7 Charles Babbage 7of instruction cards would make it a programmable device
and far more flexible than any machine then in existence.
Another element of programmability was to be its ability
to execute instructions in other than sequential order. It
was to have a kind of decision-making ability in its con-
ditional control transfer, also known as conditional
branching, whereby it would be able to jump to a different
instruction depending on the value of some data. This
extremely powerful feature was missing in many of the
early computers of the 20th century.
By most definitions, the Analytical Engine was a
real computer as understood today—or would have been,
had Babbage not run into implementation problems
again. Actually building his ambitious design was judged
infeasible given the current technology, and Babbage’s
failure to generate the promised mathematical tables
with his Difference Engine had dampened enthusiasm for
further government funding. Indeed, it was apparent to
the British government that Babbage was more interested
in innovation than in constructing tables.
All the same, Babbage’s Analytical Engine was some-
thing new under the sun. Its most revolutionary feature
was the ability to change its operation by changing the
instructions on punched cards. Until this breakthrough,
all the mechanical aids to calculation were merely calcula-
tors or, like the Difference Engine, glorified calculators.
The Analytical Engine, although not actually completed,
was the first machine that deserved to be called a com-
puter. Babbage worked on the machine until his death.
His design was forgotten until his unpublished notebooks
were discovered in 1937.
Babbage made notable contributions in other areas
as well. He assisted in establishing the modern postal
system in England and compiled the first reliable actuarial
tables. He also invented a type of speedometer and the