Into Unscientific

  Chapter 287 The real father of computers

U.K.

  London.

  Thick black clouds squeezed the sky, not a single gap was white, as if they were about to fall down.

on the ground.

  The howling north wind blows by, and the cold reaches the bones.

  A willow tree on a certain street has shed its residual leaves, leaving gray dry branches, like whips raging, dancing around under the command of the wind.

  Pedestrians on the street were all wrapped in thick scarves and hurried.

   Occasionally meet them head-on, but most of them just glance at them indifferently, and continue to move forward with their heads down.

  However, in stark contrast to this cool color, there is a seven-story building at the end of the street.

  The elevated foyer and grand gate, the circular arched windows and the stone masonry at the corners are full of grace and luxury.

  There are two tall white security guards standing at the gate of the building, with a line of English engraved above their heads:

  Barclays Bank, since 1690.

   Barclays Bank, one of the earliest banks established in the UK or in the world.

   Right now.

  The third floor of Barclays Bank, a certain reception room.

  A well-built man in his forties was sitting at his desk, looking at a document in his hand with a blank expression.

   And across from him.

   sat a little old man with a broad forehead, a long and narrow mouth, and a somewhat embarrassed look.

after awhile.

  The rich man put the document back on the table, raised his head, and said to the little old man in front of him:

   “Sorry, Mr. Charles, we are sorry we are unable to provide you with a loan.”

  The little old man's expression froze when he heard the words, he laughed twice, and said with a little humility:

   "Director Salor, would you reconsider?"

   "As long as I have enough funds, I can make a machine that can automatically calculate the number table by constant difference. I think this is a very promising project."

   "Promising?"

   Hear the word from the mouth of the little old man.

  The corner of the rich man's mouth immediately raised a mocking arc, and he interrupted his words mercilessly:

   "Sorry, Mr. Charles, I don't see any prospects for this project."

   "If I remember correctly, you submitted a paper and a prototype to the Royal Society more than 20 years ago, and the government gave you a grant of £1,500 the following year."

   "At that time, you claimed that the task would be completed in two to three years, but in reality?"

   "By 1842, the government had invested nearly 20,000 pounds in cost. What is your result?"

  The little old man blushed suddenly, but he was not ashamed, but angry:

   "It's because of that **** Clement!"

   "He took all the money away, all the money issued by the Ministry of Finance and the final drawings are in his hands! He."

  The little old man was about to continue, but the rich man interrupted him first:

   "Enough, Mr. Charles, I don't have the mood and time to listen to your complaints here."

   "I just want to tell you that Barclays Bank has no idea of ​​investing or lending money to your project—if it wasn't for Countess Lovelace's face, you wouldn't even be able to enter this gate today."

  “.”

  Hearing the words 'Countess Lovelace', the little old man froze with anger.

  The clenched fist under the table began to loosen unconsciously.

   After a few seconds.

  His whole body seemed to be drained of strength, his head drooped, he picked up the plan and turned around to leave.

  Stay out of the door of the room.

  The little old man leaned his head up against the wall, his chest heaved a few times, and he exhaled a foul breath in boredom.

   It took half a minute to adjust his mentality, and then he continued to walk downstairs.

  The stairs these days are mainly made of wood, but the Barclays banker has a big business. Even the wooden stairs are extremely stable when walking, and the soles of the feet can feel a heavy feeling at any time.

   Less than half a minute.

  The little old man returned to the first floor steadily.

   Same as hereafter.

  The first floor of Barclays Bank is also an open hall for receiving frequent customers, with an area of ​​about a hundred square meters.

  However, the number of customers is much smaller than that of later generations, and there are less than ten scattered.

To know.

  This is the central area of ​​London. In 2022, every inch of land is very expensive, and you have to wait for the 20th or 30th number if you line up casually.

  The appearance of the little old man quickly attracted the attention of the guests in the hall, but most of them just glanced away before turning their eyes away again.

  Only a woman in her thirties brightened her eyes, walked up to her quickly, and asked:

   "Mr. Charles, what's the situation? Did they agree?"

  The little old man sighed, and shook his head with a gloomy face.

  The woman froze when she saw this, and there was a hint of disappointment in her eyes, but she still comforted her:

   "It's okay, Mr. Charles, we will definitely find investors who can see the value of the analytical machine"

   "It's very blue."

   I don’t know if he has been hit too many times, but the little old man shook his head helplessly, and changed the topic on his own initiative:

   "Ada, you have been showing my face with me like this, and you even often live in my house. Your husband won't be angry, right?"

  The woman shook her head lightly and said:

   "Mr. Charles, William is not the kind of narrow-minded person."

   "The idea of ​​mortgaging jewelry to raise money was proposed by him, but it was discovered by my grandmother later."

   "By the way, let's not talk about him. Let's go to Kangruo Bank next. I heard that their president is a very courageous young man."

  The little old man glanced at this chattering old friend, and felt a deep sense of guilt in his heart.

   Maybe more than ten years ago, I shouldn't have introduced that prototype to her.

   This will not make her life so difficult, and even hurt her husband and children.

   And just when the little old man was thinking about it.

  At the gate of the bank, a middle-aged man suddenly walked quickly.

  This person is in his early forties, not tall, with fair skin, and a gentle look with a hint of shyness.

   It looks a bit like a player named Torres in later generations when he was young.

  He did not go to the counter after entering the bank, but glanced around a few times.

  When he found the little old man and the woman, his eyes lit up.

   Then he walked quickly to the side of the two, rubbed his hands together awkwardly, and said:

   "Ada, Mr. Charles, didn't I bother you?"

  The woman named Ada turned her head when she heard the words, and when she saw the man's face was overjoyed, she stepped forward and kissed:

   "mua!"

   Then she put her arms around her husband and asked:

   "Honey, how did you get here?"

  The gentle man did not answer her question directly, but looked at the plan in the little old man's hand and asked:

   "Mr. Charles, how was the result of today's interview?"

  The little old man sighed again, shook his head and said:

   "Failed, Barclays refused to invest in our project."

  The little old man's tone was full of apology, and the clinker gentle man didn't have the slightest disappointment on his face when he heard the words, but clapped his hands suddenly:

"Great!"

   "?!"

  In an instant.

  The eyes of the little old man and Ada turned to the gentle man at the same time, and huge question marks appeared above their heads at the same time.

  The little old man even had a little doubt.

   Don't it be that this person really had some misunderstandings about Ada and himself, so he wished he could fail?

To know.

  From 1842 to the present, Ada spent 70% of his time by his side.

  In order to save money, they only leased a single-story building.

  Most of the time, Ada would go home and go to bed.

  But if the project is too time-consuming, Ada will stay in it, one person sleeps on the bed and the other sleeps on the floor

  Although the little old man dared to swear that he and Ada didn't have any tauren plots, he couldn't guarantee that his husband didn't think so.

   In fact, it can endure for eight years, which is a bit outrageous

   And the other side.

  Seeing that the eyes of the little old man and his wife were a little strange, the gentle man just belatedly slapped his head:

   "Oh, sorry, sorry, Mr. Charles, look at my mouth, I can't speak clearly"

   "In fact, this is the case. This morning, the University of Cambridge approached me through the Nobility Division of the House of Lords, expressing that Trinity College is very interested in your analytical machine, and hopes to discuss some cooperation matters with you."

   "So you see.?"

  The little old man's expression was still a little numb at the beginning, and he was ready for the opponent's showdown.

   But the more he listened, his eyes widened, and in the end he grabbed the gentle man's hand and asked:

   "Mr. Earl, is what you said true?"

  The gentle man smiled and nodded, not seeing the demeanor of an earl at all:

   "That's right, the person here is a friend from Cambridge University that I knew when I was teaching. Now he is Professor Lucas at Cambridge University. His name is George Stokes."

   "The information from him must be very reliable."

  The little old man gave him a serious look, and asked:

   "Are you sure it has something to do with the Analytical Engine? Isn't it something like an alumni gathering organized by Trinity College?"

  The gentle man glanced at his wife who was also looking forward to it, his chest puffed up, and he affirmed:

   "It's definitely related to the analysis engine, Mr. Charles, when do you think we will release it?"

  The voice did not fall.

  The little old man grabbed his hand and walked out quickly:

   "Elbow, let's go to Cambridge!"

   After half a day.

  University of Cambridge.

   Trinity College.

   Faraday Office.

  At this moment, this office has been converted into a reception room.

  The gentle man, the little old man, and the woman named Ada sat aside.

  Xu Yun, Gauss, and Farah sat on the other side.

  Riemann and Mai Mai stood behind the three of Xu Yun, responsible for serving tea and pouring water.

  Looking at Ada and the other three who were embarrassed and hopeful in front of them, Xu Yun couldn't help but have a subtle look.

  In his later generations, there was a saying that was widely circulated:

  There is no pure friendship between men and women, and accidents will happen to girlfriends of the opposite sex.

   This sentence is relatively accurate in the case of popularization. In the adult field, girlfriends of the opposite **** often have a special idea.

  However, in the history of mankind, there has been such a pair of men and women.

  Both men and women have their own families, but they cooperate closely in related fields, and they have never crossed the threshold.

  Yes, this pair is .

Phoenix Legend.

   Cough cough wrong wrong wrong.

   This pair is Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.

at the same time.

  They are also two extremely important pioneers in the history of human computers.

  Everyone knows that Turing and Von Neumann are the founders of computers, but few people know that they really meet the definition of "father of computers".

   It was the little old man in front of Xu Yun, Charles Babbage.

   Actually.

  The relationship between Babbage, Turing, and Von Neumann, students who have read our book should understand better:

  Just like Hans Lieber invented the telescope and Galileo invented the astronomical telescope, some concepts can be subdivided under specific names.

  For example, Charles Babbage is the "father of general computing".

   Von Neumann is the 'father of modern computing'.

   Turing is the 'father of computer science'.

  The fields of the three are different, and their status does not conflict.

   Unfortunately, I don't know if it was fate, but the endings of these three are not very good.

  For example, von Neumann died of cancer at the age of 53.

  Turing's death is even more controversial. He committed suicide at the age of 41, and he encountered extremely strong public opinion attacks before his death-because he was a homosexual.

  Considering that LGBT is more sensitive these days, I won’t go into details here.

   And the most unlucky and miserable.

   It is undoubtedly the combination of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.

  Babbage was born in London in 1791. When he was studying in Cambridge, he had excellent mathematics performance. Together with John Herschel, the son of Uranus discoverer William Herschel, he formed the Analytical Society and tried his best to revive British mathematics.

  After graduating, Babbage also engaged in mathematical research and participated in the establishment of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was once regarded as the "Little Gauss" of Britain.

   But in 1820.

  An unexpected idea completely changed Babbage's life.

  The direct cause of this idea is very simple, it is called a number table.

  People have used digital tables for a long time, and there are a lot of records in ancient and modern times.

  The oldest surviving batch of number tables comes from Babylon, which was generated in 1800-1500 BC.

   These tables of numbers were inscribed on clay in cuneiform, and people used them to convert units and calculate multiplication and division.

  In modern times, digital meters are widely used in science, finance, navigation, engineering, surveying and mapping and other fields.

   These data are extremely important and become indispensable as tools in people's lives.

   However, the compilation of data tables requires division of labor and cooperation. The usual mode is as follows:

   Mathematicians are responsible for determining the mathematical formulas used for calculations;

   Supervisors are responsible for organizing calculations according to mathematical formulas, and supervising the summarization and printing of results;

   Then the computer is responsible for the calculation.

  The calculators work at home. In order to prevent mistakes, two calculators will calculate the data independently, and then another comparator will check the results.

   Computing and publishing these tables required a huge amount of work, but errors were inevitable.

   Even the famous British Nautical Almanac contained errors, and more than one ship reported that their ships were stranded or lost at sea because of incorrect data in the almanac.

  In 1820, Babbage and John Herschel were checking the logarithmic table for the Astronomical Society.

  The whole process was not only boring and complicated, but also found a lot of mistakes.

  So, an idea popped up in Babbage's mind:

   It would be nice if these calculations could be done with steam.

  This incident is recorded in Babbage's autobiography, the title of the book is "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher", which is sold on Amazon for 27 dollars. (By the way, who knows how to draw a lottery, I want to give this book a lottery)

  This idea got out of hand after it came out, and Babbage put a lot of energy into it, and finally came up with a principle called the difference method.

  Differentiation method can easily construct the table of function T, generate a series of numbers through cascading addition, and then get a column of required calculation results, which is obviously very suitable for machine implementation.

   On this basis.

  Babbage named the machine he envisioned as the Difference Engine:

  It is driven by a steam engine, calculates the number table through constant difference, and records the result on the metal dial.

  By printing the forms directly from these dials, the Difference Engine avoided all kinds of errors that tabulators could make.

  Babbage conceived.

  An operator only needs to input different differential values ​​to the differential machine, and the machine can repeatedly accumulate and print out the results.

  Because each additive term depends on the value calculated in the previous step, this method contains built-in detection mechanisms:

  As long as the last number is correct, all previous data in the table must be correct.

  If you switch to a human computer, you may make mistakes at any step.

   After finalizing the design plan, Babbage got a set of lathes, operated them himself, and hired several metal casting workers.

  1822.

  A working model machine came out—it performed calculations by turning gears through a handle.

  Although this is only part of the machine envisioned by Babbage, there is no doubt that this model machine has confirmed the feasibility of his idea.

   This machine quickly attracted the attention of the British Treasury. Finally, in 1824, the British Treasury decided to subsidize Babbage with 1,500 pounds, allowing him to start manufacturing a full-scale difference engine.

  Babbage's difference engine required high precision equipment, so he hired a first-class mechanical engineer Clement to assist-this is also the source of all evil that led to Babbage's bleak end.

  Because the difference engine had high requirements on components, the manufacturing process at that time was far from meeting Babbage's requirements.

so what,

  Babbage had to design the Difference Engine while Clement was asked to make tools that could produce the parts of the Difference Engine.

  Usually, he designs a module of the Difference Engine and then designs and builds the tools to produce the module.

   Therefore, in the long run, the difference engine project has raised the level of machine manufacturing in the UK to a new level.

   But the project itself was slow and expensive.

   This part of the funds passed through Clement's hands-he used the funds to equip mechanical tools worth thousands of pounds. These tools were designed by Babbage and invested by the government.

   But according to the law, these things are the property of Clement.

  So in 1834, Clement finally reversed:

  He refused to work for Babbage anymore, withheld drawings and parts, and countersued Babbage and the British government, and finally succeeded in winning the case.

since then.

  The British government gave up investment in Babbage's Difference Engine.

   While fighting with Clement, Babbage came up with the idea of ​​the Analytical Engine:

  Why not build a machine that can not only compute expressions based on constant differences, but also solve any mathematical problem?

   So he wrote to the British Prime Minister Robert Peel, but met with merciless ridicule:

   "The only use for this machine is to spend a lot of money!"

  So from then on, Babbage could only "beg for help" everywhere on his own.

   And it was in the process that he met another member of the hapless duo:

  Ada Lovelace.

  Ada Lovelace is the daughter of the poet Byron, a mathematical genius, married her own mathematics teacher William King at the age of 20.

  Early 1835.

  William King was created Earl of Lovelace because he received the Copley Medal.

  So many times, Ada Lovelace is also known as the Countess of Lovelace.

   Ada Lovelace is more than 20 years younger than Babbage. When she was 17 years old, she once listened to Babbage's lectures when he was famous.

   Therefore, he admires Babbage very much, and is also very interested in the difference engine.

   After joining Babbage's team.

  She popularized and programmed Babbage's Analytical Engine and is considered the world's first computer programmer.

  Although Babbage did not complete the construction of the Analytical Engine, Ada's efforts made it widely known.

  In honor of this remarkable woman.

   The early programming language Ada is named after her.

  In addition, the second Tuesday in October every year is also designated as AdaLovelaceDay to pay tribute to the contributions made by women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

   This one never engages in any gender-contradictory things, but makes everyone respect her.

  In a sense, this is the real feminism—a right won through contribution rather than force.

  The line of sight returns to the original place.

   After Ada joined the team.

  In order to turn the drawings of the analytical machine into reality, they both exhausted all their property and made them impoverished.

  After all, William King is only an honorary earl, not a traditional nobleman, and he is completely incomparable with a hereditary earl like Ellis.

   Mentioned previously.

  In 1850, one pound was roughly equivalent to 900 yuan in later generations.

  18,000 pounds is more than 16 million, and even the newly promoted earl's family can't afford it.

  So ever since.

  Babbage and the others even made chess toys and horse racing game machines in order to raise funds for scientific research.

  Ada also reluctantly sent the ancestral treasures of her husband’s family to the **** shop twice, and used the money in exchange to maintain daily expenses—and these treasures were redeemed by her mother twice.

   Throughout the process, William King silently supported his wife.

  Unfortunately, for future generations, unless you go to the British data website to look up information, you will basically not see any information related to this Earl of Lovelace.

   Search for Earl Lovelace, and what appears is basically the introduction of Ada, that is, the content of the Countess Lovelace.

Unfortunately.

   This kind of unreserved support did not bring good returns.

   Quite the opposite.

  Due to long-term poverty and endless mental work, Ada's health began to deteriorate sharply after 1850.

  Finally, in 1852, due to excessive blood loss due to cervical cancer, his soul returned to Huangquan, and his fragrance disappeared. He was only 36 years old when he died.

   After Ada's death, Babbage persisted independently for another 20 years.

   But the sky failed, and he still didn't make an analysis machine.

  In the end, Babbage died of a cerebral hemorrhage at home on October 18, 1871. The Times also laughed at his failure in the obituary.

  In Xu Yun's later life.

  Many people think that Babbage's inability to produce the Analytical Engine was mainly due to productivity problems, but this is not the case.

  For example, his contemporary Swede Per George Schutz, after learning from Babbage's design, built a difference engine that supports 5-digit and 3-order difference in 1843.

  Subsequently, in 1853 and 1859, he built two machines supporting 15-digit and 4-order difference, which were successively purchased and used by the New York Observatory of the United States and the British government.

  Babbage’s failure was largely due to Clement’s rebound. After that, due to lack of funding sources, most of his energy was actually placed on attracting investment.

   Hitting the wall again and again can easily affect efficiency and lead people to extremes. This kind of thing is not uncommon in later generations.

  But right now, this pair of duo who have suffered so much has ushered in a change.

  The reception room.

  Only hearing Xu Yun cough lightly, he asked Babbage:

   "Senior Charles, do you want to understand the meaning of computers and really live?

Note:

   I’m afraid I’ll be told that popular science is too much to explain. Babbage’s line will have a long, long influence, and it has some linkage with reality, so the introduction will be a little thinner.

   Try to complete the dungeon within this month, but it is estimated that it is too much, it may not be until next month.

  (end of this chapter)