Babbage: the General Plan of the Analytical Engine

What changed

A concrete architecture for general programmable calculation was expressed, though not realized as a complete working engine.

Scientific scope

The 1840 plan and associated archive; the full engine was not built in Babbage's lifetime and modern digital implementation is excluded.

Evidence

The linked sources identify this contribution and its scope. WRS has not independently reconstructed the scientific claims. The entry is anchored to the surviving 1840 General Plan and associated design archive. The complete Analytical Engine was not constructed in Babbage’s lifetime, so this is a design achievement rather than a working electronic computer.

Contributors

• Charles Babbage · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.

• Computer History Museum: The General Plan of the Analytical Engine
• Computer History Museum: The Engines

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

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