The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer |
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Author:
| Padua, Sydney |
ISBN: | 978-0-14-198151-2 |
Publication Date: | Jul 2015 |
Publisher: | Penguin Books, Limited
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Imprint: | Particular Books |
Book Format: | Hardback |
List Price: | AUD $37.99 |
Book Description:
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Meet two of Victorian London's greatest geniuses . . . Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron- mathematician, gambler and proto-programmer, whose writings contained the first ever appearance of general computing theory, a hundred years before an actual computer was built. And Charles Babbage, eccentric inventor of the Difference Engine, an enormous clockwork calculating machine that would have been the first computer, if he had ever finished it. But what if things had been different?...
More DescriptionMeet two of Victorian London's greatest geniuses . . . Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron- mathematician, gambler and proto-programmer, whose writings contained the first ever appearance of general computing theory, a hundred years before an actual computer was built. And Charles Babbage, eccentric inventor of the Difference Engine, an enormous clockwork calculating machine that would have been the first computer, if he had ever finished it. But what if things had been different? The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbagepresents a delightful alternate reality in which Lovelace and Babbage dobuild the Difference Engine and use it to create runaway economic models, battle the scourge of spelling errors, explore the wider realms of mathematics and, of course, fight crime - for the sake of both London and science. Extremely funny and utterly unusual, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbagecomes complete with historical curiosities, extensive footnotes and never-before-seen diagrams of Babbage's mechanical, steam-powered computer. And ray guns.