Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace： Early Computing ｜ Heroes of Progress ｜ Ep. 49

Humans have made calculating machines for millennia, from the ancient abacus to the mysterious Antikythera mechanism. However, the history of modern computing began in the 19th century with the work of two English mathematicians. Charles Babbage was born in 1791 in London. Despite his mathematical genius, Babbage had trouble starting an academic career. Instead, he set out to standardize astronomical calculations. Back then, calculation tables were central to science. However, thanks to human error, mistakes were common. To solve this problem, Babbage conceptualized a machine capable of calculating values automatically, dubbed the Difference Engine. After a decade of work, Babbage scrapped the idea in favor of a new project, the Analytical Engine, that was the forerunner to modern computers. Whereas the Difference Engine could only do additions, the Analytical Engine was designed to perform any arithmetic operation using instructions from punched cards. Babbage thought the machine would be useful only for calculations, but another mathematician soon realized its full potential. Ada Lovelace was born in London in 1815. She was raised on science, logic, and mathematics, and became fascinated with machines. In 1842, Lovelace translated one of Babbage's seminars on the Analytical Engine. In the process, she added notes that were three times longer than the lecture. In those notes, Lovelace showed that computers could do far more than number crunching. She pointed out that the digits could represent other entities, like letters and musical notes, and she prefigured the concept of software. Lovelace also included a computer algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers, which are a sequence of rational numbers which occur frequently in analysis, making her the world's first programmer. Due to insufficient funding, the Analytical Engine was never finished during Babbage's or Lovelace's lifetime. However, their notes and designs laid the groundwork for modern computers, which underpin much of our modern progress. For these reasons, Babbage and Lovelace are our 49th Heroes of Progress.