Various types of mechanical calculators had already been invented when, in 1835, Charles Babbage, a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, described the principle of an analytical engine. This was the world’s first programmable computer, using a system of cogwheels and data entered by means of punched cards. Ada, Countess Lovelace was also a mathematician, and she wrote several computer programs for Babbage’s device. The analytical engine was, sadly, far ahead of its time and was never developed past its first crude form.
The first practical computer was Colossus, a huge mechanical device invented to help break German secret codes during World War II. It was based on the theories of the eccentric mathematician Alan Turing.
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