Charles Babbage designed the Analytical Engine, an early general-purpose mechanical computer concept.
Babbage proposed the Analytical Engine in the 1830s as a machine that could perform different calculations under the control of punched cards. Its design included a “mill” for arithmetic, a “store” for memory, a control mechanism, and input and output arrangements. These ideas resemble the basic structure of later computers.
The full machine was never completed during Babbage’s lifetime because of engineering difficulties, funding problems, and disputes with the British government. Ada Lovelace wrote influential notes describing how the engine could process more than numbers, including a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers.
Babbage’s Analytical Engine was different from his earlier Difference Engine, which was intended mainly to calculate and print mathematical tables. It was also unrelated to the Pascaline, an earlier calculator designed by Blaise Pascal.