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A Fragment of Babbage’s Analytical Engine
Lovelace became friends with Charles Babbage, who dubbed her "The Enchantress of Numbers." At the time, Babbage had begun creating the Analytical Engine, the next generation of the Difference Engine. Essentially the first modern computer, Babbage’s creation used punch cards to command it, essentially the first operating system. In translating Italian mathematician Luigi Menebrea’s account of the machine, Lovelace added her own notes, writing the world’s first computer program and accurately assessing the machine’s potential in a number of applications.
This photo shows part of the "mill," or computing portion, of Charles Babbage's mechanical computer. (Image)