Charles Babbage

After writing to the Tsar, Mark also went public with his criticisms of the British government for failing to pay him for his work during the war and then incarcerating him for unpaid debts years later as though the debts were not really those of the government.

Following the public outcry, Mark Brunel's influential political friends including Lord Spencer and the Duke of Wellington, persuaded the government to pay him £5,000 to clear his debts in exchange for a promise to remain in England and not travel abroad to share his engineering ideas with other governments.

The British were particularly keen to avoid him entering the employment of Russia at a time when the Great Game was The name for the rivalry between the Russians and the British in Central Asia was just beginning.

Hence, after leaving prison, Marc Brunel returned to work with a wide range of projects.

Brunel struggled with his health throughout 1828 and made several trips to France.

A combination of poor physical health, the near-death experience while working on the Thames Tunnel, and the cessation of tunnel works seem to have had a major impact on Brunel's psychological state at this time.

The morbid sentiments he expressed to friends were in stark contrast to his bombastic ambition to command a fleet of steamboats in the Royal Navy with which he would, quote, "...take some island or fortified town," which he confided to a private journal begun in October 1827.

He also shared his thoughts about the women in his life, making reference to Ellen Hume, a young lady from Manchester whom he had apparently already known for almost seven years at the time of the diary entry.

which again has a kind of like old history.

And again, the name Difference Engine there comes from Charles Babbage, who made like the proto-computer, which he called a Difference Engine.

And then I, you know, in China, we have this pretty restricted station.

There's something called a crisis engine, which uses basically like crisis energy.

And in the book, I came across what to me was a very fascinating thing that I didn't really know before I was doing the research.

And basically, one of the forefathers of the computer, Charles Babbage, Before he invented the difference engine, he'd gone across and met a French mathematician.

And a French mathematician who was working on the same problem he was working on, which was logarithmic tables.

And this mathematician, de Pliny, I think was his name, was a count or a baron or something.

Ada Lovelace suffered it.

Charles Babbage was able to take the accolades of a lot of her ideas, which has only brought to light now what she'd actually contributed to society in terms of her ideas around coding and algorithms.

So when it comes to women, it's important that we correct the record, that we don't allow these voices to be erased.

And I guess, you know, I use a term a lot in my business, which is what we make visible shapes what others believe is possible.

Who we got in the chat? We got a bunch of people in the chat.

We got Babbage in the chat.

Good to see you, Babbage.

Marcia Osborne.

Good Halloween.