The first concept of a computer was created by Charles Babbage, an English mathematician and mechanical engineer, in the early 19th century. He is considered the "father of the computer" for originating the idea of a programmable mechanical computer. Babbage designed the Difference Engine in 1822 to compute polynomial functions and later conceptualized the more advanced Analytical Engine, which included features of modern computers such as an arithmetic logic unit, control flow, and memory. However, Babbage never completed building these machines due to technical and financial challenges, and the first working Difference Engine was only constructed in 1991 based on his original plans

. The first electronic digital computer was developed much later. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), created by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry by 1942, was the first electronic computer. Following that, the ENIAC, built by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly in 1943, was the first general- purpose electronic computer

. In summary:

• Charles Babbage created the first mechanical computer concept in the 1820s.
• The first electronic computer was developed in the early 1940s by Atanasoff and Berry.
• The first general-purpose electronic computer, ENIAC, was completed in 1943 by Eckert and Mauchly.

Thus, Charles Babbage is credited with inventing the first computer concept, while the first actual electronic computers came about over a century later.