A virtual talk by Professor Brian Randell

Charles Babbage and Percy Ludgate were pioneers in computing, developing the first "analytical engines" - yet their stories couldn’t be more different.

Babbage was a mathematician and inventor who received many thousands of pounds from the British government to help fund his work on a difference engine before he went on to design his analytical engine. Ludgate was a clerk to a corn merchant and an amateur scientist who designed his engine during his spare time, largely unaware of Babbage’s project, before publishing an account of his design in 1909.

Brian Randell - who is Emeritus Professor at Newcastle University’s School of Computing - stumbled across Ludgate's story and released a research paper on it in 1971. Since then almost nothing further had been found out about Ludgate or his incredible achievement – until recently.

In this TNMOC talk, Professor Randell will describe the findings of a project he’s been participating in, that is led by Dr. Brian Coghlan of Trinity College Dublin, into the life and work of this amazing and little-known successor of the famous Babbage.

The talk will last about an hour.

PLEASE NOTE: Participants will be sent the link to the virtual talk no later than two days before the event.