Jo Marchant, consultant From Swiss Army knives to i Phones, it seems we just love fancy gadgets with as many different functions as possible.
And judging from the ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism, the desire to impress with the latest multipurpose must-have item goes back at least 2000 years.
Babbage then joined the 30-student Holmwood academy, in Baker Street, Enfield, Middlesex, under the Reverend Stephen Freeman.
The academy had a library that prompted Babbage's love of mathematics.
The Naa games were held in Dodona in northwestern Greece, so Alexander Jones of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York has suggested that the mechanism must have been made by or for someone from that area.
Intriguingly, this could mean the device is even older than thought.
In 1991, a functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage's original plans.
Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage's machine would have worked.This course is a traditional computing degree programme with a successful history dating back more than 45 years.It provides you with a common foundation with other technical computing degree courses.His date of birth was given in his obituary in The Times as 26 December 1792; but then a nephew wrote to say that Babbage was born one year earlier, in 1791. Mary's Newington, London, shows that Babbage was baptised on 6 January 1792, supporting a birth year of 1791.In 1808, the Babbage family moved into the old Rowdens house in East Teignmouth.in an incredibly short space of time, it’s become pretty much impossible to imagine the world without the likes of Google, Facebook and Netflix.