Inspired by the Jacquard loom and the limitations he encountered with the Difference Engine, Babbage began to conceive of the Analytical Engine. This machine was designed to be a general-purpose programmable computer.

Babbage dedicated years to designing and refining the Analytical Engine, developing detailed plans for its architecture, including a 'store' (memory), a 'mill' (processing unit), and input/output mechanisms based on punched cards.

Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, translated a French article about the Analytical Engine and added extensive notes of her own. These notes included an algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers, which is considered by many to be the first computer program.

Despite his persistent efforts, Babbage was unable to secure funding or overcome the engineering challenges necessary to build a working prototype of the Analytical Engine during his lifetime. The project remained theoretical.

In the 20th century, with the advent of electronic computers, Babbage's Analytical Engine was recognized as a visionary concept that anticipated many of the fundamental principles of modern computing.