A campaign based in the UK is hoping to construct Charles Babbage’s steam-powered Analytical Engine, a prototype computer around the size of a steam locomotive, which Babbage designed in 1837.

While elements of the engine have been constructed in the past a complete working model has never been built.

The idea was the brainchild of author, science blogger and programmer John Graham-Cumming, who wrote the Geek Atlas.

He said the Engine was inspirational, since it was designed long before we had computers as we know them today, but he said that Babbage’s papers show the Engine was the first real general purpose computer, having an expandable memory, a central processing unit (which Babbage called the “mill”), microcode, and a printer and plotter.The computer was to be programmed via punch cards to carry out a variety of tasks.