Though an amplified voice indicates the machine's importance in the history of science ... glimpsed today's computer age and strove to reach it. The Difference Engine is a calculator.

Charles Babbage conceives of a "Difference Engine" in 1820 or ... Babbage's next idea is the Analytical Engine - a mechanical computer that can solve any mathematical problem.

Babbage then turned his attention to the Analytical Engine and completely abandoned the Difference Engine by 1842. Although never completed, it did improve the precision of Britain's machine-tool ...