage's work. Babbage was certainly no diplomat and lacked skills of negotiation, often his own worst enemy and perceived by many as stubborn and arrogant. Eventually Babbage's behaviour gained him the reputation as a troublemaker, his work that had been intensely funded by the government was viewed as a burden. Babbge's reaction to his treatment was one of bitterness and resentment and served to compound his difficult behavior.
The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the ultimate display of science of industry, a celebration of Britain as pioneers of the modern world. By this time Babbage had severely fallen out of favour with the establishment and was not invited to take part. The mastermind of the event, Prince Albert, made an inspiring speech, ironically it's sentiment is an apt description of where Babbage's concepts would eventually lead the world,
"Nobody, however, who has paid any attention to the features of our present era, will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period of most wonderful transition which tends rapidly to the accomplishment of that great end to which indeed, all history points -- the realization of the unity of mankind. .... The distances which separated the different nations and parts of the globe are gradually vanishing before the achievements of modern invention, and we can traverse them with incredible ease; the languages of all nations are known and their acquirements placed within the reach of everybody; thought is communicated with the rapidity and even by the power of lightning."
Frustration and conflict in the face of the establishment is not the only dramatic vein to the life of Charles Babbage. His life was also filled with tragic personal loss and vicious family feuds. Despite being rather sickly as a child Babbage managed to live to the grand old age of 79, within this time he lost many of those he loved. In 1827 he lost his beloved wife Georgiana, two of his children and his father. Shortly after this funding for his work was ceased. In 1852 his close friend and collaborator Ada Lovelace died tragically at age 36, Babbage had also lost his mother a few years earlier. Although these statistics are not necessarily that dramatic in light of mortality rates of the time it appears they had a profound effect on the character of Charles Babbage. His sensitive generous nature tarnished by the bitterness of losing the only people who truly understood his humility.
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Babbage never did get to build the first computer but in a prophetic passage towards the end of his life his conviction as to the significance of his work was never in doubt,
"If unwarned by my example, any man shall undertake and shall succeed in really constructing an engine ... upon different principles or by simpler mechanical means, I have no fear of leaving my reputation in his charge, for he alone will be fully able to appreciate the nature of my efforts and the value of their results."