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Charles Babbage & Hermann von Helmholtz: A
Narrative on the men behind the eye.
Charles Babbage, born December 26, 1791 and then died on
October 18, 1871. He was an English mathematician, an analytical philosopher, and a computer scientist. During his time,
computers referred to people who calculated complicated numerical tables. Charles noticed, once day while at the Analytical
Society, that there existed numerous errors in the logarithmic
tables. He proposed an idea to develop a difference engine, an
automated calculator. In 1822, he developed the difference engine. In 1824, he was awarded the Gold Medal of Royal Astronomical Society for inventing the difference engine.
So what did he do for Clinical Engineering ? Charles developed the first ophthalmoscope/. He did this in 1847 but when
showing it to the eminent ophthalmologist Thomas Wharton
Jones he was unable to obtain an image with it and, discouraged, did not proceed further. Little did he know that his instrument would have worked if a minus lens of about 4 or 5 dioptres
had been inserted between the observer's eye and the back of
the Plano mirror from which two or three holes had been
scrapped.
Herman von Helmoltz was born on August 31, 1821 and then
died September 08, 1894. He was a German physicist and physician. He contributed many mathematical models on the eye. In the
years of 1838 – 1842, he studied
and worked as an Army surgeon in
Potsdam. By 1847, his work on the
Treatise of Conservation of Energy
that earned him a lot of distinction
and popu