Charles Babbage—The Universal Machine

Thus, Babbage had conceived of a machine like no other: rather than being designed to mechanize a very specific kind of task, the task the Analytical Engine would perform would be determined by the user of the machine. In this sense, Babbage had realized the dream of the universal machine, a machine that could perform a potentially infinite range of human tasks.

Unfortunately, few of Babbage's contemporaries appreciated the genius of Babbage's invention, and it was never built. (Although if it had been built, it would have been the size of a football field and would have required a steam locomotive to power it.)

Babbage only completed a small, scaled-down model of his Analytical Engine:

Babbage fell from the status of national celebrity to that of a national joke in a matter of a few years, and he died a bitter, unheralded man.