s" detailing 464 breakages, of which "drunken men, women, or boys" were responsible for 14. Babbage thought the table would be "of value in many respects", and might "induce others to furnish more extensive collections of similar and related facts". In Babbages early years he was a popular and well-liked socialite. In fact, he was known for extravagant dinner parties where many famous and prominent people would be in attendance. Over the years, however, for reasons not clearly understood, Babbage turned inward and socialized less and less, and took on a reserved and bitter disposition. Some credit this to three nearly-simultaneous tragedies in his personal life, including the death of his daughter Shelley, who drowned near La Spezia in July of 1822 , his wife Georgianas death five years later in August 1827, and his inability to receive a royal grant for his research on the analytical engine, whose completion was Babbages ultimate goal in life. Babbage had many dreams. One was a dream about a machine that would perform calculations. He called it the Differential Engine. This is a dream he would never see accomplished but would burn in him with such passion that it would keep him devoted to achieving it for the rest of his life. He had many detailed drawings and even achieved the feat of a small prototype. His perfectionism always left him thinking of a better way to build the device, though, and this left him unable to complete a project before starting work on another idea. Said Joel Shurkin of Babbage: "One of Babbage's most serious flaws was his inability to stop tinkering.No sooner would he send a drawing to the machine shop than he would find a better way to perform the task and would order work stopped until he had finished pursuing the new line. By and large this flaw kept Babbage from ever finishing anything."Work began on the Difference Engine in 1829. He had hired an engineer and machinist by the name of Joseph Clement to ...
