Charles Babbage was a British inventor and mathematician. He wished to eliminate the drudgery of solving equations by hand. Babbage bent his skills and much of his inherited wealth to devising a machine that would automate calculation. In 1821 he proposed his Difference Engine, and in 1822 he demonstrated a pilot model to the Royal Astronomical Society. The Difference Engine was mechanical, representing numbers by the positions of wheels connected by shafts, cogs, and ratchets.
Babbage later envisioned a much grander machine, capable of performing any series of mathematical instructions given to it. This Analytical Engine would be composed of several smaller devices — one to receive the list of instructions (on punched cards, like a Jacquard Loom), one to perform the instructions coded on the cards, one to store the results of intermediate calculations, and one to print out the information on paper. Unfortunately, the lack of further funds and adequate technology kept Babbage from ever realizing a working Analytical Engine in his lifetime.