The concept of the computer was first visualized by Charles Babbage in 1834 in England. His idea for the analytical engine consisted of 4 parts: an input device, a storage, a mill ( processing unit) and out put device. Few people supported his ideas. A knighthood was suggested, but Babbage regarded it as a being "b" knighted, and instead referred to himself as "Sir Alphabet Function".

In 1843, Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, the daughter of the romantic poet, Lord Byron, wrote a description of Babbage's ideas. She not only described Babbage's plans, but included what is now considered the first computer program. She also added her prescient comments which have stood the test of time: she hypothesized the machine might compose complex music, graphics, be a multipurpose machine of both practical and scientific use. Babbage called Ada, "The Enchantress of Numbers".

Both Charles Babbge (1791-1871) and Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace (1815-1852), were two of the most picturesque characters in computer history. Their ideas were dropped, picked up, and morphed to the present day. A software language developed by the United States Department of Defense was named in Ada's honor. William Gibson and Bruce Sterling used Ada as a character in their popular science fiction novel, The Difference Engine. In the PBS series The Machine that Changed the World, Ada was shown sitting writing letters to Charles Babbage. Though her life was short (like her father she died at 36 years of age) her letters, and a selection from her description of Babbage's engine found in Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers by Betty A. Toole (Strawberry Press) are filled with both fantasy and the foundation of the concepts of the computer revolution.

The history, the present, and the future, of the computer revolution is filled with many people, famous, and not famous, working together. And the future ??

-- Betty A. Toole, author of Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers.