Percy Ludgate
Encyclopedia
Percy Edwin Ludgate was an accountant in Dublin and designer of an Analytical Engine
.
Working alone, Ludgate designed an Analytical Engine
while unaware of Charles Babbage
's designs, although he later went on to write about Babbage's machine. Ludgate's engine used multiplication as its base mechanism unlike Babbage's which used addition, Ludgate's engine used rods similar to slide rules. Its precise mechanism is unknown as only written accounts of the engine survive which do not detail its workings.
Ludgate also helped advance calculators by expanding Charles Babbage
's design for the first programmable computer
. He was one of a few independent workers in the field of science and mathematics. His inventions were worked on outside a lab. He worked on the inventions only part-time.
His design featured several novelties, including a method of implementing multiplication referred to at the time as "Irish logarithms". (Boys, 1904)
Little is known about Ludgate's life, as his only records are his scientific writings. He died of pneumonia in 1922.
In 1991, a prize for the best final year project in the Moderatorship in computer science course at Trinity College Dublin – the Ludgate Prize – was instituted in his honor.
Analytical engine
The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical calculator...
.
Working alone, Ludgate designed an Analytical Engine
Analytical engine
The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical calculator...
while unaware of Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...
's designs, although he later went on to write about Babbage's machine. Ludgate's engine used multiplication as its base mechanism unlike Babbage's which used addition, Ludgate's engine used rods similar to slide rules. Its precise mechanism is unknown as only written accounts of the engine survive which do not detail its workings.
Ludgate also helped advance calculators by expanding Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...
's design for the first programmable computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
. He was one of a few independent workers in the field of science and mathematics. His inventions were worked on outside a lab. He worked on the inventions only part-time.
His design featured several novelties, including a method of implementing multiplication referred to at the time as "Irish logarithms". (Boys, 1904)
Little is known about Ludgate's life, as his only records are his scientific writings. He died of pneumonia in 1922.
In 1991, a prize for the best final year project in the Moderatorship in computer science course at Trinity College Dublin – the Ludgate Prize – was instituted in his honor.