erkannte 1833 als erster die Möglichkeiten einer automatisierten (programmgesteuerten) Datenverarbeitung und entwickelte einen Rechenautomaten mit Lochbandsteuerung zur Verbesserung von Funktionstabellen; [Personenlexikon: Babbage, Charles, S. 1. Digitale Bibliothek Band 85: Lexikon der Naturwissenschaftler, S. 172 (vgl. LexNat., S. 17)]

Charles Babbage and Ada, Countess of Lovelace, lived in the London of Dickens and Prince Albert (and knew them both). A hundred years before some of the best minds in the world used the resources of a nation to build a digital computer, these two eccentric inventor-mathematicians dreamed of building their "Analytical Engine." He constructed a partial prototype and she used it, with notorious lack of success, in a scheme to win a fortune at the horse races. Despite their apparent failures, Babbage was the first true computer designer, and Ada was history's first programmer.