Hi,
I've recently read the British Goverment made build Babbage's computing
machine, including printer, and it works. It is exhibited somewhere...

Regards,
Imre


On Mon, 1 May 2000, Andrew Warren wrote:

> Sean Breheny <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
> > > Another big female programmer was Ada Lovelace? Is that her name?
> > > She was some sort of movie star who happened to be a whiz at
> > > math.  Apparently did some cypto-analytical work during WWII.
> > > Very sharp lady. Beauty and brains.
> >
> > I think you mean Hedi Lamour (sp?). I think she invented (a type of?)
> > spread spectrum communications. Lady Lovelace lived in the 19th
> > century, IIRC.
>
> Sigh...
>
> Hedy Lamarr was awarded US patent number 2,292,387 for her co-
> invention, with the composer George Antheil, of a frequency-hopping
> spread-spectrum radio-guidance system for torpedoes.
>
> Lamarr was NOT a whiz at math, and she never did any crypto-analysis
> during the war; her main contribution to the war effort was as an
> entertainer selling war bonds.
>
> The idea of rapidly changing the radio-frequency used to control the
> torpedoes WAS hers, but the technical details (such as they were)
> were handled by George Antheil; he's best known for his "Ballet
> Mecanique" (written for, among other instruments, a whole slew of
> synchronized player pianos), and it was he who came up with the idea
> of using paper rolls like those in his player pianos to keep the
> transmitter and receiver synchronized.
>
> Hedy Lamarr died a few months ago, and I think it's safe to say that
> she never programmed a computer in her entire life.
>
> Ada Lovelace, as Sean noted, DID live in the 19th century; she was
> born in 1815 and died in 1852... And she, unlike Lamarr, WAS a whiz
> at math.
>
> She wrote and translated numerous documents describing Charles
> Babbage's Analytical Engine, but contrary to legend, she was NOT the
> world's first programmer; Charles Babbage wrote the first "programs"
> for his Engine, his assistant and sons were "programming" it before
> Lovelace, and when she finally DID do something with the machine, it
> was just a series of simple exercises.
>
> -Andy
>
>
> === Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com
> === Fast Forward Engineering - San Diego, California
> === http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2499
>
>