| Charles
Babbage |
Ada
Byron |
Claude Shannon |
Alan Turing |
|
Welcome to The
Information - A Guide to Gleick's Key Players.
My name is Valerie Wells and I am currently a student at Augsburg College. For one of my Master's courses, we just read Gleick's The Information. While I found the book fascinating, I had a hard time keeping track of all of the figures listed and how they related to each other; I know I was not the only one. Therefore, I decided to create this website to highlight some key players Gleick discusses, and their contribution to information and the computer, which future students of the course may be able to use. On this home page, I include a brief timeline to highlight the major accomplishments of these individuals. Further details are incorporated on each individual's page, which can be accessed by clicking the links at the top of the page.
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| TIMELINE 1791 Charles Babbage is born
1812 Babbage develops an idea of a mechanical math table using steam power
1815 Ada Byron is born
1822-23 Charles Babbage begins his government-funded project to build the first of his machines, the "Difference Engine", to mechanize solutions to general problems. |
Charles
Babbage |
|
1832-42 Babbage conceives, and begins to design, his "Analytical Engine". Could be considered a programmable calculator, very close to the basic idea of a computer. The machine could do an addition in 3 seconds and a multiplication or division in 2-4 minutes. The machine is never built. The importance of his work is recognized by Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter who, gifted in mathematics, devises a form of binary arithmetic which uses only the digits 1 and 0.
1846-1849 Babbage started designing a second difference engine using knowledge gained from the analytical engine. The machine is never built.
1852 Ada Byron dies
1871 Charles Babbage dies |
Ada
Byron,
Countess of Lovelace |
|
1906 Henry Babbage, Charles's son, with the help of the firm of R. W. Munro, completes his father's Analytical Engine, just to show that it would have worked.
1912 Alan Turing is born
1916 Claude Shannon is born
1936 In his thesis, Claude Shannon demonstrates the relationship between electrical circuitry and symbolic logic.
1937 Alan M. Turing, of Cambridge University, England, publishes a paper on "computable numbers" which introduces the theoretical simplified computer known today as a Turing machine. |
Claude
Shannon |
|
1943 – 45 Turing is asked to work as top level intelligence link and share information on cryptology 1948 Claude E. Shannon publishes a paper on the implementation of symbolic logic using relays.
1950 Shannon’s maze solving muse Theseus is developed, controlled by relays Alan Turing publishes "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"
1952 Turing is arrested for gross indecency.
1954 Turing is found dead from an apparent suicide
2001 Claude Shannon dies |
Alan
Turing |
