The British government is impressed by Charles Babbage’s progress with his automatic steam-powered calculating machine and grants him 1,700 pounds, which, over the next decade, will grow to 17,000 pounds—more than the cost of a couple of warships. But Babbage lacks the practical and technical capabilities to develop it. Furthermore, he begins to entertain another idea: an Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine, like the one conceived by Ada Lovelace.
