1 Charles Babbage invented the concept of a programmable computer in about 1825. 2  It partly depends on what you mean by computer, but the earliest claim is that Charles Babbage invented the first programmable computer in 1822. The first patent for a working computer (outside the military) was the UNIVAC, created by Drs. 2  John Mauchly and Presper Eckert in 1948. 3  They formed the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, which was bought in 1950 (just as they were on the verge of bankruptcy) by Remington Rand.