Name: The greatest machine that never was
Uploaded: 2012-07-21T13:56:36Z
Duration: 11 min 57 s
Description: Computer science began in the '30s ... the 1830s. John Graham-Cumming tells the story of Charles Babbage's mechanical, steam-powered "analytical engine" and how Ada Lovelace, mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, saw beyond its simple computational abilities to imagine the future of computers.

Computer science began in the '30s ... the 1830s. John Graham-Cumming tells the story of Charles Babbage's mechanical, steam-powered "analytical engine" and how Ada Lovelace, mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, saw beyond its simple computational abilities to imagine the future of computers.

The greatest machine that never was

Long before silicon chips, a Victorian-era machine called the analytical engine promised true computation. Designed by Charles Babbage and envisioned more fully by Ada Lovelace, it used thousands of metal cogs—some as big as a steam locomotive—to perform calculations and even make decisions. Lovelace foresaw that numbers could represent everything from music to graphics, forever changing what a computer could be. Today, efforts are underway to finally build this mechanical marvel, revealing the deep roots of the digital world.