Charles Babbage (1791-1871) is an interesting case of a man born a century too early. He was an English mathematician who, in 1822, proposed the concept of a digital computer with an internally stored and alterable program.

He then spent the rest of his life and considerable sums of his own and government money in an unsuccessful effort to build one with the nonelectronic technology of his era. His great "calculating engine" was a failure, but his principles were used by John von Neumann and others in the 1940's when they invented the electronic digital computer.

Babbage's calculating engine, like Leonardo da Vinci's helicopter, was sound in principle but technologically premature.