A difference engine is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. It was designed in the 1820s, and was created by Charles Babbage.

Difference Engine, an early calculating machine, verging on being the first computer, designed and partially built during the 1820s and ’30s by Charles Babbage.

In 1822 he received funding for the device, called the 'Difference Engine', and hired a toolmaker, Joseph Clement, to build it. The Difference Engine called for nearly 25,000 parts in total, one of the …

Difference engines are so called because of the mathematical principle on which they are based, namely, the method of finite differences. In general, calculating the value of a polynomial can require …

Jul 18, 2023 · Find out about Charlies Babbage and his calculating machines, the Difference Engines and Analytical Engine, which are among the most celebrated icons in the prehistory of computing.

Prior to the invention of the more famous and never realized Analytical Engine, Charles Babbage conceived of an engine based upon the principles of constant difference.

In the early 1800s, the English mathematician Charles Babbage proposed a machine called a difference engine that would compute and print automatically a large class of tables.

Mar 31, 2024 · At its core, a difference engine is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. The term "difference engine" derives from the method of finite …

Charles Babbage designed Difference Engine No. 2 between 1846 and 1848. Contemporary drawings illustrate a machine—never built during his lifetime—that calculates and tabulates polynomials, …

May 23, 2025 · One such innovation was the difference engine, an automatic mechanical calculator designed in the 1820s by English polymath Charles Babbage. He designed this programmable …