1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:16,000 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:19,759 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 4 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:24,600 Speaker 1: are you? I've been better. I'm in severe pain. I 5 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: think I may have a kidney stone, but I had 6 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:32,880 Speaker 1: not yet recorded today's episode, and I definitely wanted to 7 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: get something out to y'all, and so before I head 8 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: off to an urgent care center to get checked out. 9 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:42,879 Speaker 1: The sad thing with kidney stones is, unless it's a 10 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:44,880 Speaker 1: really big one, there's not much they're going to be 11 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:47,720 Speaker 1: able to do except maybe pack me full of saline 12 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:52,239 Speaker 1: and await the dreadful end. But you know, before I 13 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:55,400 Speaker 1: head off, I thought i'd bring you a nice little 14 00:00:56,440 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 1: classic episode, not even a classic episode, an episode from 15 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: just two years ago called Excess Babbage. This episode originally 16 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: published Monday, January eighteenth, twenty twenty one. It is about 17 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: Charles Babbage, a man ahead of his time, and yeah, 18 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:19,399 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy it, and hopefully by tomorrow I'll 19 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,039 Speaker 1: be right as rain and I'll be ready to do 20 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:26,080 Speaker 1: news episodes. For the time being, I'm gonna sign off 21 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,960 Speaker 1: and take some painkillers and then head over to urgent care. 22 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 1: Many years ago, when tech Stuff was in a very 23 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:40,759 Speaker 1: different format, our show talked a bit about Charles Babbage 24 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: and his various engines, that is, devices intended to perform 25 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:50,360 Speaker 1: different mathematical processes. We also did an episode about Ada Lovelace, 26 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:54,680 Speaker 1: the Enchantress of Numbers. But the show was so different 27 00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: back then that I thought it might be good to 28 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,800 Speaker 1: do some thorough examinations of who these people were and 29 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:05,200 Speaker 1: the contributions they made to technology in general and arguably 30 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:09,480 Speaker 1: computing in particular. And they are all the more remarkable 31 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,600 Speaker 1: in that those contributions all took place in the early 32 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:17,240 Speaker 1: to mid nineteenth century, nearly one hundred years before we 33 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: would get the first programmable, electronic and general purpose computer. 34 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,440 Speaker 1: But we've got a lot of ground to cover before 35 00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: we get there, so let us begin with the life 36 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:34,200 Speaker 1: and accomplishments of one Charles Babbage. Charles Babbage was born 37 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: on December twenty sixth, seventeen ninety one, although his obituary 38 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:42,919 Speaker 1: said it was seventeen ninety two. Spoiler alert, I guess 39 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: Babbage is not alive anymore. He was remarkable, but he 40 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: was not an immortal. Anyway, there's a record of his 41 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: baptism that actually dates back to January seventeen ninety two, 42 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: so unless he was baptized nearly a full year before 43 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:03,280 Speaker 1: or he was born, I think it is probably safe 44 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,080 Speaker 1: to say that the seventeen ninety one date is the 45 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: correct one. His grandfather was Benjamin Babbage Senior, who was 46 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: a man of some standing in Tautness, a market town 47 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,840 Speaker 1: in Devonshire itself, a region in the southwest of England. 48 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:23,239 Speaker 1: It's a port town. It's about the same distance from 49 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 1: Exeter as it is from Plymouth, and Plymouth might be 50 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: the first location that my fellow Americans recognize. Benny Senior 51 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: served as mayor of Tautness for a year, indicating that 52 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: he must have been at least a little bit important 53 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: in that town. His son, Benji Junior, would become a 54 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: goldsmith and a tradesman, and later on a banker. Junior 55 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:48,720 Speaker 1: was a bit of a career man, which is putting 56 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: it lightly. He was someone who apparently did not have 57 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: time for the other aspects of life, as he was 58 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 1: in his late thirties when he married Elizabeth Betsy plummet Teep, 59 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:03,720 Speaker 1: who came from a likewise prominent family in Devonshire. They 60 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: were married in seventeen ninety. Benjamin Babbage Junior and Betsy 61 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: moved from Devonshire to London, where Benny secured a position 62 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:18,599 Speaker 1: at the Bitton Estate banking firm. The following year, Charles 63 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 1: Babbage was born. His father continued to rise in the 64 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:25,440 Speaker 1: ranks of the banking industry, becoming junior partner of the 65 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:30,360 Speaker 1: banking house of prad Digby Box Babbage and Company, though 66 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:33,040 Speaker 1: most people referred to it as Prad and Company for 67 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 1: the sake of Brevity, which as we know, is the 68 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: soul of wit. The bank was on Fleet Street, where 69 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 1: there was also a barber of some renown, but that's 70 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:48,280 Speaker 1: a tale for a different time. Swing ear raiser High Sweeney. 71 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:53,120 Speaker 1: His family was religious, adhering to the Anglican faith, and 72 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:58,600 Speaker 1: Charles would also become a religious man. He had two brothers, 73 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:02,720 Speaker 1: who sadly did not survive infancy. He also had a 74 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: sister named Mary Ann, who was seven years younger than 75 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:10,360 Speaker 1: he and would be one of his close friends as 76 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: he was growing up. His early education came from private tutors, 77 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:18,800 Speaker 1: but Charles was also plagued with health problems described as 78 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: violent fevers. And his parents worried that the realities of 79 00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 1: living in London at the dawn of the nineteenth century. 80 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:29,719 Speaker 1: Remember this is in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, 81 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: that maybe all that was a little too taxing on 82 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 1: young Chuck. So they decided that he should be sent 83 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: off to attend school in a rural schoolhouse in the countryside, 84 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:44,279 Speaker 1: far from the noise and pollution of the city, and 85 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,800 Speaker 1: they hoped that there his health would be able to improve. 86 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:52,040 Speaker 1: So in eighteen o three, Ben Junior relocated his family 87 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: back to Devon and Charles would move his studies to 88 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:59,680 Speaker 1: a village named Alphington outside of Exeter. His school consisted 89 00:05:59,880 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: of six students, including Charles. Their teacher was a member 90 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:09,159 Speaker 1: of the local clergy. Charles' health did improve and his 91 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 1: curiosity became one of his defining traits. He was keenly 92 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 1: interested in puzzles and ciphers and clockwork devices. And this 93 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: again was in the early eighteen hundreds. England's Industrial Revolution 94 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:25,160 Speaker 1: was in full swing, so this was an era of innovation, 95 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:30,919 Speaker 1: of urbanization and automation. Joseph Murrie Jacquard had invented a 96 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:33,839 Speaker 1: machine that would later serve as one of the foundational 97 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: elements to one of Babbage's own inventions. This would be 98 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 1: the Jacquard loom, which used punch cards as a way 99 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: to create specific woven patterns. The Jacquard loom is a 100 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:49,919 Speaker 1: fascinating piece of technology and a truly ingenious invention. It 101 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:54,280 Speaker 1: allowed weavers to program a woven pattern, and assuming you 102 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:58,720 Speaker 1: operate the loom properly, the machine would follow the program exactly, 103 00:06:59,279 --> 00:07:03,279 Speaker 1: creating the just as you had programmed it. Now, the 104 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: way this worked mechanically is super cool, but it's also 105 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:11,000 Speaker 1: something that I don't think I can easily explain without 106 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:16,000 Speaker 1: visual aids because there are a lot of moving parts. Ultimately, 107 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: the punch cards would determine which threads in the loom 108 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: would lift up for each pass of a loom's shuttle. 109 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:26,600 Speaker 1: So quick explanation here, just because it will clear some 110 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:31,280 Speaker 1: stuff up. Let's imagine you've got a series of threads 111 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 1: arranged vertically, and let's say they're all white. This is 112 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: the background of your woven pattern. Let's say you're making 113 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:41,720 Speaker 1: a rug. Well, you would weave by moving a new thread, 114 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:48,200 Speaker 1: probably a different color, horizontally across these vertical strings, right, 115 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:51,160 Speaker 1: and you would alternate when you would go over or 116 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:55,160 Speaker 1: under threads, and which threads you go over or under 117 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:59,000 Speaker 1: would be dependent upon whatever pattern you are trying to make. 118 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 1: This is painstakingly slow to do by hand, so a 119 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 1: loom speeds us up by lifting some threads while keeping 120 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,880 Speaker 1: other threads down. So imagine that the loom is lifting 121 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: up every odd numbered thread and all the even numbered 122 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 1: threads stay down. Then you could pull a horizontal thread 123 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,640 Speaker 1: across the width of all these vertical lines, and then 124 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,160 Speaker 1: switch which threads are up and which ones are down 125 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: and pull the thread across again. That's the job of 126 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: the shuttle. The shuttle holds the thread that goes back 127 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:39,360 Speaker 1: and forth horizontally across the lines of vertical threads. So 128 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:42,560 Speaker 1: doing this and alternating it over and over again that 129 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: is weaving. It's much faster than doing the over under, 130 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:51,320 Speaker 1: over under, over under by hand. Now, the punch cards 131 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:56,000 Speaker 1: were important because they would give more specific instructions about 132 00:08:56,040 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 1: which threads would lift up and which ones would stay 133 00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:03,560 Speaker 1: down with each pass. And the end result of this 134 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 1: is that you would have a specific woven pattern at 135 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:10,240 Speaker 1: the end, like an intricate design, something that would have 136 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:14,319 Speaker 1: taken ages to do by hand. And Babbage would later 137 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:18,040 Speaker 1: find a different use for punch cards later in his 138 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:22,280 Speaker 1: own career. However, let's get back to young Chuckers. He 139 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:26,439 Speaker 1: really was seeking understanding of the universe in general, and 140 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:30,040 Speaker 1: that included the spiritual realm. So one of my favorite 141 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:33,040 Speaker 1: stories about Babbage is about the time he tried to 142 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:36,760 Speaker 1: summon the devil. Yep, you heard me now. According to 143 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:40,960 Speaker 1: the story, a teenage Charles Babbage, because of course he 144 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: was a teenager, decided that he was going to sneak 145 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:47,120 Speaker 1: out of his room one night, creep toward an unoccupied 146 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:50,120 Speaker 1: home that wasn't too far away, go up to the 147 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:54,440 Speaker 1: attic with a lantern and knife in hand, and there 148 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:57,360 Speaker 1: he pricked his finger to draw blood. He used that 149 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: blood to draw up a circle, and then, according to 150 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:03,560 Speaker 1: the story, he walked into the circle and began to 151 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:07,199 Speaker 1: recite the Lord's prayer in reverse, keeping an eye out 152 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:09,600 Speaker 1: for any signs of the devil. And while the devil 153 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:12,760 Speaker 1: did not show up, tenacious deed totally did and they 154 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:15,600 Speaker 1: rocked out for the rest of the night. All right, 155 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:19,440 Speaker 1: that part was a lie, but the story about Babbage 156 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:22,520 Speaker 1: trying to summon the devil is apparently true, and of 157 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:26,880 Speaker 1: course nobody actually showed up there are other stories of 158 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:30,040 Speaker 1: Babbage using his ingenuity to attempt to create devices that 159 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:34,160 Speaker 1: would allow him to simulate the miracles mentioned in the Bible. 160 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:36,720 Speaker 1: So in a way, you could think of Charles Babbage 161 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:39,960 Speaker 1: as kind of an early model for MythBusters as he 162 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: tried to replicate biblical tales. You know, if you've watched MythBusters, 163 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:47,080 Speaker 1: you've seen that sometimes they're not testing a myth, they're 164 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 1: trying to replicate the results of a myth. That was 165 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:53,840 Speaker 1: kind of what Babbage was doing. He was thinking, well, 166 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,280 Speaker 1: how could I walk on water? And he would try 167 00:10:57,360 --> 00:10:59,400 Speaker 1: to make stuff that would allow him to do that. 168 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 1: More often than not he failed. In eighteen oh six, 169 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:06,600 Speaker 1: when he was fifteen and just a couple of years 170 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:11,480 Speaker 1: after Jacquard had invented his famous loom, Babbage enrolled in 171 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:15,680 Speaker 1: a school called Forty Hill in Enfield, a northern region 172 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: of London, nearly two hundred miles away from his home. 173 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,400 Speaker 1: Forty Hill had thirty students, so it was positively teeming 174 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:27,760 Speaker 1: compared to the tiny school that Babbage had previously attended, 175 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: and Babbage met a mentor who would encourage his curiosity further, 176 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:36,959 Speaker 1: a man named Stephen Freeman, Reverend Freeman was a mathematician 177 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:40,640 Speaker 1: and an amateur astronomer, and soon Babbage would dive into 178 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:43,600 Speaker 1: those subjects with the same enthusiasm he had shown in 179 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: trying to summon Lucifer. Babbage did become something of a 180 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: troublesome student, acting out on occasion and committing small acts 181 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 1: of vandalism. After about a year, he was sent back 182 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: home to study once more with tutors as he prepared 183 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:04,080 Speaker 1: for university, focusing primarily on mathematics. In eighteen ten, he 184 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:08,800 Speaker 1: was accepted into Trinity College at Cambridge. He had a 185 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,080 Speaker 1: pretty easy go of it there. His family was well 186 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:15,320 Speaker 1: to do, so Babbage even had a personal maid who 187 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: was paid for by his family. She would look after him, 188 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:21,400 Speaker 1: she would cook for him and clean for him, and 189 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:25,040 Speaker 1: he had an allowance of three hundred pounds sterling each year, 190 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:30,080 Speaker 1: which today would be equivalent to around thirty thousand dollars. 191 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:34,280 Speaker 1: So yeah, if you want to talk privilege, this guy 192 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:38,000 Speaker 1: fits the bill. But Babbage also found the subject matter 193 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:41,240 Speaker 1: of his studies to be lacking, complaining that the college 194 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:45,360 Speaker 1: was teaching outdated material. He sought out on his own 195 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:49,559 Speaker 1: the works of more contemporary mathematicians, mostly from the continent. 196 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:52,760 Speaker 1: His desire to learn pushed him to spend a significant 197 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 1: amount to acquire calculus textbooks that came from France, which 198 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:01,960 Speaker 1: was pretty hard to do because at the time there 199 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,800 Speaker 1: was this little scuffle going on called the Napoleonic Wars. 200 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:09,640 Speaker 1: Babbage formed, as a bit of a joke a mathematics 201 00:13:09,679 --> 00:13:12,640 Speaker 1: club at Trinity College that looked toward Europe and the 202 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 1: mathematicians there as superior to the ones that they were 203 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:20,520 Speaker 1: studying while they were in class. Most of the mathematicians 204 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:26,679 Speaker 1: they were studying were English because England was extremely nationalistic. Now. 205 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:29,280 Speaker 1: One of his fellow club members was a guy named 206 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:34,040 Speaker 1: John Herschel that was a son of William Herschel, the 207 00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: astronomer who first discovered uranus. So this was prestigious company 208 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:41,280 Speaker 1: he was in, and the club became known as the 209 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:45,640 Speaker 1: Analytical Society. They pulled their books together and they formed 210 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:51,199 Speaker 1: their own society library from their collected textbooks. Babbage transferred 211 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:54,960 Speaker 1: from Trinity College to Peterhouse. Both colleges are part of 212 00:13:55,160 --> 00:14:00,400 Speaker 1: University of Cambridge, with Peterhouse the oldest of the constituent colleges. 213 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:04,480 Speaker 1: That one was founded way back in twelve eighty four. 214 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:09,160 Speaker 1: Trinity College by comparison is positively youthful, having been founded 215 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:13,840 Speaker 1: in fifteen forty six. For those unfamiliar with universities like Cambridge, 216 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 1: the university as a whole is made up of more 217 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:20,800 Speaker 1: than thirty semi autonomous colleges, and the colleges don't share 218 00:14:20,840 --> 00:14:24,080 Speaker 1: a single campus. Rather, they are found throughout the city 219 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,960 Speaker 1: of Cambridge. So while Babbage was still part of the 220 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:29,640 Speaker 1: University of Cambridge as a whole, he was no longer 221 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:33,200 Speaker 1: studying at Trinity College with his buddies in the Analytical Society. 222 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 1: Babbage also continued to be interested in the paranormal. He 223 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:42,160 Speaker 1: joined a ghost club at Peterhouse. However, he also must 224 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:47,520 Speaker 1: have recognized that such beliefs were viewed as let's call 225 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:51,840 Speaker 1: it eccentric, because he also joined a club called the 226 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:57,040 Speaker 1: Extraction Club, which boy, okay, all right. So the Extraction 227 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:01,640 Speaker 1: Club had a rule. Ever, member of the club was 228 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: meant to send a handwritten letter including their current address, 229 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:11,520 Speaker 1: to the club's secretary every six months. Failure to do 230 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:16,520 Speaker 1: so would result in the club turning its full resources 231 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:22,120 Speaker 1: to extract that member from an asylum. Because it was 232 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:26,440 Speaker 1: assumed that if you were unable to respond to this demand, 233 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 1: that you send a letter every six months that you 234 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:33,480 Speaker 1: must have been committed to an asylum for being very eccentric, 235 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:37,840 Speaker 1: we'll say, and that they would use any means necessary 236 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:42,440 Speaker 1: to get the member out of the asylum, legal or otherwise. 237 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: So Babbage's college years were very different from my own. 238 00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:51,840 Speaker 1: Chuck received an honorary diploma from Peter House. The reason 239 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: for the honorary status is another ridiculous story, but I 240 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:57,760 Speaker 1: feel I've been a little too indulgent in his college 241 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:01,440 Speaker 1: years already. And he also married the woman he had 242 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 1: been courting for three years. She was Georgina Whitmore, someone 243 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:10,560 Speaker 1: who sounds to me like she was genuinely a good person. However, 244 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:14,960 Speaker 1: Charles's father, Benji Junior, took issue with his son marrying 245 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:18,840 Speaker 1: so young in life. Now remember, Charles's father wait until 246 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:21,440 Speaker 1: he was in his late thirties before he got married, 247 00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 1: and he felt that Charles was making a big mistake 248 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:28,760 Speaker 1: for not securing his career before settling into domesticity. His 249 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:32,720 Speaker 1: father actually liked Georgina, but he hated the idea of 250 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:35,760 Speaker 1: his son getting married so young, and that put a 251 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:40,360 Speaker 1: strain upon the familial bonds. Charles, for his part, lamented 252 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:44,640 Speaker 1: this father was quote uncommonly fond of money end quote. 253 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 1: Though heck, this is the same Charles Babbage who had 254 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:51,160 Speaker 1: an allowance equivalent to thirty grand a year while he 255 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:55,360 Speaker 1: was in college, so you know, glass houses. And heck 256 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:59,040 Speaker 1: Dadams was still sending the three hundred pounds a year 257 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:02,280 Speaker 1: and received one hundred and fifty pounds a year from 258 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,320 Speaker 1: her family, So the two already had a pretty decent 259 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:09,959 Speaker 1: income without you know, having to work for it. In 260 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:14,240 Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen, two years after he graduated university, the twenty 261 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:17,399 Speaker 1: four year old Charles Babbage would give an impressive lecture 262 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,040 Speaker 1: to a group of distinguished gentlemen in London, with an 263 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:24,720 Speaker 1: outcome that ultimately discouraged Babbage. I'll explain more after we 264 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:36,040 Speaker 1: take this quick break. Charles Babbage presented a two part 265 00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:40,639 Speaker 1: lecture on calculus and an essay titled Demonstrations of some 266 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:44,800 Speaker 1: of Doctor Matthew Stewart's General Theorems to the Royal Society 267 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:49,760 Speaker 1: of London. This institution is dedicated, ostensibly anyway, to the 268 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:53,959 Speaker 1: furthering of human knowledge in the various sciences. Babbage had 269 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:57,440 Speaker 1: hoped to gain entry into this influential society, which would 270 00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:02,200 Speaker 1: give him valuable connections and Potenti victually have him linked 271 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:05,920 Speaker 1: up with a really good position that befitted his skills, 272 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:09,040 Speaker 1: and his presentations proved to be just the ticket to 273 00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:13,960 Speaker 1: get in. However, he soon became disillusioned with the Royal Society. 274 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:17,760 Speaker 1: He felt that rather than pursuing knowledge and pushing back 275 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 1: the boundaries of what we don't know, the society was 276 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,760 Speaker 1: being really indulgent. They were spending most of their time 277 00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:27,600 Speaker 1: having fancy dinners, then holding various ceremonies in which some 278 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,080 Speaker 1: members of the society would give medals to some other 279 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:34,879 Speaker 1: members of the group, not exactly what he was hoping 280 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:37,960 Speaker 1: to sign up for. For the next few years, Babbage 281 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:40,679 Speaker 1: sought out a position at a college, but had no 282 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:43,919 Speaker 1: real luck. In eighteen nineteen, he traveled to Europe and 283 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:48,760 Speaker 1: encountered the infamous mechanical hoax called the Turk. Longtime listeners 284 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:51,000 Speaker 1: have heard the story of the Turk how a man 285 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: named Wolfgang von Kimplin, determined to impress Austrian Impress Maria Theresa, 286 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:00,360 Speaker 1: created what he claimed to be an auton the miss 287 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:05,280 Speaker 1: mechanical chess playing figure in the form of a Turk, 288 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 1: and this figure would play games against all comers and 289 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:12,879 Speaker 1: when far more often than it would lose, and that 290 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:16,720 Speaker 1: von Kimplin would open up the cabinet that was below 291 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:18,679 Speaker 1: the figure to reveal that there were a bunch of 292 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:24,320 Speaker 1: gears and cogs supposedly working the device. Now, Babbage himself 293 00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:27,720 Speaker 1: played two matches against the Turk, and he lost both 294 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:30,399 Speaker 1: of them. He was intrigued by the idea of a 295 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:33,720 Speaker 1: machine that could be able to process information independently of 296 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:37,000 Speaker 1: a human, but at the same time he dismissed the 297 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,880 Speaker 1: Turk itself as a hoax. He theorized that there must 298 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: be some human player hidden within the machine that was 299 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:45,320 Speaker 1: making all the moves, and as it turns out, he 300 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,520 Speaker 1: was right. That's exactly what was going on, as the 301 00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:52,720 Speaker 1: world would learn a few decades later. In eighteen twenty, 302 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 1: after publishing more works about mathematics, Babbage received an invitation 303 00:19:57,359 --> 00:20:00,960 Speaker 1: to join the Royal Society of Edinburgh, but he felt 304 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,000 Speaker 1: that this version of the Royal Society also failed to 305 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,439 Speaker 1: meet his expectations, and so he decided to be like 306 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:12,359 Speaker 1: Bender in Futurama, I'll make my own society with math 307 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:15,960 Speaker 1: and astronomy. So he and several of his friends and peers, 308 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:21,320 Speaker 1: including John Herschel, his former schoolmate created the Astronomical Society 309 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:26,000 Speaker 1: of London, a sort of rival club to the Royal Society. 310 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,479 Speaker 1: One of the first projects that they tackled was to 311 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:34,000 Speaker 1: revise the Nautical Almanac, a publication that gave detailed information 312 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:36,960 Speaker 1: on the position of certain celestial bodies throughout the year 313 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,760 Speaker 1: for the purposes of navigation. The Almanac has within it 314 00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:45,920 Speaker 1: many many mathematical tables, and some of those tables had 315 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:48,320 Speaker 1: errors in them, and so the goal was to try 316 00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:51,960 Speaker 1: and create an error free version of the Almanac. The 317 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,480 Speaker 1: work was done manually, with two clerks working on each 318 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:59,600 Speaker 1: table independently of each other. When they were both done 319 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,560 Speaker 1: were working on a table, their results would be compared 320 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,080 Speaker 1: against one another to look for disparities. Now that helped, 321 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:09,359 Speaker 1: but did not eliminate error, and it may have been 322 00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 1: around this time that Babbage first started thinking about the 323 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 1: possibility of creating a machine that would be able to 324 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:19,679 Speaker 1: replicate a precise mathematical process perfectly over and over for 325 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:24,040 Speaker 1: the purposes of generating mathematical tables error free. In eighteen 326 00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:27,240 Speaker 1: twenty one, Babbage began to plan out such a machine, 327 00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:31,080 Speaker 1: which would become known as the Difference Engine Number one, 328 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:35,639 Speaker 1: or sometimes the differential engine number one. It would allow 329 00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: an operator to calculate polynomial functions. And if you're like 330 00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:43,240 Speaker 1: me and it's been a while since you've taken trigonometry 331 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:45,560 Speaker 1: or a calculus, it might be helpful to have a 332 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,919 Speaker 1: reminder as to what these functions are. Things changing so 333 00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 1: scory nowadays and everybody quick to forget. So the word 334 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:58,040 Speaker 1: polynomial literally means many terms, and it is a mathematic 335 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,960 Speaker 1: expression that can contain constant stance, that is, terms that 336 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:05,879 Speaker 1: have a specific and unchanging value, you know, like five. 337 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:09,679 Speaker 1: They can also have variables, that is, terms that can 338 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,919 Speaker 1: have one of many values, the classic being x. And 339 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:16,800 Speaker 1: they can have exponents that is, the power to which 340 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: the associated quantity is raised, like two to the fourth power, 341 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:23,720 Speaker 1: which is the same as two times two times two 342 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:27,680 Speaker 1: times two or sixteen. So you could have a polynomial 343 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 1: expression look something like four x plus two ynus twenty five. 344 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:37,200 Speaker 1: The end value of that expression depends upon the individual 345 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,760 Speaker 1: values of those variables. There are a lot of functions 346 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:43,920 Speaker 1: that boil down to polynomial expressions, and so you could 347 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:47,320 Speaker 1: create tables that gave the result of those expressions based 348 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:50,760 Speaker 1: on the values of the variables and that's what Babbage 349 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:53,960 Speaker 1: wanted to do. He wanted to make a machine that, 350 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:57,760 Speaker 1: when you set it for specific values within a polynomial function, 351 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:01,000 Speaker 1: you could operate it to generate the results of that 352 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:04,960 Speaker 1: function steady and reliably. Each time the machine would generate 353 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,679 Speaker 1: an answer, it would advance the gears and the machinery 354 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,560 Speaker 1: so that the variables would have new values. So let's 355 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:14,199 Speaker 1: say that you're working with X as you're variable, and 356 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 1: it shows up a couple of times in your polynomial 357 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:21,399 Speaker 1: function like two x plus x to the second power 358 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:25,360 Speaker 1: plus twenty. Well, you would need to figure out what 359 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:27,840 Speaker 1: the value of that function is based on the value 360 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,560 Speaker 1: of x. Then you could just keep on going, all right, Well, 361 00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,359 Speaker 1: what if x is one, What if x is two, 362 00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,080 Speaker 1: What if x is three? And so on. He wanted 363 00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:39,400 Speaker 1: a machine where he could do this very much automatically. 364 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:43,040 Speaker 1: To put it another way, and really to oversimplify things. 365 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,760 Speaker 1: Let's say you have a calculator and it happens to 366 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:48,760 Speaker 1: have a quirk where if you press the plus button twice, 367 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:52,359 Speaker 1: it automatically adds the last number you entered into the 368 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:56,280 Speaker 1: calculator to whatever the last result is. And let's say 369 00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:59,720 Speaker 1: you did the simple calculation of three plus three, so 370 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,480 Speaker 1: your result is six. But then you hit the plus 371 00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:07,679 Speaker 1: button two times and it automatically adds three to that result. 372 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,520 Speaker 1: Now you've got nine. You hit the plus button twice again, 373 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:15,040 Speaker 1: and now you've got twelve. So the calculator is repeating 374 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:18,200 Speaker 1: that step exactly and it never makes a mistake no 375 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: matter how frequently you do this. And that's sort of 376 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,600 Speaker 1: what Babbage was thinking. He wanted a device that was 377 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:29,800 Speaker 1: consistent and dependable, and most importantly, reliable for accurate results. 378 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,359 Speaker 1: It must have been an enticing thought being able to 379 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:37,439 Speaker 1: generate all sorts of mathematical tables for various publications and 380 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,840 Speaker 1: never having to worry if they contained errors, Because this 381 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,000 Speaker 1: was something Babbage was really passionate about. He would compare 382 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:50,359 Speaker 1: different textbooks containing tables of logarithmic functions and things of 383 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,320 Speaker 1: that nature, and he would despair when they didn't agree 384 00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:57,640 Speaker 1: with one another, because it indicated that someone was wrong somewhere. 385 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:00,440 Speaker 1: But because the results of these tables require a lot 386 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,919 Speaker 1: of manual work to calculate, it was a laborious process 387 00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:07,120 Speaker 1: to figure out which of the two or more textbooks 388 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:10,240 Speaker 1: was the right one. And worse than that, they could 389 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:13,560 Speaker 1: both be wrong in different ways. The whole purpose of 390 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,280 Speaker 1: the tables was to make work easier for clerks doing 391 00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:20,200 Speaker 1: calculations by hand. They represented kind of a short cut 392 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:24,000 Speaker 1: to common tasks. But if the shortcut is wrong, everything 393 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,760 Speaker 1: that follows it will also be wrong. Babbage's desired to 394 00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:31,480 Speaker 1: know things for certain and his intolerance for error drove 395 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:34,280 Speaker 1: his creativity when it came to devising a machine that 396 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:38,000 Speaker 1: could do the work infallibly. He got to work building 397 00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:41,000 Speaker 1: a small prototype of what he had in mind. He 398 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: used a lathe to build some of the basic components, 399 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,479 Speaker 1: and then he hired on a workshop to make some 400 00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:49,879 Speaker 1: of the more complicated fiddly bits that were beyond his 401 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:54,159 Speaker 1: skill to produce. It was nearly summer in eighteen twenty 402 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,800 Speaker 1: two when he had a small but working version of 403 00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:00,960 Speaker 1: his idea. It was a very limited, one word prototype, 404 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,480 Speaker 1: and when compared to what Babbage had in mind, it 405 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:06,800 Speaker 1: was very tiny, but it still had a ton of 406 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,199 Speaker 1: moving parts. There were twenty four axles, upon which there 407 00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:14,600 Speaker 1: were ninety six wheels. The wheels geared would fit together, 408 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,639 Speaker 1: and the gears had different ratios between them, so that 409 00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:20,399 Speaker 1: a rotation of one wheel would translate to either more 410 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:25,040 Speaker 1: or fewer rotations of another wheel. Gear ratios are really 411 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,080 Speaker 1: important in mechanical systems, and we see them used in 412 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:33,919 Speaker 1: everything from clocks to vinyl record turntables to car transmissions. 413 00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:38,320 Speaker 1: And it's pretty easy to understand. Let's just imagine two 414 00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:41,840 Speaker 1: gears and one has a circumference of ten inches and 415 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,800 Speaker 1: the other one has a circumference of five inches, and 416 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,520 Speaker 1: the two interlocked together, so that turning one will make 417 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:51,119 Speaker 1: the other one turn as well. If you were to 418 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:54,480 Speaker 1: rotate the ten inch gear once, the five inch gear 419 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,080 Speaker 1: would have two full rotations. Likewise, if you were to 420 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,840 Speaker 1: rotate the five inch gear one time, the ten inch 421 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:05,320 Speaker 1: gear will go through just half a rotation. So by 422 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,640 Speaker 1: combining gears of different sizes, and by the way, this 423 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,679 Speaker 1: isn't just different circumferences, we're also talking about the number 424 00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:16,800 Speaker 1: of teeth each gear has. I'm just oversimplifying here, but anyway, 425 00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:19,679 Speaker 1: you can precisely determine the mechanical motions of a device 426 00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,359 Speaker 1: by pairing these different gears and different ratios. Gear ratios 427 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,760 Speaker 1: are also important when it comes to stuff like the 428 00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:30,320 Speaker 1: amount of torque you generate that's rotational force. But that's 429 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:35,280 Speaker 1: enough about gear ratios for now. Babbage's prototype could only 430 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:39,399 Speaker 1: calculate a table based on the polynomial formula x to 431 00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:44,000 Speaker 1: the second power plus x plus forty one. What's more, 432 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: it was limited to just the first thirty values of 433 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:51,640 Speaker 1: that calculation, and the variables could only have whole integers 434 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,399 Speaker 1: as values. A crank provided the rotational force needed to 435 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:58,439 Speaker 1: operate the machine, which could generate results at a speed 436 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,679 Speaker 1: of thirty three digits per minute, so it took about 437 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,560 Speaker 1: two seconds for the machine to produce a digit. It 438 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,080 Speaker 1: didn't have a way to print the results either, you 439 00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:09,560 Speaker 1: had to read it right off the machine. Now, the 440 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:13,240 Speaker 1: full version he helped to build would include a printer, 441 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,919 Speaker 1: but that was beyond his abilities. At this point, he 442 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: gathered his fellow members of the Astronomical Society and he 443 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:23,280 Speaker 1: showed off his work in June eighteen twenty two. His 444 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:27,200 Speaker 1: peers offered some feedback, and he took it into account 445 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,560 Speaker 1: for his more grandiose plans. He then penned a letter 446 00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:34,800 Speaker 1: titled Note on the Application of Machinery to the Computation 447 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: of Astronomical and Mathematical Tables and sent it to the 448 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,560 Speaker 1: President of the Royal Society of London that would be 449 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 1: Sir Humphrey Davy as a quick aside. Sir Humphrey is 450 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 1: best known today for his experiments in which he used 451 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:54,280 Speaker 1: electricity to isolate various elements like boron, calcium, strontium, sodium, 452 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:57,600 Speaker 1: and potassium, among others. He's also famous for creating the 453 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:00,479 Speaker 1: Davy lamp, which is an oil lamp that had a 454 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:04,640 Speaker 1: fine metal mesh surrounding the flame and that would allow 455 00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,960 Speaker 1: air to pass through to feed the process of burning, 456 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:11,760 Speaker 1: but it prevented the flame from escaping, which was incredibly 457 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: useful in areas that had flammable gases present, like in 458 00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,280 Speaker 1: coal mines. He would also do some early work with 459 00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:22,880 Speaker 1: arc lamps, which uses an arc of electricity to provide light. Anyway, 460 00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,000 Speaker 1: Sir Humphrey Davy was a super important dude, and one 461 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,120 Speaker 1: day I'll have to do a full episode about him. 462 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:32,760 Speaker 1: Babbage's letter included not only a description of his difference engine, 463 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:36,360 Speaker 1: but also Babbage's thoughts on more advanced machines that would 464 00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:39,200 Speaker 1: be able to do much more, including multiply any number 465 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,920 Speaker 1: of figures by any other number, and a means by 466 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 1: which he could generate a table of prime numbers from 467 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,920 Speaker 1: zero to ten million, and most importantly, by using the machines, 468 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,120 Speaker 1: he could be certain that the tables would be free 469 00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:55,800 Speaker 1: of error. Now, big prime numbers are something that's really 470 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:59,840 Speaker 1: useful in cryptography. A pretty common method of encrypting it 471 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,480 Speaker 1: information involves creating a key system that uses two extremely 472 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,960 Speaker 1: large prime numbers. Then you multiply those two numbers together 473 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:12,480 Speaker 1: to create an even bigger number, which is used in 474 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:17,400 Speaker 1: the encryption process. So to decrypt the information, you need 475 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:21,200 Speaker 1: to know those two big prime numbers, and it's really 476 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,080 Speaker 1: hard to work backward from the product of multiplication to 477 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:28,720 Speaker 1: figure out which two really big prime numbers were used 478 00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,920 Speaker 1: to generate that product. This is the basis for much 479 00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: of modern cryptography, including the mining process for bitcoins, among 480 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:40,680 Speaker 1: other things. Though Babbage was not that into bitcoins since 481 00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:43,080 Speaker 1: they hadn't been invented yet. He was more concerned about 482 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,960 Speaker 1: creating tools that would allow for more efficient and accurate 483 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:51,160 Speaker 1: calculations for future work. The Royal Society responded to Babbage's 484 00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:56,040 Speaker 1: letter with enthusiasm, commending Babbage on his ingenuity, but Chuck 485 00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 1: had hit pretty much the limit of how far he 486 00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:00,600 Speaker 1: could go on his own. He had been funding his 487 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:04,040 Speaker 1: work on his own, but he needed financial support if 488 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,320 Speaker 1: he was going to continue, and so he sought out 489 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,560 Speaker 1: a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to see 490 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,120 Speaker 1: if he could get some public funding for his work. 491 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,959 Speaker 1: When we come back, i'll talk more about how that 492 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:25,960 Speaker 1: turned out, but first let's take a quick break. Babbage's 493 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:28,960 Speaker 1: meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer probably caused Chuck 494 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,360 Speaker 1: a bit of anxiety. After all, it was one thing 495 00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:36,280 Speaker 1: to communicate with fellow mathematicians and the scientifically minded and 496 00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:40,200 Speaker 1: agree upon the utility of Babbage's invention. To them, it 497 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:44,000 Speaker 1: would be obvious. But it's another matter to convince someone 498 00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,080 Speaker 1: who's holding the purse strings. That person may or may 499 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:51,080 Speaker 1: not share that same mindset. Babbage brought with him a 500 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:54,440 Speaker 1: letter of recommendation from the Royal Society of London, and 501 00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:58,240 Speaker 1: that went a long way, and so ultimately he was 502 00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:02,280 Speaker 1: granted an advanced somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen hundred pounds. 503 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: Not all accounts actually agree on the exact amount, but 504 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,000 Speaker 1: it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred 505 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:13,280 Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars in today's money, a princely sum. 506 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,240 Speaker 1: In return, Babbage was meant to complete a difference engine 507 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:21,400 Speaker 1: capable of computing quote six orders of differences each of 508 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,880 Speaker 1: twenty places of figures end quote, and do so at 509 00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,480 Speaker 1: a rate of forty four digits per minute, and he 510 00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:31,080 Speaker 1: had three years to do it. Babbage would do some 511 00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: of the construction work in his own workshop. He turned 512 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,240 Speaker 1: much of his own home into additional workspaces, and he 513 00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:41,280 Speaker 1: hired on an engineer named Joseph Clement to oversee additional 514 00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:46,400 Speaker 1: work at a professional manufacturing facility. Unfortunately, the building process 515 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:49,440 Speaker 1: did not go as quickly or as smoothly as Babbage 516 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: had hoped. Three years came and went and he was 517 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,160 Speaker 1: still working on it. He took on additional jobs in 518 00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,800 Speaker 1: the meantime as work continued, and occasionally he would fund 519 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:05,280 Speaker 1: his own work. In eighteen twenty seven, Babbage suffered a 520 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:10,400 Speaker 1: pretty severe mental breakdown because it was a very tragic 521 00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:14,360 Speaker 1: year for him. In that one year, he lost his father, 522 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,160 Speaker 1: with whom he had had that difficult relationship. His wife 523 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:23,120 Speaker 1: and his newborn son passed away that year, and his 524 00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:26,240 Speaker 1: ten year old son also passed away that year, so 525 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:29,240 Speaker 1: he lost four family members in the space of a year. 526 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,520 Speaker 1: His friends were able to convince him to take a 527 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:35,920 Speaker 1: break from his work on the difference engine and told 528 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,960 Speaker 1: him that he should travel to help kind of deal 529 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:43,400 Speaker 1: with his grief, and so he sent his children to 530 00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:48,280 Speaker 1: stay with his mother. He had several children with his wife, 531 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 1: and his surviving children went to his mom to stay 532 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:55,080 Speaker 1: with her, and then John Herschel, his good friend from school, 533 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:58,320 Speaker 1: took over the job of overseeing progress on the difference 534 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:02,640 Speaker 1: engine while he was traveling. Babbage would return to England 535 00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,720 Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty eight, after having visited various colleges and 536 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:11,520 Speaker 1: universities and research facilities throughout Europe. He secured a professor 537 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:15,759 Speaker 1: position in Cambridge and he resumed overseeing the construction of 538 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:20,520 Speaker 1: the difference engine. The monstrosity now had nearly twenty five 539 00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:23,480 Speaker 1: thousand parts. If it were to be finished, it would 540 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:28,960 Speaker 1: have weighed four tons. It had also gone well over budget, 541 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:33,000 Speaker 1: but the Royal Society of London helped Babbage recoup expenses, 542 00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:36,800 Speaker 1: convincing the UK government to send more financial support toward Babbage. 543 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,840 Speaker 1: So Babbage would foot the bill and then over time 544 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:45,400 Speaker 1: he would get money from the UK government that helped 545 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:50,439 Speaker 1: offset his costs, but that support only stretched so far. 546 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:55,000 Speaker 1: By eighteen thirty two, the government had kind of had 547 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:59,600 Speaker 1: enough At that point, it had invested around seventeen thousand 548 00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:05,160 Speaker 1: pound into this effort. Babbage himself had contributed around six 549 00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:08,440 Speaker 1: thousand pounds of his own money into the project, and 550 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:11,680 Speaker 1: it was nowhere close to being finished, so the government 551 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:16,920 Speaker 1: chose to suspend support, deeming it a waste of resources. 552 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:19,720 Speaker 1: For the time being, it technically was still in the books, 553 00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 1: but all actual financial support was suspended. Babbage decided to 554 00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:28,600 Speaker 1: expand his workshop space at his home and to move 555 00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:33,240 Speaker 1: all operations into that workspace. This was something that rubbed 556 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,600 Speaker 1: the engineer Clement the wrong way, and the two were 557 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,960 Speaker 1: unable to find a compromise, and so Clement and Babbage 558 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,080 Speaker 1: parted ways. By the end of all this, Babbage had 559 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:47,920 Speaker 1: started to grow really disenchanted with the whole process. He 560 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,280 Speaker 1: still had a really far way to go. Three quarters 561 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,440 Speaker 1: of the work was yet to be done, and the 562 00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:57,239 Speaker 1: setbacks he had encountered and the personal losses he had 563 00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,920 Speaker 1: endured had discouraged him to the point that he decided 564 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: to give up on the project. However, something else happened 565 00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:07,480 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty two that would be a positive change 566 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:10,600 Speaker 1: in his life, a significant one. In an effort to 567 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:15,239 Speaker 1: expand his social circles, he began to host parties. These 568 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:18,080 Speaker 1: parties were meant not only to help him make new 569 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:22,880 Speaker 1: connections with influential people, but also introduce his growing children 570 00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:26,920 Speaker 1: to influential families as well. Something that's important if you're 571 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:29,480 Speaker 1: trying to do things like you know, potentially set up 572 00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:32,799 Speaker 1: a possible marriage in the future. And it was one 573 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:36,040 Speaker 1: of these parties that a seventeen year old woman named 574 00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:41,280 Speaker 1: Augusta Ada Byron, better known to us as Ada Lovelace, 575 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:45,200 Speaker 1: the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron, walked into 576 00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:48,320 Speaker 1: his life. Now. The accounts say that at the party, 577 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:52,239 Speaker 1: Babbage demonstrated to his guests a more recent prototype of 578 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:56,440 Speaker 1: his difference engine. This one had two thousand moving parts, 579 00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:02,080 Speaker 1: and Lovelace was absolutely fascinated by this. She, like Babbage, 580 00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,920 Speaker 1: had a love of mathematics and logic, and the two 581 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,799 Speaker 1: found they shared many interests. It wasn't long before they 582 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:12,239 Speaker 1: became fast friends, and that Lovelace would become a professional 583 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,960 Speaker 1: partner to Babbage. In some ways, she was like a 584 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:20,680 Speaker 1: daughter to him, particularly after the tragic loss of Babbage's 585 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:25,400 Speaker 1: own daughter, Georgiana in eighteen thirty four, Babbage continued to 586 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:30,319 Speaker 1: work and host parties despite experiencing tremendous personal loss in 587 00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:33,560 Speaker 1: his life, he was known to be a little bit 588 00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:37,080 Speaker 1: irascible as well. There's a wonderful story that I want 589 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:41,960 Speaker 1: to share. Babbage famously once wrote a letter criticizing Alfred 590 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:45,719 Speaker 1: Lord Tennyson's for a verse in the vision of sin. 591 00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:50,800 Speaker 1: Babbage's message to Tennyson said, in your otherwise beautiful poem, 592 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:55,120 Speaker 1: one verse reads every moment dies a man, every moment 593 00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:59,160 Speaker 1: one is born. If this were true, the population of 594 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,480 Speaker 1: the world would be the standstill. In truth, the rate 595 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,600 Speaker 1: of birth is slightly in excess of that of death. 596 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:08,920 Speaker 1: I would suggest that the next version of your poem 597 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,799 Speaker 1: should read every moment dies a man, every moment one 598 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:21,400 Speaker 1: one sixteenth is born. And he probably wasn't joking about that. Lovelace, 599 00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:24,720 Speaker 1: by contrast, was much better at dealing with the human 600 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:28,160 Speaker 1: side of life while still maintaining a keen mind for 601 00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:32,840 Speaker 1: the mathematic and scientific, and the two worked very well together. 602 00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:36,720 Speaker 1: Babbage turned his mind to other types of invention as well. 603 00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:41,399 Speaker 1: He created the cowcatcher aka the pilot. This is the 604 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,600 Speaker 1: wedge frame that extends in front of a locomotive, and 605 00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:47,440 Speaker 1: it's designed to push obstacles out of the way of 606 00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:49,480 Speaker 1: the train. If something happens to be on the tracks, 607 00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:51,440 Speaker 1: it's meant to move it out of the way so 608 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:55,200 Speaker 1: it doesn't derail the train. He also invented a railway 609 00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:59,960 Speaker 1: vehicle called the dynamometer, which could measure train performance. Babbage 610 00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:05,759 Speaker 1: was obsessed with quantifying various phenomena, even stuff that might 611 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: seem to be unquantifiable. It was in eighteen forty that 612 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:13,640 Speaker 1: Babbage would travel to France, whereupon he encountered the Jacquard 613 00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:17,000 Speaker 1: Looms i mentioned earlier. This is where Babbage first saw 614 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,440 Speaker 1: the use of punch cards, and before long he began 615 00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:24,080 Speaker 1: to imagine new uses for that type of technology. He 616 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,719 Speaker 1: thought of a machine that could use punch cards to 617 00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:30,920 Speaker 1: carry out specific instructions, something even more advanced than the 618 00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:35,000 Speaker 1: difference engine design of his. He called this new machine 619 00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:40,640 Speaker 1: design the analytical engine. Lovelace quickly became an enthusiastic supporter 620 00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:44,000 Speaker 1: of this idea, and she took it even further. While 621 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,160 Speaker 1: Babbage was thinking of a machine capable of performing complicated 622 00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:51,799 Speaker 1: mathematical processes, Lovelace envisioned a world in which all sorts 623 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:55,440 Speaker 1: of things, from language to music could be translated into 624 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:59,640 Speaker 1: mathematics and then manipulated or even created through such a machine. 625 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:05,759 Speaker 1: Imagined music made by machine. In other words, Lovelace was 626 00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,640 Speaker 1: imagining computer science nearly a century before we would see 627 00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:14,160 Speaker 1: the first programmable general purpose machines. Babbage's design for the 628 00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:18,160 Speaker 1: Analytical Engine was both more audacious than the Difference Engine 629 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:22,040 Speaker 1: and more elegant. It would be steam powered, it would 630 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:25,920 Speaker 1: be able to store one thousand digits with fifty decimal places. 631 00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:29,200 Speaker 1: It would be able to perform any type of mathematical function, 632 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:32,719 Speaker 1: and Babbage and Lovelace worked together to create a very 633 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,880 Speaker 1: long pamphlet, more than sixty pages in length, describing the 634 00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:41,160 Speaker 1: design of the Analytical Engine in eighteen forty three. By 635 00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:45,319 Speaker 1: this time, the UK government had officially canceled funding for 636 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:48,239 Speaker 1: the Difference Engine. It was no longer just suspended. The 637 00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:52,000 Speaker 1: project itself was no more. Babbage, however, hadn't quite let 638 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:53,759 Speaker 1: go of the idea, and he began to work on 639 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:57,080 Speaker 1: a new proposal for such a device. The Difference Engine 640 00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,680 Speaker 1: number two would be mechanically simpler than the original machine. 641 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:03,840 Speaker 1: He had able to do more than his first design, 642 00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:06,760 Speaker 1: while Engine number one had more than twenty five thousand 643 00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,480 Speaker 1: parts before it had been canceled. And remember it was 644 00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,840 Speaker 1: only about a quarter finished. The new design called for 645 00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,480 Speaker 1: a machine with eight thousand parts. He would work on 646 00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:18,840 Speaker 1: that in between his work with Lovelace on the Analytical Engine. 647 00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:22,799 Speaker 1: Little side adventure here. Babbage was, among other things, an 648 00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:26,480 Speaker 1: enthusiastic patron of the theater, and there's a story that 649 00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,360 Speaker 1: says he was watching an opera and noticed light playing 650 00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,840 Speaker 1: upon the lace bonnet of his friend who attended the 651 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:34,359 Speaker 1: show with him, and that gave him an idea. He 652 00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:38,879 Speaker 1: contacted his buddy Michael Faraday, who also deserves his own episode, 653 00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:42,160 Speaker 1: to go over a concept. He wanted to use liquids 654 00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:45,160 Speaker 1: of different colors, you know, jars of these liquids, so 655 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:47,040 Speaker 1: you have like a jar of amber liquid, a jar 656 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:49,759 Speaker 1: of blue liquid, and so on, and then place those 657 00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:53,680 Speaker 1: jars in front of a limelight lamp. Essentially, he wanted 658 00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:56,759 Speaker 1: to create a primitive series of color filters for theatrical 659 00:41:56,840 --> 00:42:00,200 Speaker 1: lights to create a specific effect. He even went to 660 00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:04,520 Speaker 1: the trouble of making a ballet called Alethes and Iris 661 00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,240 Speaker 1: to show this off, complete with a cast of sixty 662 00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:10,279 Speaker 1: young women in white costume so that the light would 663 00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:14,320 Speaker 1: play upon their outfits. While rehearsing this piece, the theater 664 00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:16,960 Speaker 1: manager got second thoughts because he started to worry about 665 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:19,680 Speaker 1: the possibility of a fire with so much liquid near 666 00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:23,120 Speaker 1: powerful electric lamps, and so the piece was never actually 667 00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:27,920 Speaker 1: performed for the public. Tragedy returned to Babbage's life in 668 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:32,240 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty two, when Ada Lovelace would pass away from illness. 669 00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:36,360 Speaker 1: She was only thirty six years old. Babbage once again 670 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:40,640 Speaker 1: was left behind. He continued to work, completing blueprints for 671 00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:44,080 Speaker 1: a prototype version of the analytical engine in eighteen fifty six, 672 00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:47,280 Speaker 1: but he failed to find funding for either the Difference 673 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:51,000 Speaker 1: Engine or the Analytical Engine. The government had become really 674 00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:54,080 Speaker 1: wary of his history of going over budget without producing 675 00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:57,239 Speaker 1: a final working piece of equipment. They did offer him 676 00:42:57,239 --> 00:43:02,160 Speaker 1: a knighthood, but he declined that offer. He grew increasingly 677 00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:06,080 Speaker 1: unpleasant as he aged in the eighteen sixties. He was 678 00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:09,680 Speaker 1: generally disliked by his neighbors, and he could be the 679 00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,960 Speaker 1: patron saint of Get Off My Lawn. He was known 680 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:16,799 Speaker 1: in particular for his dislike of street performers and musicians, 681 00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:19,160 Speaker 1: and I really do mean he was known for it 682 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:23,000 Speaker 1: because he wrote a pamphlet about it, listing all the 683 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:27,520 Speaker 1: sins of quote encouragers of street music, and among whose 684 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:33,480 Speaker 1: numbers he counted gen shops, coffee shops, tourists, children, and 685 00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:39,120 Speaker 1: ladies of doubtful virtue. His grouchiness led to the passing 686 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:42,359 Speaker 1: of what became known as the Babbage Act, which made 687 00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:45,239 Speaker 1: it a crime for street musicians who interfered with any 688 00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:49,200 Speaker 1: citizen's ordinary occupation. So, in other words, if they didn't 689 00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:52,279 Speaker 1: cut out that racket, and you couldn't get any work done, 690 00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:54,879 Speaker 1: you could call in the coppers and they could get 691 00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:59,760 Speaker 1: clapped for it. Nice guy, that Babbage. He never finished 692 00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:04,080 Speaker 1: his difference Engine nor his analytical engine. He passed away 693 00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:08,279 Speaker 1: on October eighteenth, eighteen seventy one. While he never saw 694 00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:12,120 Speaker 1: either machine completed within his lifetime, others would later take 695 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:15,640 Speaker 1: his designs and build their own versions of the machine. 696 00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:19,359 Speaker 1: His youngest son, Henry, managed to finish a section of 697 00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:23,239 Speaker 1: the second difference Engine, and others would build replicas of 698 00:44:23,239 --> 00:44:26,160 Speaker 1: his designs much later on. You can find some in 699 00:44:26,239 --> 00:44:30,240 Speaker 1: museums like the Computer History Museum. The models work complete 700 00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:34,400 Speaker 1: with a working printer, and they are all mechanical in operation. 701 00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:40,560 Speaker 1: Babbage's life was one filled with incredible innovation and terrible loss. 702 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,440 Speaker 1: I always thought of him as a really smart, sourpuss, 703 00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:49,440 Speaker 1: someone who was really intelligent, but generally unlikable by most people. 704 00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:53,080 Speaker 1: It was only after reading a much more detailed biography 705 00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:55,880 Speaker 1: of his life and diving into his past that I 706 00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,560 Speaker 1: got a deeper appreciation for the challenges he faced and 707 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:04,120 Speaker 1: those that he overcame. And I haven't covered all those challenges. 708 00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,680 Speaker 1: I haven't covered all of his accomplishments. I haven't covered 709 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:10,080 Speaker 1: all the tragedy of his life. He invented other things 710 00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:14,040 Speaker 1: as well, like an ophthalmoscope that's a medical device. He 711 00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:17,160 Speaker 1: did a lot in his lifetime. The fact that Babbage 712 00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:21,160 Speaker 1: did have close and lifelong friends tells me that he 713 00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:24,520 Speaker 1: wasn't nearly the curmudgeon I originally thought him to be, 714 00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:27,680 Speaker 1: at least not throughout his entire life. He certainly grew 715 00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:31,799 Speaker 1: more grouchy as he aged, but considering the setbacks he 716 00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:36,400 Speaker 1: experienced both personally and professionally, and those terrible losses that 717 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:40,160 Speaker 1: he had endured, I think we should be able to 718 00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:42,600 Speaker 1: forgive him for that. And the fact that he was 719 00:45:42,600 --> 00:45:45,719 Speaker 1: more interested in seeing his work completed than getting an 720 00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:49,560 Speaker 1: honorific title like a knighthood says a lot about his 721 00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:54,400 Speaker 1: priorities and his character, and that wraps up this look 722 00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:58,840 Speaker 1: at Charles Babbage, a truly influential figure in the history 723 00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:01,879 Speaker 1: of technology. I will have to do, as I said, 724 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:05,759 Speaker 1: more episodes about some of his contemporaries. Maybe I'll do 725 00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:09,919 Speaker 1: another one about Ada Lovelace. She again is a fascinating 726 00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:13,680 Speaker 1: person in her own right, and in fact, we have 727 00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:18,200 Speaker 1: Ada Lovelace Day to celebrate her work and the inspiration 728 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:22,759 Speaker 1: she has given to countless generations of young women who 729 00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:27,160 Speaker 1: themselves have become prolific coders. And a lot of that 730 00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:33,640 Speaker 1: was work that was foreseen by Ada Lovelace. Okay, I 731 00:46:33,719 --> 00:46:37,400 Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed that episode of tech Stuff from twenty 732 00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:40,960 Speaker 1: twenty one. My apologies for not having a new episode 733 00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:44,759 Speaker 1: out today. I really wanted to do it, but it's 734 00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:51,200 Speaker 1: just it's gotten more painful as I've been here, and 735 00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:54,319 Speaker 1: I want to take care of all that. Yay, Okay. Well, 736 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:56,479 Speaker 1: I hope all of you are well. I hope none 737 00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,640 Speaker 1: of you are going through this kind of discomfort, and 738 00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:04,399 Speaker 1: I will be sure to talk to you again really soon. 739 00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:14,960 Speaker 1: Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 740 00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:19,000 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 741 00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:23,560 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows,