The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage：The True Story of the First Computer

THETHRILLINGADVENTURESOFLOVELACEANDBABBAGE...inwhichSydneyPaduatransformsoneofthemostcompellingscientificcollaborationsintoahilariousseriesofadventures.MeetVictorianLondon’smostdynamicduo：CharlesBabbage，theunrealizedinventorofthecomputer，andhisaccomplice，Ada，CountessofLovelace，thepeculiarprotoprogrammeranddaughterofLordByron.WhenLovelacetranslatedadescriptionofBabbage’splansforanenormousmechanicalcalculatingmachinein1842，sheaddedannotationsthreetimeslongerthantheoriginalwork.Herfootnotescontainedthefirstappearanceofthegeneralcomputingtheory，ahundredyearsbeforeanactualcomputerwasbuilt.Sadly，Lovelacediedofcanceradecadeafterpublishingthepaper，andBabbageneverbuiltanyofhismachines.Butdonotdespair!TheThrillingAdventuresofLovelaceandBabbagepresentsarollickingalternaterealityinwhichLovelaceandBabbagedobuildtheDifferenceEngineandthenuseittobuildrunawayeconomicmodels，battlethescourgeofspellingerrors，explorethewilderrealmsofmathematics，and，ofcourse，fightcrime—forthesakeofbothLondonandscience.CompletewithextensivefootnotesthatrivalthosepennedbyLovelaceherself，historicalcuriosities，andnever-before-seendiagramsofBabbage’smechanical，steam-poweredcomputer，TheThrillingAdventuresofLovelaceandBabbageiswonderfullywhimsical，utterlyunusual，and，aboveall，entirelyirresistible.(Withblack-and-whiteillustrationsthroughout.)