Timeline History of Computers and the Internet, A

1837 Software (Babbage’s Analytical Engine) Charles Babbage was an eminent scientist; he was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1828 (the same chair held by Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking). In 1837 he publicly described an analytical engine, a mechanical device that would take instructions from a program instead of being designed to do only one task. Babbage had apparently been thinking about the problem for some time before this; as with many innovations, pinning down a single date is difficult. This appears to be the first time the concept of software (computing instructions for a mechanical device) is seriously contemplated. Babbage even notes that the instructions can be reused (a key concept in how today’s software works).