analytical engine
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proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, designed by Charles Babbage
~16 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Portion of the calculating machine with a printing mechanism of the analytical engine, built by Charles Babbage, as displayed at the Science Museum (London)
The analytical engine was a proposed digital mechanical general-purpose computer designed by the English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, which was a design for a simpler mechanical calculator.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “analytical engine” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.