As a teenager Charles lived with his parents in Teignmouth in Devon over-looking the sea. He owned a yacht in the harbour and had recently studied navigation and knew the calculations being used to get the ships in and out of the port were appallingly inaccurate.
On board every ship was a person called the computer who was responsible for calculating tide times, wind speed and the ships draft, laden or ballast also the ships position? Charles wrote what a breakthrough the corrections of these tables would mean to the safety of tens of thousands of ships upon the ocean, the accuracy of the coast surveys, the course and motion of current direction and speed of winds, bearing and distance... in short everything which constitutes the chief elements of international commerce in modern times.'
As soon as Charles had settled at university he got together a group of fellow students to study these calculations with him, together they found 3,700 miscalculations. 'I am thinking that all these tables... might be calculated by machinery.' A few evenings later he drew a sketch of a machine that could calculate and print out the results.
There is so much more in this book... from the local history to his involvement in the South Devon Railway. The incident when Babbage and Brunel come close to killing each other is strange but true... and funny, how two people both borrow trains that come engine to engine on the same track.
and much more...
