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Lindsay Jones, Oxford - BABBAGE
Suprising that Doron Swade dose not mention Thomas Fowler as he dose mention him in "The Cogwhee Brain"Fowler made a functioning calculating machine which was ternary ie it used base three not ten as with the Babbage machine.This was made of wood and did not survive though a re-constuction has been made by Mark Glusker.(See www.moriati.com)Pity Doron Swade is no longer at the Science Museum as I think that Fowlers machine should sit next to the Difference Engine as an example of an idea of genius brought to fruition in a very short time and with little in the way of financial resources but ultimately ignored because is't inventor (he also patented the thermosyphon in 1828)was not part of the establishment of the day.Check out the unsung English invetor at www.thomasfowler.org.uk.
Adam Czerniawski - Lovela
Contrary to the panel's total agreement that the computer was invented by Babbage, the credit goes to Pascal as far back as 1642.
Anne Amison: Ada Lovelace
I was shocked to hear Patricia Fara's comments on Ada's father, Byron.Byron did not abandon his wife and child: Annabella Byron left him under the pretence of returning to her parents' home for a visit. he was informed that neither she nor Ada would be returning in a letter from her father. It gives an insight into Lady Byron's character that Byron was recovering from a mental breakdown at the time. byron is frequently given a bad press because of his reputation.
Roger McNaught - Ada Lovelace, binary vs digital
Two points:1) the use if decimal as opposed to binary is very significant, and I find it puzzling that Lovelace, despite having seen binary (presumably) control of looms, did not recognise its much greater suitablility to controlling processes; 2) in the 1950s electronic digital control was increasingly used for railways and other industries in advance of true 'programmable' control - much like the looms
Eliabeth - Difference machine
this programme was fascinating imho & the links are good too. I can't understand why a film ior a tv programme hasn't been made of this episode in out history. It was iinteresting to learn on the programme that the story of the development of the computer in the USA is a little different. Was it an invention that was ready to be discovered?
J. Gilmore, Ada Lovelace
Interesting programme as always, but I couldn't help feeling that it should have been about Babbage rather than Lovelace.
Paul, W. Yorks
The functioning Difference Engine mentioned in the programme can be seen in the Science Museum, London:www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/I033/10303328.aspx
ED: The ending of the Ada Lovelace programme
Strange that the two last comments on the programme were (a) Lovelace may have gone mad and then (b) Babbage's machine was successfully made! It did rather push her back into a supporting role
Philip Morgan. Ada Lovelace's illnesses
After the programme on the humours MB recommended David Wootton's 'Bad Medicine: Doctors doing harm since Hippocrates': a riveting read. Conservatism delayed advances time and again. Mesmerism might well have been the best painkiller in Lovelace's time.
Stephen Nightingale, The Ada - Turing Connection
When he was at the National Physical Laboratory, Mike Woodger was Alan Turing's assistant. Latterly, Mike worked as an editor on what became the Ada language. I should think he would be a primary resource to recruit for the In Our Time program on Alan Turing, that logically follows on from this Ada Lovelace program. Any hints on when the Turing program will be scheduled?
Honora Smith, Ada Lovelace
Thank you for a well researched discussion about Ada Lovelace. Ada was the sister-in-law of my great-great-grandmother, Charlotte King. Apparently Ada and Charlotte went together to maths lectures in Cambridge with Mary Somerville. As a mathematician and computer programmer myself, it's great to hear more detail about what she actually did.
Mike Alexander, influence of Ada Lovelace
One of the guests suggested that interest in computing machines in the 1920s-30s was focused on number-crunching (eg calculating missile trajectories) and not symbolic manipulation. Whilst this may have been true of actual physical calculating devices, isn't it the case that mathematicians like Alan Turing, Alonzo Church and Kurt Godel were using hypothetical symbolic computers to develop proofs in mathematical logic? And that these theoretical developments fed directly into the subsequent development of the computer?
Jim Roberts - Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace's role and importance in the History of Computing has been grossly exaggerated by the feminist historians, who have sought and thought they had found a heroine worthy of the claim and accolade to be the "First Computer Programmer".The truth is more mundane. Ada was more of an historical curiosity than anything else: the pretty illegitimate daughter of Lord Byron, friend and correspondent of Charles Babbage, educated in higher mathematics, died young.As regards the title "First Programmer" that honour must go to Charles Babbage. The same program that was printed and published is the same as that sent by Charles Babbage to Ada in a letter to be found in the British Library manuscripts department.
Gordon Smith, Babbage Machine
Right at the end of the programme on Ada Lovelace reference was made to a modern, functioning machine built to Babbage's specifications, but I missed where it can be found. Can anyone help?
Charles Norrie
Did Alan Turing ever talk to David Gawen Champernowne about Babbage's work?Charles Babbage, in his early career was engaged in Devon on the development of mining in the county. Here, he was befriended by the Champernowne family, the same family whose descendant David Gawen Champernowne was who was a sometime colleague and close friend of Alan Turing from Cambridge onwards. Is there any material that suggests that Turing and Champernowne ever talked this over, and that Champernowne knew of the connection?BTW, Babbage was born in Walworth London. Near his home was a silk factory operated by Huguenots who had prospered and moved out of the East End to a more salubrious location. It is quite possible that they operated Jacquard looms. Is it possible that Babbage ever saw such devices in operation in his childhood, and retained the memory until he designed the Difference Engine.
Nat Edgar - ADA LOVELACE
In my 1961 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, there is but one line on Ada Lovelace, and that notes only that she was Byron's daughter. Recognition may be late in comming !
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