Babbage

I publish the play “Babbage” from my collection “Babbage and the rest” (2010).
Biographical play, based on the documentary materials of Yu.L. Polunova, I.A. Apokina and others. Previously, the web has not been published, at least officially. Written as a work of a traditional literary genre, therefore quite voluminous: the estimated reading time is 20-25 minutes.

Especially for those who consider it impossible to publish works of art on Habré, I cite the results of the survey (currently) from one of my past posts.
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Those who voted are ridiculous by Habrovsk standards (hub-offtopic, holiday season, unsuccessful post, etc.), but the majority opinion is definitely expressed, in my opinion.

Babbage

CHARACTERS
Charles Babbage . English inventor.
Georgiana His wife.
Henry . Their son.
John Herschel . A close friend of Babbage.
Babbage's student friends:
George Peacock
Michael Slegg
Lady Milbank . The widow of Lord Byron.
Ada Her daughter.
Count Lovelace . Ada's husband.
Clement Mechanic.
Whitworth . Draftsman.
Statesmen:
Duke Wellington ,
Sir Robert Peel .
Per Georg Schütz . Swedish inventor.
Edward His son.

Other gentlemen and ladies. Children. Draftsmen and mechanics. Crowds of people.

Scene 1

1812 One of the premises of the University of Cambridge. On the table are unfinished wine bottles, scattered manuscripts and books. The chairs are retracted; they are located in: John Herschel, the son of a famous astronomer, George Peacock, the son of a major military leader, Michael Slegg, the son of a successful cotton merchant, the son of a wealthy Totnes banker. All of them are nineteen or so years old.
Peacock : And I assure you that no brunette can compare with a blond girl.
Slegg : Do not tell me, George ... Personally, I prefer brunettes more. Among them come across very even not bad.
Peacock : Not bad - maybe. But only blond girls are truly slim.
Slegg : I refute. Irresponsible and, most importantly, unsubstantiated statement.
Peacock : Consider it an axiom, Michael.
Herschel : Is it worth arguing about tastes, friends? George likes blond and Michael loves it.
Peacock : I wonder what Charles will say about this.
Babbage : Forced to disappoint you, friends. I prefer brown hair.
Sleg : Charles, as always, is original.
Peacock : I think this is no accident.
Babbage : Recently, I was introduced to a charming brown-haired woman. She has soft golden hair. She is slim and pretty.
Slegg : And what is the name of this pretty ginger creature?
Babbage : Georgiana.
Herschel : Are you already engaged?
Babbage : Not yet, but I thought about it.
Peacock : Well here. We all didn’t have time to enjoy the company of Charles, as he is being abducted from our warm company.
Slegg : Charles - the lost man. He and without engagement was going to move to St. Peter's College.
Babbage : Prefer to be first in St. Peter's College. Sadly, my friends, but I'm not going to finish college third. To transcend your astronomical abilities, John, and your theological knowledge, George, I will never succeed.
Sleg : Very nice, Charles, that I was not on your blacklist. Nevertheless, I will try to finish college third, pushing overconfident Mr. Babbage to fourth place.
Babbage : That's why, my overly talented friends, I will soon be forced to leave you. In St. Peter's college, nothing threatens my self-conceit.
Herschel : Don't be so selfish, Charles.
Peacock : ... And never bet on red. Only in fair-haired girls feels as slim as in Leibniz differentials.
Slegg : However, not our very honorable island professors follow Leibnitz’s precepts.
Peacock : Exactly. Professor Woodhouse in his "Principles of Analytical Computing" uses Leibniz's notation, while giving us lectures he uses the Newtonian point. What is it like?
Herschel : When you lecture at Cambridge, George, you can fix this flaw.
Peacock : Why wait?
Slegg : I wonder what George offers.
Peacock : Hang Professor Wodehouse on a chandelier to the glory of English mathematics.
Babbage : Isn't it easier to explain to the professor that he is wrong?
Slegk : How?
Babbage : We will establish the society of the tradition of death of all supporters of the heresy of the Newtonian point. If Woodhouse doesn't join us, he will pass for a retrograde.
Herschel : And what a good idea! Scientific society with its organ.
Peacock : A printed organ is a must. Charles will be able to print in his eternally unfinished article "On the infinite works."
He grabs the manuscript from the table and throws it into the air. Sheets fly around the room.
Herschel : I could also print something.
Slegg : As you said, Charles, "The Society for the Tradition of the Death of All Supporters of the Newtonian Heresy"? In this case, we need to elect a president.
Peacock ( jumping on the chair o): Attention, gentlemen! Sim establishes the scientific "Society for the destruction of the death of all supporters of the Newtonian heresy point", appointed for the development of English mathematics, conducting discussions among its members, printing articles of these members and their further fun pastime. All those present, if they do not object, are declared full members of the Society. Now, dear gentlemen, members of the Society for the Tradition of the Death of All Supporters of the Newtonian Heresy, we need to elect the president from among those present. What are the suggestions?
Slegg : I suggest John.
Peacock : There can be no two opinions here. I ask those present to vote.
All raise their hands. Peacock solemnly refers to Herschel.
You, Mr. John Herschel, as the most worthy and quickest of all members of the Society for the Tradition of the Death of All Supporters of the Newtonian Heresy, are declared its President. What are the instructions, Mr. President?
Herschel ( smiles ): Thank you for the honor shown to me, George. Touched by your trust, Michael and Charles. What do you want from your freshly baked president?
Slegg : Like what, John? We want you to command us now. Immediately sit George for developing a theory of functions, and Charles ... trust him that is simpler ... for example, the compilation of tables of logarithms.
Herschel : Charles, in his carelessness, will make gross mistakes.
Slegg : My uncle, who recently returned from the Spanish campaign, told a funny story. The English ship, after the announcement of a truce with the Spaniards, was patrolling in the Mediterranean. His Spanish colleague with a silver tray remembered a visit to the captain for a courtesy visit. Our clever warrior did not remain in debt, and in response gave the Spanish captain navigation tables. The Spaniard gratefully accepted the book, unaware that the tables in it were compiled without leap years. The Spanish ship sailed, and no one heard anything more about it. They say this is the most successful operation of the English fleet for the entire Spanish campaign.
Everybody laughs.
Peacock : Charts of logarithms compiled by Charles will be presented to Professor Woodhouse so that he, like a Spanish frigate, will get lost on the way to the audience.
Babbage : I am afraid that I will have to arrange the compilation of logarithmic tables to a very old age. Then the upcoming engagement will be upset.
Peacock : Nothing like that. In Paris, learned to quickly make logarithmic tables. The calculators are divided into three groups, each engaged in its work. The last group of accountants are so unqualified that they are recruited from among the barbers left without work. So if any hairdresser helps you, Charles, in drawing up the tables, Woodhouse gets lost in Cambridge much earlier than your old age, and you find yourself engaged.
Babbage : These Frenchmen came up with a wit.
Peacock : And most importantly, effectively.
Babbage : If to replace hairdressers with something more simple, it would turn out absolutely perfect.
Slegg : For what, for example?
Peacock : Our friend suggests replacing hairdressers with donkeys. But alas, donkeys will not be able to take even the easiest logarithm, since donkeys are more stupid than their harness.
Sleg : In this case, you must replace the donkey with a harness.
Babbage : How did you say, Michael?
Got sick : Replace the donkey on his harness. Let the harness itself take logarithms.
Babbage : You want to say that the machinery is able to take logariths itself?
Herschel : When Charles is not to mention machinery, it immediately starts. You know, in his childhood he tried to invent a device for walking on water and almost drowned.
Got sick : He is simply drunk.
Babbage : Wait, friends. Why don't machines, in fact, take logarithms? Imagine a machine solving math problems. The development of logarithmic tables would then be an order of magnitude less time consuming.
Herschel : Such machines could be used in astronomy.
Peacock : In navigation ...
Slegg : And in the manufactories. Congratulations to you gentlemen: half an hour had not passed since the establishment of the Society for the Tradition of the Death of All Supporters of the Newtonian Heresy, as among its full members one had already appeared. And the other two are on the way.
Peacock : I offer a drink about this.
All follow good advice.
Slegg : To check which of us is more crazy, I offer a bet. I put the guinea on the fact that the first woman we met on the way would be a brunette.
Peacock : I put on blond. Charles, of course, on the brown-haired?
Babbage : Of course.
Peacock : Our esteemed president has no choice but to put on a pinto.
Herschel : I bet on a man.
Slegg : Feels mathematical mindset. However, this rate, my dear president of the scientific community, is not accepted. Name something with a lower degree of probability, even a humpbacked giant with green hair.
Herschel : Good. I put on the priest.
Sleg : Another thing. And now, dear members of the Society for the Tradition of the Death of All Supporters of the Newtonian Heresy Point, I will ask everyone to leave the meeting hall!
All but Babbage are heading for the door.
Charles, this is about you. Or have you already sat down for the development of logarithmic tables? But what about your mathematical harness? Leave the logarithms to her.
Babbage : I'm coming. Michael, John, George! Wait for me, friends.
He tries to collect the scattered sheets of the manuscript, then waves his hand and runs away after all.

Scene 2

1823, eleven years after the previous scene. London, Babbage House on Devonshire Street. In the living room - Georgiana, a young woman with golden hair. She has a baby in her arms. Two other older children are holding their mother’s skirts.
Georgiana : John, is that you? Yes come in, come in!
Herschel comes in and, following him, Clement, who is somewhat distant, is a taciturn man of about forty-five who knows his own worth.
Herschel : Hello Georgiana. And where is Charles, has he not returned from an audience with the Duke of Wellington?
Georgiana : Not yet, we are waiting for him from minute to minute. Sit down, gentlemen. Sorry, I will only hand the children over to the nanny. Children - Henry, Charles! - follow me, just be careful not to stumble on the nut.
Leaves with the children and immediately returns alone.
Herschel : Let me introduce to you Mr. Clement.
Georgiana : Very pleased, Mr. Clement.
Clement silently bows from his corner.
How are you doing, John? Is your society with a heretical point still there?
Herschel ( smiling memories ): So you know about him? Did Charles tell you? Alas, the Society for the Tradition of the Death of All Supporters of the Newtonian Heresy Point has long been out of business. Your husband and I were then young people and had fun as we could. Although over the years the games have not changed much. Now, instead of the Society for the Tradition of the Death of All Supporters of the Newtonian Heresy, we are playing the Royal Society.
Georgiana : Since Charles was elected there, he has not said a single kind word about the Royal Society. I really don't understand this. Is it really true that all members of the Royal Society only deal with those who eat lunch at the expense of their society, awarding themselves with medals of honor for these dinners?
Herschel : Does Charles say that?
Georgiana : Especially when he is in a bad mood.
Herschel : Well, you can put it that way. Although I would argue with Charles that members of the Royal Society reward themselves not only for free lunches, but also for free dinners, not to mention lunches.
Georgiana : Well, and you too. It seems that all members of the Royal Society set out to speak about him disdainfully. However, tell us about yourself, John, I have not seen you for so long.
Herschel : There is nothing to tell, dear Georgiana. Astronomy is the most boring science. And what is the most offensive, before me there were countless astronomers in Phoenicians, Persians and Egyptians. Whether your husband's business. What he conceived, no Phoenicians never dreamed of.
Georgiana : Charles explained something to me, but I didn't understand anything. Some kind of tabulation of polynomials. In my opinion, this is terrible. It is better for him to get a department at some university, so it seems to me.
Herschel : I'm afraid, dear Georgiana, I really can not explain exactly what your husband planned. But if Charles manages to build his car, he will immortalize the name of Babbage over the centuries.
Georgiana : And what does this car, destined to immortalize for centuries, the name of my husband, should do?
Herschel : Count the numbers.
Georgiana : My God! Did the Duke of Wellington, such a clever statesman, agree to accept my husband?
Herschel : Of course. Didn’t Charles’s report on the use of machines for calculating astronomical and mathematical tables cause a stir in Astronomical Society? Didn’t Charles’s articles in the Edinburgh Science Journal and the Journal of the Astronomical Society received approval? You underestimate your husband, Georgiana.
Georgiana : Probably John. I am only his wife and I love him very much. But I would still prefer Charles to continue his astronomical career, as you did. Or do you think that Charles will be able to entreat the Treasury Department to pay for the construction of his car?
Herschel : I am convinced of this.
Georgiana : God forbid. Maybe then my husband will finally settle down and acquire stable prosperity. When Charles sank to the bottom of the diving bell to investigate the behavior of the compass under water, I just did not find a place for myself. Eternally, he will invent something dangerous.
Herschel : This time I am absolutely sure that the government will not refuse him. That is why he invited Mr. Clement. I think that after today's audience, Charles will not fail to get acquainted with the most skilled mechanic in London, as I recently managed.
Clement bows from his corner.
Georgiana ( absentmindedly ): The most skilled mechanic in London, speak? But you will look after my husband, John? I'm so worried about him.
Herschel : As far as possible. I regret that I can not take an active part in the construction of the car. I am a good astronomer, but with mechanics only in strained relations, besides by nature I am lazy. Moreover, the idea to construct a mechanical computer settled not in my head. I hope that Charles will cope perfectly without me, but for my part I will be happy to serve the old friend.
Babbage bursts into the living room. He is happy.
Babbage : Georgiana, Georgiana! Duke Wellington approved my project! He will notify the support of the project of the Royal Society!
Hugs and kisses Georgiana.
Herschel : That the Royal Society, which only makes that feeds its members with free lunches?
Babbage notices Herschel and hugs him as well.
Babbage : John, how nice to see you! The Duke of Wellington is a remarkable and sensitive official, unlike the rest. He listened to me carefully and almost understood. He said that the government usually does not finance inventors, but as an exception, it is ready to allocate fifteen hundred pounds!
Clement : Little!
Babbage puzzled and still turns around enthusiastically.
Herschel : Charles, let me introduce you to Mr. Clement. This is the most skillful mechanic in London you can find. In any case, all his acquaintances recommend him, and he himself seems to be in absolute confidence. Mr. Clement is self-taught, from the very thick of the London artisans.
Clement : Yes, I am the best.
Babbage : Mr. Clement, how glad I am to meet you!
Shakes his hand hotly.
So you all know? Did John tell you everything about my differential machine? How accurately can you make gears? Have you ever been in casting? But tell me something about yourself! Do you agree to participate in the manufacture of my differential machine?
Clement : You can discuss. How much will I get to work?
Babbage : If you are the best mechanic in London, you will get the best one. Do not hesitate, we will agree. But do you realize which project you are participating in? Can you imagine what this project means for England? You only understand, Mr. Clement, that my differential machine is the world's first mechanical calculator! So far in my head there is only a schematic diagram, but I will think out, I will definitely think out and match all the details. And now, Mr. Clement, we have a lot to discuss with you, first of all, in what room to conduct work.
Clement : In my workshop.
Babbage ( throwing up his hands ): What are you saying, Mr. Clement? Can not be! Do you have your own workshop?
Clement : The Most Equipped in London. None of the members of the Society of Mechanical Engineers have this. Drawing table. Planing and cutting machines. Everything needed.
Babbage : Where is she located?
Clement ( with dignity ): In the kitchen of my London home.
Babbage ( priplyasyvaya from the fullness of feelings ): And are you ready to provide your workshop for the construction of my differential machine? What an invaluable scientific nobility, Mr. Clement! Well, everything converges as well as possible. You are the best mechanic in London with your workshop, I have the idea of ​​a differential machine in my head, and the Treasury Department, usually so mean, allocates as many as fifteen hundred pounds to its construction. So for the cause, my friends! The interests of England can not tolerate any longer. The development of astronomical and mathematical tables requires the intervention of machinery! My differential machine, adding and subtracting mechanically, will release the English mathematicians from unbearably hard work. Come to the office, gentlemen, we will discuss the details of this historical moment.
Georgiana : Dispose of dinner, Charles?
Babbage : Later, dear, later. Mr. Clement and I are pretty damn busy and we don’t want to have dinner in the next five to six hours.
Heading to the office.
Herschel ( under his breath ): A team from a donkey zahomutala, in my opinion, poor Charles.

Scene 3

1828, the fifth since the construction of the differential machine. Clement's kitchen-workshop, crammed with drawing tables, machine tools and other engineering devices. Man is seven mechanics and draftsmen, among whom Vitvort, each busy with his own business. However, the kitchen itself still functions: in one of the corners you can see a stove with frying pans sizzling in the fire. Occasionally, an angry cook squeezes into the stove, dripping hot oil from the pans onto blueprints. On the threshold of this strange multifunctional room appears Herschel.
Herschel ( looks around ): Mr. Clement, where are you? Where are you hiding?
Clement for a second lifts his head from the machine, behind which grinds a part.
Clement : Oh, it's you. What is required?
Herschel: I came to inspect how things are going with you.
Clement ( with rude sarcasm ): So you are an inspector?
Herschel : Don't break the comedy, Clement. As you know, in the absence of Mr. Babbage, I am authorized to conduct his affairs. You are obliged to provide me with a full report on the work done on the construction of differential machines.
Clement quits the job.
Clement : Here it is, work. See, Mr. Inspector.
Herschel tries toe the details, lying on the floor without any order. He picks up a gear from an unusual shape and looks at it in surprise.
Herschel : What is this?
Clement : Gear.
Herschel: I see that gear. I ask why she? Can you explain what is the purpose of this gear in the Babbage differential machine?
Clement : I can. ( Appeals to one of the draftsmen ). Whitworth, explain.
The young, polite Whitworth unfolds a roll of drawings and begins to explain, receiving apparent pleasure from his explanations.
Whitworth : Please, Mr. Herschel. This gear is extremely important in the differential machine mechanism. Look ... ( Slides a finger over the drawing). ... parallel to this row of ratchet wheels are adder registers. They correspond to the radial grooves here on this cylinder. The adjusting fingers, rotating with the axle, bump into the lever arm. The lever presses the pin and inserts it between the two gear teeth ... the one about which you are asking. The dog allows the register gear to turn the passive wheel of the accumulator axis coupled to it, as a result of which the registers are added.
Herschel : Yeah.
Vitvort : If you do not quite understand, I can literally explain on the fingers, just say the word. Compare with the picture left to us by Mr. Babbage. This drawing, which you see, is made on the basis of the drawing of Mr. Babbage and the marks of Mr. Clement.
Herschel (surprised ): How do you rule the drawings of Charles?
Whitworth : Mr. Clement allowed some improvements in the drawings of Mr. Babbage, but in general he follows his instructions. When translating a scientific idea into a material, this is a common practice.
Herschel : Is Mr. Babbage aware of this?
Whitworth : I do not know. I think Mr. Babbage will not mind. The idea of ​​Mr. Clement with a ratchet wheel seems to me witty.
Clement (to Herschel ): Are you satisfied?
Herschel: No, absolutely not satisfied. Work on the differential machine lasts more than four years, and there is no end in sight. At your insistence, ten mechanics and draftsmen were involved in the work, but this didn’t seem to speed up its completion, but only slowed down. By the way, Mr. Clement, you are paid for ten workers, but no matter how much I come to your workshop, more than seven people have never been seen at a time, and even then counting with your chef. Are you sure that you have ten employees, not nine or not eight?
Clement : Absolutely.
Herschel : And where, let me ask, the rest of the workers?
Clement : Sent on business. Very urgent.
All work without raising their heads.
Herschel: Well, let them be sent on very urgent matters. But answer, when will finally work on the production of parts of the differential machine will be finished? When will you start assembly?
Clement : Ask Mr. Babbage better. Casting as a result of correcting the drawings took an extra year. A lot of details. People are exhausted.
Herschel : However, it is possible to cast billets more quickly.
Clement : No
Herschel : Why?
Clement : Who are you, Mr. Herschel, a mechanic?
Herschel : I am an astronomer.
Clement: You didn’t train mechanics in your Cambridge? Then I can not explain anything. Astronomer does not understand. Not you, not even Mr. Babbage. Mechanics is not astronomy, it is real art. Especially now that Mr. Babbage went to Italy.
All continue to work hard.
Herschel ( looking intently at the interlocutor's face ): You probably know why Mr. Babbage was forced to temporarily leave England?
Clement : To improve health, I suppose.
Herschel : And for what reason did his health fail? Or have you not heard that during the past year, Mr. Babbage died father, wife and two children? Charles’s health deteriorated after an unceasing series of funerals.
Clement : I've heard.
Whitworth ( excitedly ): Believe me, Mr. Herschel, we so sympathize with Babbage's grief and do everything we can.
Other workers come up to Herschel, making it clear how they sympathize with Babbage's grief.
Clement : But I'm not a mourner, but a mechanic. I was hired to build a differential machine. I do it.
All quickly diverge and get to work.
Herschel : You know, Mr. Clement, sometimes I strongly regret that I met the most skilled English mechanic myself and introduced him to my friend. Truly, Charles is too enthusiastic, thinking for the good of England, compared to insensitive pragmatists like you.
Clement : It's all the same. Not you, so another would lead me to it. I am the best. There is no other such mechanic, anyone will say. Do you think someone else can cast such a gear?
It smoothes gear teeth with a thumb in the burrs.
Herschel : If I were your employer, Mr. Clement, this gear would cost England much less.
Clement: I'm not afraid of you, Mr. Inspector. When Mr. Babbage returns from Italy, he will be able to fire me. Let him just try to find a replacement. The gear is the gear, there is nothing to be done.
Everyone is working hard.
Herschel : After all the good things Charles has done for you and continues to do, you could treat him and his mechanical calculator with more sympathy. I will describe the conversation that took place to Mr. Babbage. I will also try to retell what I heard from Mr. Whitworth as accurately as possible. Hopefully, having read my report, Mr. Babbage will appreciate the achievements of your production kitchen more highly than they appear in my eyes.
Heading to the exit. It is noticeable that Clement hesitates.
Clement : Wait!
Work stops at once. The eyes of all those present are turning to the chief mechanic.
Herschel ( without turning around ): Do you want something, Mr. Clement?
Clement : I need money.
Work resumes.
Herschel : Really? As far as I know, you were fully paid.
Clement : Not enough. It was more difficult to make radial grooves in wheels than I thought. But me and my people managed. Need more money.
Whitworth jumps.
Whitworth : That's true, Mr. Herschel. With these radial grooves, we suffered a lot.
Herschel ( turns to Clemente ): How much are you asking for?
Clement: Two hundred pounds.
Herschel : But what about those one hundred and fifty pounds that I, without notice to you, Charles paid you six months ago? Where are you going?
Clement : Their - on the longitudinal grooves.
Herschel : Two hundred pounds on the radial grooves, and one hundred and fifty on the longitudinal? Curiosity, show me these grooves, Clement.
Clement : Please.
Without looking, he picks up the detail from the floor and presents it to Herschel.
Here are the radial grooves.
Turns the part sideways.
But the longitudinal.
Herschel ( looking Clement in the eyes again): Do you know, Mr. Clement, that government funding is over? Government-allocated and a half thousand pounds all sailed away, and they sailed into your pocket. Fifteen hundred pounds sailed away, and not only was the car not built, but even its assembly was not started.
Clement : I don't care. I was hired. I'm a mechanic.
Total detached silence.
Herschel ( turning away ): Good. You will receive another two hundred pounds, at my own peril and risk, if you write to Mr. Babbage about this. I intend to forward the said requirement to Italy, in order of the report on the work you have done.
Clement shrugs, takes a sheet from the table and writes slowly.
Clement: Here.
Herschel ( reads): Ten people created the Babbage mechanical calculator, which is verified. All machine parts are in place. I also got to help someone who helped other helpers. Therefore, I want to get 200 pounds to continue. Joseph Clement.
Clement : That's all true.
Herschel (in official tone ): You, Mr. Clement, will get two hundred pounds next week. I hope you manage to justify yourself before Mr. Babbage, on which longitudinal-radial grooves you spent them. And keep in mind, Charles will not always be in Italy, he will be back very soon. And he understands mechanics much more than mine.
Leaves without saying goodbye. All silently work.

Scene 4

1833, the house of Babbage. Furniture is shifted in the corners. In the middle of the living room, instead of furniture, something huge was put, one and a half human height, covered with a piece of matter. Babbage and Clement are scurrying around. The mechanic hasn't changed much, but Babbage has visibly bored and has grown old. What else to expect from a man who is already forty-two years old and who has buried almost the entire family for several months?
Babbage : So you checked everything, Mr. Clement? I do not want to fail during a public demonstration.
Clement : Checked.
Babbage : No, I want to say, have you checked everything three times?
Clement : Once. It's enough.
Babbage : Well, well, well. Did you remember to send Whitworth to meet the guests? Is he not going away from his post?
Clement : No
Babbage : Great. Just great.
Approaches the car and wraps up the edge of fabric. At the sight of the mechanical computer, Babbage's eyes flare up.
Isn't it true our car is beautiful?
Clement : Yes. Ten thousand parts. Ten years of work.
Babbage : Beautiful. She is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. But it can still be improved, I feel. If skin feel its design flaws that prevent it from becoming the most beautiful car in the world. We must work, work more and more to achieve the perfect result.
The living room includes Henry, the only surviving son of Babbage. He is about nine years old now.
Henry : Dad!
Babbage : Henry, what are you doing here? Go back to your room immediately. Hey, somebody, take the child away! I'm damn busy.
Offended by Henry leaves.
( Clement ). So where are we staying?
Clement : We must decide where to continue assembly. This is only a part. When assembled, the differential machine will be three times more. My workshop is not suitable. In the kitchen, the assembled machine will not fit.
Babbage ( grabs the heads of y): God, I did not tell you so? How could I? With these troubles with a public demonstration completely forgotten. ( Solemnly ). Mr. Clement, I hereby inform you that in order to solve the problem with the room I turned to the Duke Wellington, who deigned to suggest a great option. Soon, your workshop will move to a new dust-proof room, which will be built by the British government in the area immediately adjacent to my house.
Clement : There is no place.
Babbage : I arranged a new workshop building to be built on the site of my stable. The stable will be demolished along with the driver’s house. Nothing, I can manage somehow without a stable.
Clement : Not suitable.
Babbage (in amazement ): How does not fit, Mr. Clement? The Ministry of Finance is already looking for a construction contractor.
Clement : Go far to the workshop. About four miles. Does not fit.
Babbage : Yes, here you are right, Mr. Clement, but we will come up with something together. What to do? Well, of course, as I didn’t realize at once - I can offer you a gardener's house for you to live in! Mr. Clement, I have the honor to make you an official offer. With the construction of a dustproof room for the differential machine, you move into my gardener's house. Living close to each other, we will be able to devote significantly more time to work. In fact, why do I need a gardener? Trees and without a gardener will grow, and the differential machine itself is not built.
Clement : You can discuss.
Babbage ( shaking hands with him ): That's great, Mr. Clement, I am genuinely pleased.
Again bends the edge of the fabric and examines the car.
No, she's beautiful after all. It is more beautiful than the starry sky. She is more beautiful than a kiss to her beloved. Even sunset over the Thames, and he can not be compared in beauty with my invention.
The noise of an approaching crowd is heard. The living room, led Whitworth, includes two dozen important visitors. Among them is the Duke of Wellington, also the widow of Lord Byron, Lady Milbank, with her daughter Ada, a miniature dark-haired girl of about eighteen.
Vitvort : I ask you, I ask you. Here it is, please.
Visitors are arranged in front of a car covered with cloth.
I represent the esteemed gentlemen of the inventor of the difference machine, Mr. Charles Babbage, and the chief mechanic, Mr. Joseph Clement.
Babbage and Clement are bowing. Visitors lightly, in order to promote, clap their hands.
Babbage : Ladies and gentlemen. Let me demonstrate the central part of the differential machine.
Tilts the fabric. The differential machine is a vertical structure with a variety of mating gears, rollers and gears. Below are the control levers and mounting wheels with handles. Everything is extremely bizarre and intricate.
All : Oh! Oh! Oh!
Then everyone speaks at the same time.
1st gentleman : What is this? This is not a car, but a set of gears.
2nd gentleman : I don't see numbers either. Where are the numbers? I was told that the differential machine is processing the numbers.
3rd gentleman : What do you mean numbers? I do not see the clamp where to insert the workpiece.
1st lady : She reminds me of the nightmare from my sleep the day before yesterday. Exactly the same, but a little smaller.
2nd lady : No need to fill up for the night, darling!
3rd lady : I do not agree. Shortly before sleep, you can be satisfied without indigestion, but only with plant food. And Mr. Babbage’s computing machine has nothing to do with it.
Ada : Tell us, Mr. Babbage, how is the addition made in your apparatus?
Wellington : Indeed, would you give the floor to the inventor?
Everyone applauds.
Babbage : Ladies and gentlemen. Let me briefly describe the actions built by me, with the assistance of Mr. Clement, the difference machine and the beneficial effects that it will have on English science in the very near future. The essence of the action of the difference machine is that by rotating the gears, it is necessary to tabulate logarithmic, trigonometric, and other functions, and the machine is equipped with a special bell that rings after performing a specified number of computational steps.
She presses the lever. From the inside of the mechanism there is a loud trill.
1st gentleman : Interestingly invented.
1st lady : But too loud! My ears are laid.
2nd gentleman : Only a member of the Royal Society could think of such a thing. I have always said that without the Royal Society, English science will lose itself.
2nd lady : I would make the call more melodic.
3rd gentleman : Yes, now I see that government subsidies are not thrown to the wind.
3rd lady : And I would have hung a bell more modest, somewhere in the corner.
Hell : Mr. Babbage, did I understand correctly that after the call, you can change the intermediate result to another one?
Lady Milbank ( bowing to her daughter ): Hell, please do not interrupt Mr. Babbage!
Hell ( not appeased ): And where do you put the finished calculations?
Babbage : On the printing mechanism, a young curious lady. The printing part of the machine is connected with these computational cams, which rise when turning the result wheels. Each print sector carries ten punches with numbers. Straightening, the lever presses on the punch and seals the result figure on the copper plate. In the next cycle, the plate is shifted to the left, the sector is rotated by a cam of another level, and the next digit is applied to the copper plate. (He smiles at Hell.) I must say, lady, for the appearance of fairies you have a surprisingly receptive mind.
Hell : And you have surprisingly a lot of patience, Mr. Babbage, if you hope to explain to the local intelligences here, why did several thousand metal gears hang from such a small bell?
Lady Milbank : Hell, you are behaving indecently.
1st gentleman ( surprised ): How many, you said, thousand gears? Some? I am sure that there are no more than six of them.
1st lady : In my opinion, it is too. Mr. Babbage could have cost four, five thousand, but not six! Six thousand - a clear bust.
3rd lady : Does the bell work with gears? What gears? I thought he was just hanging from a string or, in extreme cases, on a chain.
Ada ( Babbage ): Well, see for yourself. ( 3rd lady making a stupid face ). I totally and completely agree with you, darling. The bell is really suspended on a string.
3rd lady : I said so.
Babbage ( laughing, Ade ): You also have a sharp tongue, fairy.
3rd lady ( loudly, to all those gathered ): Gentlemen, I was the first to guess that the bell was hanging on a string!
Lady Milbank : Another word, Ada, and we will leave Mr. Babbage's hospitable shelter prematurely. You absolutely do not know how to behave in public.
Ada ( meekly ): Good, mom. ( Babbage ). I'm sorry, Mr. Babbage, but I have to cover my tongue until better times.
Babbage : With your permission, lady, I will continue. Thanks to my mechanical calculator, significant progress can be made in the development of mathematical and astronomical tables. The efforts of English mathematicians, as opposed to their continental colleagues, will henceforth focus not on stupefying mechanical calculations, but on scientific insight into the essence of the universe, which is only worthy of the height of the human mind. As soon as the differential machine is finished ...
1st gentleman : Excuse me, isn't it over?
2nd lady : So these gears aren't spinning? Can not be! I myself saw them spinning!
3rd gentleman : They are idling.
3rd lady : Is it possible to lubricate the wheels with vegetable oil so that the car finally works?
2nd gentleman ( not hearing ): So what are the government subsidies spent on! It turns out on vegetable oil! It is necessary to demand from the inventor a full financial report. Oil prices have jumped in the last month.
Forward is the Duke of Wellington.
Wellington : Ladies and gentlemen, please attention. The government, on whose behalf I am speaking now, strongly assures that the wheels of Mr. Babbage's difference machine will soon turn in the right direction. There is also no reason to worry about raising the price of vegetable oil, as Mr. Babbage reports to the government on his spending. Moreover, the British government is quite confident that not a single pound out of the amount allocated for the construction of a mechanical calculator has been given to Mr. Babbage personally. All funds allocated by the government are directed to the mechanics and draftsmen working under the direction of Mr. Clement, the most talented mechanic of the Old and New Worlds.
Clement protrudes from the corner where he was before and bows. They applaud him.
The government in no way doubts the high merits of Mr. Babbage’s differential machine and the bright future that awaits them both, and therefore intends to give the inventor another three thousand pounds, especially since Mr. Babbage’s personal expenses for building a differential machine have long exceeded this amount. ( Looks emphatically toward Clement .) The British government has no doubt that the chief mechanic Mr. Clement will manage to dispose of three thousand pounds no worse than he disposed of the previous one and a half ...
Clement bows.
... and, in order to give Mr. Clement full support in this matter, he appoints supervisors, to whom Mr. Clement will henceforth have to provide invoices for payment.
Clement, who was gathered to worship, thought better of it.
Babbage : Allow, dear visitors, to transfer you into the hands of Mr. Whitworth, so that he will answer your questions. You can touch the differential machine with your hands and even, with the kind assistance of Mr. Whitworth, make simple calculations that are currently available on it.
Everyone is touching the differential machine with their hands. Gentlemen at the same time make shrewd faces, and ladies scream. Rolling up his sleeves, Whitworth explains the control mechanism, rearranging the levers and spinning the wheels with effort, while Babbage and Wellington retreat to talk.
Wellington : Congratulations, Mr. Babbage, your differential machine with the first public presentation.
Babbage ( touched ): She does not find words to express gratitude. If it were not for the high patronage of Your Excellency, the differential machine, and with it its unfortunate inventor, would have been torn to pieces alive by a bloodthirsty crowd of educated English gentlemen. True, most of my today's guests are no different from the full members of the Royal Society.
Wellington : Well, well, do not exaggerate, Mr. Babbage, and stop your eternal attacks on the Royal Society. In the end, we all serve the interests of England, only we understand them in our own way. Are you satisfied with how things are going? Despite the brilliant reviews about the difference machine, your learned friends and good acquaintances, who you tirelessly send to the Treasury and Treasury, when will you finally present a workable model of your calculator? I can not always protect you from ministerial insinuations.
He notices Clement heading toward them.
... And when, finally, free the workshop of Mr. Clement? You can not always use his disinterestedness. The amount of rent you pay for using his kitchen is ridiculous. In any case, when I called her to Count Mensdorf and Marquis Lansdowne, they laughed for a long time. The Ministry of Finance has already identified a contractor who will undertake the construction of a new workshop. Act, act, Mr. Babbage, I will try to give your affairs a turn. Upon completion of construction, immediately transport the car from Mr. Clement’s kitchen to a new, more adapted and spacious room.
Clement fits.
Clement : Your Excellency.
Wellington ( pretends to just notice Clement ): Ah, Mr. Clement, they are easy! And I imagine, just talked about you. Mr. Babbage and I will try to free your workshop as quickly as possible. You do not have long to endure the inconvenience.
Clement : During the transport of the car from the workshop I will not be able to work. I need a refund for the concern.
Wellington ( politely ): Really, Mr. Clement? It is good that you are worried about the fate of the differential machine. I will bring the question of paying you compensation for anxiety to the next meeting of parliament. I hope English mechanics obey the decisions of the parliament when it is not used in their favor?
Clement : And I need two servants.
Wellington : Do you want the Duke of Wellington to hire you as a servant? And who will be the second servant? Is it Prince Albert?
Clement : I want the government to pay them.
Wellington ( more politely ): Believe me, Mr. Clement, I give an account of the greatest difficulties that Mr. Babbage faces when building a mechanical calculator, but the word is right, the British government is unable to satisfy all his subjects, even the best English mechanics, on better life Sorry, gentlemen, government name is.
Hastily removed.
Babbage : All the same, we will complete, we will complete it. Is not it, Mr. Clement?
Clement : You can discuss.
An enthusiastic exclamation of the 2nd lady is heard: “They are spinning! The wheels are still spinning! ”

Scene 5

Next year. New workshop, just rebuilt on the site of a stable. The workshop is completely empty: only the walls. Enter waving hands Babbage and Clement. They have just completed the last exterior inspection of the building.
Babbage : Well, are you sure, Mr. Clement, that everything is ready for operation? You see, in vain you were worried - in this room your workers will be much freer. There is an urgent need to organize the transportation of the differential machine, all the drawings and tools to the new workshop.
Clement : No
Babbage : Sorry, as you said?
Clement : No
Babbage ( perplexed ): But why, Mr. Clement? The room is completely ready and much more spacious than your kitchen.
Clement : I did not get a refund for my concern.
Babbage : But the Ministry of Finance refused you! It wrote that it did not intend to indulge in any unreasonable demands.
Clement : Then pay you. I don't care. I'm a mechanic.
Babbage staggering.
Babbage ( stammering ): Mr. Clement! I already invested in the construction of the machine more than my condition allowed. You must enter my position, we have been working with you for so long. From the inheritance, and so small, almost nothing is left. While I could, I paid your bills earlier than government subsidies did. I paid your bills without any government subsidies, for the good of England. For many years I financed the car along with the government, but now things are upset! Last month, trying to make money on shares of an American company, I lost the last three thousand pounds. I wanted to speed up the work, but only slowed it down. Fool, what a fool, because three thousand pounds could be enough to finish the construction!
Covers his face with his hands.
But nothing, you will see, Mr. Clement, that in the near future everything will return to normal. I have amazing plans for this. You know, two years ago my book “Economics of Machines and Production” was published. The first step is the hardest: I'm going to write a novel in three volumes, rescuing as many as five thousand pounds for it. If the novel is not sold, I construct a tic-tac-toe machine, we can design it together. We will drive around the cities, give fair performances. You will see that in six months the money will be enough to complete the differential machine.When the construction is completed, the government will not forget us, we will receive a decent reward and glorify our names in the next centuries. What am I telling you, no matter to whom you know what miracles our differential machine is capable of! Come to your senses, Mr. Clement, I beg of you.
Clement : I will not go to fairs with you. I'm not a clown, I'm a mechanic.
Babbage : Mr. Clement, you can't just give up my life's work!
Clement : I can, if unprofitable.
Heading to the door.
Babbage: Well, Mr. Clement, did not want to tell you ahead of time, until the idea finally matured, but now I have to say. I believe I can convince you, Mr. Clement, because you are an amazing, wonderful mechanic. The fact is that for more than a year now I have been working on a device for a new model of a mechanical calculator - an analytical machine. This is something incredible, Mr. Clement, I myself am surprised at its power. With a difference machine is simply incomparable. The analytical machine will be able to perform operations on one hundred variables, each number may consist of twenty-five digits, take any function composed of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, extraction of roots and elevation to a power. It will substitute the variable in any function and perform the calculation.When there is a relation between any number of consecutive coefficients of a series, the analytic machine calculates them and determines the members of this series sequentially, after which it will be possible to arrange the machine so that it gives the sum of the series for any variable quantity values.
Clement listens carefully.
Do you understand what this means?
Clement : I understand. This have not happened before.
Babbage : That's great, Mr. Clement. I immediately sit down at the letter to the Ministry of Finance, in which I will beg them to quickly check and pay your bills. At the same time I will report on the idea of ​​an analytical machine and propose to consider the question of the expediency of completing a differential machine. If the finance ministry finds it possible, work on the differential machine will have to be suspended in order to get involved in a more modern project.
Clement : No If I am not paid now, I will dismiss the workers.
Babbage flashes. For the first time in many years of communication with the chief mechanic, metallic notes are heard in his voice.
Babbage: You have the right to dismiss your employees, Mr. Clement. That is what I advise you to do. In the end, all of you, full members of the Royal Society and artisan self-taught, to one person. But you are not the only English mechanic, Mr. Clement, I should have understood this for a long time. Would you like to suspend work? Not at all: after your kitchen is cleared of the difference machine, tools and drawings, I will hire new draftsmen in return for your dismissed ones and find a new chief mechanic.
Clement : My tools.
Babbage : Take your tools. The new mechanic will make others, not worse than yours.
Clement : Until I get a refund, I won't give the car and the drawings to anyone.
Babbage : What?
Clement: I need money, Mr. Babbage.
Babbage : You will not give me my drawings? Will you give me my car? What are you saying?
Clement : I'm waiting for the money.
Leaves, shrugging.
Babbage ( after Clement ): Get out! Get out !!! Get out !!!
Leans on the wall. There is no place to sit down - there is no furniture. In the end, Babbage sits on the floor of an empty workshop, clasping his head with his hands. She doesn't notice how Ada appears in the living room. She is pregnant.
Hell : Mr. Babbage!
Babbage does not hear.
Mr. Babbage, you feel bad? Why are you on the floor?
Babbage rises hard.
Babbage: Oh, it's you, fairy. Sorry, I sprained my leg and sat down to rest. But now I feel much better. The head no longer hurts.
Hell : Did you have a conversation with Clement? I encountered your torturer at the porch, and he was clearly out of sorts.
Babbage (in an extinct voice ): Yes, it threatens to fire the draftsmen and stop working on the differential machine, and this is when the government built a new workshop. He does not want to return the details and drawings until he receives the money. But I have nothing to pay him, and government subsidies have now been exhausted. Until we manage to get new ones, it will take at least six months. Build my differential machine at risk.
Hell : Empty, Mr. Babbage.
Babbage: The worst thing is that I myself do not know whether to continue working on it.
Ada : Are you desperate?
Babbage ( quickening ): That's not the point. I came up with a new car, much better than the old one. Work with twenty-five-digit numbers, any functions with any variables and coefficients. If you know how to do well, why do it badly? You cannot imagine, fairy, how difficult it is to look into the future when everyone around is immersed in the present. Unbearable, terrible feeling!
Holding on to whiskey.
Hell : You, probably, already gave the name to the new mechanical miracle?
Babbage : I called it an analytical machine.
Hell: Analytical machine. What a harmonious name. You are a true servant of mathematics, Mr. Babbage.
Babbage : Unfortunately, my fastidious mathematician mistress is not too sympathetic to his servants. Mocks them as and when they want. Patience and torment are their eternal lot.
Hell : Servants have no choice, Mr. Babbage.
Babbage : Here you are right, fairy.
Ada : But a mistress can hire a second to help one servant.
Babbage : Who is this second servant?
Ada : J.
Babbage : Fairies are not in service.
Hell: No, there are, Mr. Babbage, that's why I came to you. You have no idea how powerful energy is concentrated in my little being. My brain is more than a mere mortal substance. Do not mind, I feel that this is so. In less than a few years I will suck up a certain number of riddles from the depths of the universe, moreover, as ordinary mortal lips and minds could not do.
Babbage ( smiling ): What do you want from me, bloodsucking fairy? So I set you up your neck? In this case, you will have to take an extreme place in a long line starting on Devonshire Street and ending somewhere outside the city outskirts.
Hell: No, Mr. Babbage, I do not want to suck your blood, on the contrary, I will become your mental donor. My husband, Earl Lovelace, owns my body, but not my brain. I give my brain to serve you, Mr. Babbage. Accept my brain as a gift, and your work will be greatly diminished. Let's create an analytical machine together.
Babbage looks in fright at Ada's saggy belly.
Babbage : You have toxicosis, fairy. Shouldn't I send for Count Lovelace? Give you a crew so you can get to the doctor?
Hell: I have my own crew, Mr. Babbage, and there will be no need to send for my husband for another two months. And stop laughing at my feminine position, I know what I'm saying. I swear to the devil, I will help you in working on a mechanical calculator if you find me a good math teacher.
Babbage : My sweet, in the feminine position of the fairy! Your inclination towards exact sciences is unquestionable, but it will take many years before you can get up to speed. Especially since my scientific work, and with it all the failed life, are in a state of pre-storm uncertainty.
Hell : Fairies are not afraid of thunderstorms and are not subject to decay, so let's get down to it, Mr. Babbage. Let's hurry up the drawings of our new analytical machine, I can not wait to sort them out.
Babbage: I submit, fairy.
Transmits several sketches of Ada.
I hope your husband, Earl Lovelace, will not challenge me for an attempt to kidnap his wife's brains.
Ada ( laughs mischievously ): The Earl is an exceptionally gentle and kindhearted person, moreover, far from mathematics. The absence of the wife of this part of the body, he will not notice. And now I have to say goodbye, in order to show my husband the remaining parts, to hide the absence of which will be much more difficult. And don't worry about your differential machine, Mr. Babbage. One of two things: either you finish it, or build a new, analytical machine, even more beautiful than the previous one. By the way, have you already reported the resulting options to the government?
Babbage: I intend to inform in the near future, but I am far from being sure that the government will respond favorably to my message, especially in the light of Mr. Clement’s ultimatum. But in any case, thank you very much, dear fairy. Thank you for your active participation in the fate of the most hapless of the English inventors.
Ada leaves. Babbage thinks. Remembering the conversation with Clement, gloomy. Outside you can hear the loud music of an organ-grinder. Babbage opens the window.
Stop the noise! Here lives a learned gentleman who does not tolerate noise at all. Get out of here! Go play in some other place.
The music stops. Babbage shut the window with a bang.

Scene 6

1842 year. Eight more years passed. The huge, pompously furnished cabinet of Sir Robert Peel. The owner of the cabinet bent over the papers. The secretary introduces even more aged and worn Babbage. Peel's head, ending in a sharp nose, rises from the papers and gazes at the inventor.
Pil : Following your persistent, sometimes excessively persistent wishes, Mr. Babbage, I agreed to devote you a certain amount of time in order to resolve your question once and for all.
Babbage : I'm touched, sir.
Pil: I am sorry to inform you that the British government did not consider it possible to continue working on the machine on which you personally, as well as other draftsmen and mechanics, spent so much ingenuity and hard work, and so much money by the British government.
Babbage : But, sir, take note ...
Pil ( continues): Moreover, the British government expresses its bewilderment over the fact that an unfinished differential machine, funded for two decades, seems to be an obsolete word of technology. As a consequence, you are proposing to the British government to begin financing the so-called analytical machine, supposedly more advanced. The bewilderment of the government is as follows. Why was it necessary to finance an imperfect differential machine, if a more advanced analytical machine could be built? This question the government leaves on the conscience of the inventor.
Babbage : The development of science, sir ...
Peel ( apparently, already expressing a personal opinion, and not the opinion of the English government): The development of science about which you are working, Mr. Babbage, requires such a significant financial infusion that I do not see a complete and final rejection of the construction of an analytical machine no alternative. How much money, you say, was spent on manufacturing a differential machine?
Babbage : For all the time, seventeen thousand pounds, but six thousand of them were invested by me personally. This is all that I could afford. But if the analytical machine was built, it would pay off instantly and repeatedly.
Pil : I wish you all the best, Mr. Babbage.
Babbage looks up.
Babbage: But, sir, your predecessor, his Excellency, the Duke of Wellington, left me firm assurances to continue funding until the completion of the construction of my mechanical calculator!
Pil : I am not responsible for the mistakes of my predecessors, Mr. Babbage. However ... ( continues on behalf of the English government ) ... paying tribute to the work you have done and in order to encourage your further scientific activities for the benefit of England, which you never doubted, the British government will hand over the government-built workshop at your complete disposal.
Babbage ( proudly): Thank you for the unheard of generosity of the English government and you personally, Sir Peale. I assure you that, as far as possible, I will continue to work on the analytical machine until its completion.
Pil : As it pleases, Mr. Babbage. I dare not detain you anymore.
Babbage on stiff legs goes to the door, but returns.
Babbage ( with tears in his eyes): Mr. Pil, sir! For about twenty years I have been leading the construction of computers, with the last eight years of work moving so slowly that they can be considered suspended. This is due to lack of funding. Is it really difficult to assess the influence of mechanical calculators on the future progress of science? It is about making a machine that immediately and for all subsequent times will provide the English nation with excellent and accurate mathematical tables and which will perform such calculations, from which all of humanity has retreated in hopeless disappointment. I was hoping that I live in a country that can understand this.
Pil: It is very touching, Mr. Babbage, however, you will not be able to make the same pitiful impression for English finances on me that you made on the Duke of Wellington. If you want to burn your only life on the invention of mechanical wonders, your right. However, leave alone the English treasury, the interests of which, among other things, I am assigned to observe here. The benefit of the English crown lies not only in the construction of a mechanical calculator, about which you care so much for your ambition, but also in many others that require not less, and sometimes more funding for activities. These events, unlike your calculator, bring England a direct benefit.
Babbage is clearly not in himself.
Babbage: Sir! I sacrificed time, health, fortune, I rejected several complimentary offers, trying to complete my computers. But after the sacrifices made in order to bring my mechanical calculators to perfect intellectual possibilities, I did not receive from the English government any words of gratitude for my work, nor those honors that people usually devote themselves to scientific research. You ... You, sir ... You are Herostratus of science! If you do not help the realization of an amazing idea, the creation of a mechanical calculator, the descendants will write your name in black letters to the list of politicians who tried their best to delay the prosperity and world domination of English science.
Pil ( on my own): And you are an incorrigible idiot, Mr. Babbage, despite your membership in the Royal Society and other scientific achievements ... ( Again, on behalf of the English government ) ... in which, despite any disagreement, the British government is still not in doubt. ( On my own behalf ). In my opinion, we have said goodbye for a long time.
Babbage goes staggering. Peel's sharp-nosed head leans over the papers.

Scene 7

1844, two years have passed since the conversation in Sir Robert Peel's office. Horse racing Elegant English public in pairs walking under the cool English sun. Ada Lovelace, with dark circles under his eyes, rests on the hand of her husband, Earl Lovelace. Notices Babbage and waving an umbrella at him.
Hell : Mr. Babbage! Charles! Charles, come to us!
Babbage fit. He is fifty-three years old.
Babbage : I am happy to see you, Lady Lovelace. Good afternoon, dear Earl.
Count Lovelace : I have the honor, Mr. Babbage. Isn't it wonderful weather today?
Babbage : Weather?
He notices the circles under the eyes of Ada.
You look tired, fairy. I hope this is not related to your mathematical exercises?
Hell : What are you, Mr. Babbage! Only mathematical exercises give your fairy the power not to fly away from boring earthly concerns.
Earl Lovelace : I also constantly tell Ade to do less. You know, Mr. Babbage, she, for whatever it takes, constantly overdo it. Since she seriously became interested in mathematics, this is the only thing that breathes. You would caution her against excessive zeal.
Hell : William is joking. Is it possible to do math unnecessarily?
Babbage : Unfortunately, it is possible, and a sad example of excessive zeal before your eyes.
Bows.
Count Lovelace: You are a famous writer and scholar, a member of the Royal Society, Mr. Babbage. In addition, you are recognized as an extravagant, so everything is forgivable to you. As for my wife, she could hardly pay too much time to math.
Babbage : When Ada had just begun her studies, I also thought so. But I assure you, she has come an incredible way. I would never have believed that women are able to reach such a depth of penetration into the secrets of the universe that your wife has reached.
Hell : Charles, do you want my complexion to change from blue to red? Have pity on your fairy.
Babbage : I just pay tribute to her.
Count Lovelace: You, Mr. Babbage, must be referring to the comments to some translation from Italian, which appeared a year ago.
Babbage : Exactly. I mean brilliant scientific comments on the translation of the article by the Italian researcher Luigi Menabria "An Essay on an Analytical Machine Invented by Charles Babbage" in the Swiss scientific journal Library of the University of Geneva made by my wife with my scientific guidance. Initially, I was going to comment on this article myself, but due to heavy workload, I transferred this matter to Ada, which I don’t regret. She commented on the article better than anyone else could.
Hell : Well, Charles, stop, please!
BabbageA: However, during the work on the commentary, your wife exhausted her supervisor more than the finance ministry did for more than twenty years of work on mechanical calculators. So you can consider me completely repentant that I contributed to Ada's studies in mathematics.
Hell : Well, only I was going to soar to the heavens, as the malicious Mr. Babbage cut his fairy wings, causing her to dive onto the bench.
Sits down.
Count Lovelace: I am glad to your repentance, Mr. Babbage. Honestly, Ada sometimes scares me. Do you know that she calls her first child not our first child, but a comment? Recently, to the question of one honorable matron, how old her first child was, she replied that it was only a year old, and it was published in Scientific Notes.
Babbage can not burst out laughing. Ada, after him, rushes off the bench.
Babbage : Your wife has always been and remains the most charming and restless creature known to English science. And damn talented.
Squires and starts reading from memory.
“By the word“ operation ”we mean any process that changes the mutual relation of two or more things, whatever the nature of the relationship. This is the most common definition, covering all objects in the universe. The science of operations, as derived from mathematics, but more specialized, is an independent branch of knowledge, having abstract truths and meanings, independent of the object to which we apply our reasoning. Anyone who is familiar with this postulate knows that if certain basic assumptions are correct, then the justice of other combinations of relationships that are not limited in their diversity and scope necessarily follows. ” No, well, what? It is said that when Menabria got acquainted with the translation signed by the initials of A. L., he puzzled for a week who would be among the English mathematicians.
Count Lovelace: In my opinion, now my wife has changed the direction of the search. Mechanical calculators are not so overwhelmed by her pretty head as before.
Babbage : Is that how fairy? What are your new scientific aspirations? I am more than sure that they do not go beyond mathematics.
Hell ( with reluctance ): You see, Mr. Babbage ... I came up with a promising idea ... from the field of mathematical capabilities ... Well, in general, seeing how hard it is for you to continue working on mechanical calculators almost alone, I wondered if I could make money for you some money.
Babbage : A noble goal, although hardly approved by your husband. But how, lady, did you decide to replace the English treasury with you?
Hell: I conceived ... to develop a theory of a win-win game ... and to finish building an analytical machine with won money. Of course, I would definitely consult with you, Mr. Babbage ... maybe we would develop my theory of a win-win game ... but you see, Charles, I wanted to ... most while I'm at the very beginning of experiments ...
Babbage : What experiments, Hell? Do you want to say that you came to the races as an experimenter?
Earl Lovelace : You will not believe, Mr. Babbage.
Babbage ( shaking his head ): And how long have you begun to experiment, lady? How much did you manage to experiment?
Earl Lovelace : Large enough. So large that I absolutely forbade Ade to play races.
Hell : Not as big as Mr. Babbage spent on building mechanical calculators.
Earl Lovelace : I beg you, Mr. Babbage, if my wife asks you to make a bid for her, refuse with all possible inflexibility and severity.
Babbage : Do not doubt my prudence, Count. Doing stupid things yourself is much easier than watching the stupidities of good acquaintances. ( Ada ). And you, dear fairy, do not confuse math with playing races, these are different activities. With all my heart I advise you to quit your addiction, whatever imaginary benefit it covers. ( Earl of Lovelace, with feigned earnestness). I advise you, dear Count, to influence your wife, or, in order to re-educate and correct, send her to the quarry to crush marble.
Ada : My husband would certainly have done so, but you know how difficult it is to send a brilliant mathematician to the quarry, and even with such a firstborn in his arms.
Everybody laughs. Ada rises from the bench.
Babbage : My respect, Count. My deference, beautiful fairy. I hope the next time I see you, you'll smile more often.
Count Lovelace : My respect, Mr. Babbage.
Hell : Goodbye, dear Charles. You have no idea how glad I was to see you.
Diverging in different directions.

Scene 8

1853 Nine years later. The Babbage workshop this time is not empty, but filled up with unfinished fragments, as well as with drawings of two mechanical calculators: difference and analytical machines. Babbage alone at the drawing table. He is sixty-two years old. He has a huge bulging forehead and sarcastic grin, forever frozen on his lips and as if saying: “Even if everything is all right, it’s still bad.” Enters, in a black dress, Lady Milbank.
Lady Milbank : Mr. Babbage, are you here?
Babbage with surprise and apparent reluctance breaks away from the drawing.
Babbage : Lady Milbank?
Lady Milbank : Mr. Babbage, I came to talk with you about my daughter.
Babbage: The death of Ada was a heavy blow to me. I loved and idolized your daughter. She was an amazing person.
Lady Milbank : Ada was an eternal madcap and completely disobeyed me. If it were not for her intense mathematical studies, she might have stayed with her husband and children for a long time.
Babbage : I warned her against excessive zeal.
Lady Milbank : Warned? And this is said by the supervisor of my daughter, who has guided her on the disastrous path with his own hand! How do you turn your tongue, Mr. Babbage ?!
Babbage : Ada herself chose her way.
Lady Milbank : And you told her this path, Mr. Babbage! But I cannot thank you for your learned instructions.
Babbage is twisted in pain. It can be seen how unpleasant the conversation is.
Babbage : Seek recognition that I killed your daughter?
Lady Milbank : No, Mr. Babbage. Being familiar with you, I do not hope for an honest and noble act. I just want to ask, what do you know about the last years of Ada's life?
Babbage : It is strange that her mother asks about it.
Lady Milbank : You are strange, but it hurts me. It hurts indecency. Nevertheless, you communicated and corresponded with my daughter until her death. I don’t know why she trusted you with something she couldn’t trust her mother with.
Babbage : Yes, she trusted me. This is true.
Lady Milbank : In that case, you should know who Lady Lovelace made bets through. Please tell me about it, Mr. Babbage.
Babbage : Through anyone, but not through me. I have never endorsed the excitement that Ada experienced in horse racing, and never believed in the possibility of creating a theory of a win-win game that your daughter tried to develop. That is all I have to tell you.
Lady Milbank : I have information that the stakes were made through some subject with whom my daughter eventually entered into an indecent relationship. The reputation of my daughter, as well as the reputation of her entire family, has been put under public doubt.
Babbage: This subject was not me, I assure you. It is unpleasant, but I cannot say anything more about this. Especially since Ada, from a friendly disposition, really trusted me some of her personal secrets. But now the fairy is in the grave, and I see no reason to disturb her sacred dust ... Why did you come to me, Lady Milbank?
Lady Milbank : For the love of her daughter. Don't you understand the maternal desire to know the truth about your daughter, Mr. Babbage?
Babbage : Let's for the love of your daughter leave this painful occupation.
Lady Milbank : Mr. Babbage, if you do not want to tell me anything, well, do not tell ... Return at least Ada's letters.
Babbage: Based on the friendly trust your daughter has shown me, I cannot fulfill your request. The letters were meant for me, and I intend to keep them.
Lady Milbank ( dryly ): I did not expect anything else from you, Mr. Babbage. But I can hope that our conversation will remain in secret? What at the moment of spiritual confusion do not betray the undesirable facts known to you from the life of my deceased daughter to general publicity?
Babbage : You can be completely calm in this, Lady Milbank. Getting me off balance isn't easy.
The sound of broken glass is heard. A brick thrown from the street is rolled into the room. Babbage instantly grows furious.
Damn it Again, these street musicians! They are taking revenge on me for complaining to the city authorities about them.
Henry, the son of Babbage, rushes into the workshop. He is about thirty years old. He is a handsome and broad-shouldered man, with a black beard and soft features.
Henry : What happened, Mr. Babbage? Did you break the window again?
Babbage : Yes, see for yourself, Henry.
Leans out the window.
Scoundrels! Dud! A nasty trash! I will teach you to respect the peace of the English gentleman! Black! Bastards!
In response, a mocking melody comes from a window, playing on some kind of folk instrument.
What?You will pay for it, parasites! I will find justice on you, I will deal with you myself. Next time I will put a mortar in the window and smash you with all your idiotic drums, barrel organs and rattles! You will long remember Charles Babbage and his hospitality.
Grabs a brick and throws it back. Outside, the hooting of the crowd.
Lady Milbank : You are a monster, Mr. Babbage.
Henry : Please, Lady Milbank.
Takes her hand.
The father cannot tolerate musicians, because with their noise they prevent him from thinking. Every time when there is noisy under the window, he chases the musicians. In retaliation, they often break the glass in the workshop, bringing Mr. Babbage to frenzy. Now he is insane, Lady Milbank. Come, please, I will take you to the crew.
Leave.
Babbage ( mumbles to herself ): Fairy ... fairy ... Damned musicians, absolutely do not allow to work. It is impossible to annoy a learned man like that. Someday kill them all.
He sits down at the blueprints and, lost in thought, immediately forgets about everything. Henry returns and watches his father’s work for a while.
Henry : Let me help you, Mr. Babbage. Tell me what to do.
Babbage : You can't handle it, Henry. Moreover, what help? The analytical machine will never be completed. I am not able to complete it alone, have time to put in order the drawings.
Henry : I will help you in the calculations.
Babbage: It will not work, my boy. Your abilities are modest, that you are the poured out dead mother.
Henry : I will give up my military career, devote myself to an analytical machine.
Babbage critically looks at Henry.
Babbage: Yes, and you can not, Henry, even if you want. Where are you to me, you are not so crazy as your father! If you had the ability and perseverance of a real scientist, all the same, everything was over many years ago. I work more by inertia, just because I have been doing this all my life. Neither England nor the rest of humanity needs my analytical machine, otherwise over the past thirty years they would have found the money to build it. God is with him, with humanity, I hate him. You know, I recently invented a new fire extinguishing method, but I do not intend to make it public. Let the whole of England with all its wandering musicians, organ-grinders, comedians and cursed circus performers burn to the ground, I will not lead an eyebrow.
Silence.
Yes, one more thing, Henry. Take old letters on that table and burn them without reading. These letters keep the secrets of a person dear to me, and I do not want them to be rude and arrogant historians. Poor fairy, why did she get involved with this bastard, this insignificant player? Was he worthy of her? Burn it, burn it, burn it, Henry. Lady Milbank is absolutely right - these documents must be destroyed as soon as possible.
Henry : All right, Mr. Babbage.
The doors of the workshop open. On the threshold are new faces unfamiliar to Babbage - Per Georg Schütz and his son Edward.
Schutz : Mr. Babbage?
Babbage : At your service. What is required, gentlemen?
Schutz : We came to pay homage to the great English inventor, Charles Babbage.
Babbage : I am flattered, gentlemen. Sorry for the noise, the window is broken. Currently, he is a full member of the Royal Society, a gold medalist of the Astronomical Society, a professor at the Lyukasovskaya department of the University of Cambridge, and so on, and the like is waging a full-scale war with wandering musicians. In the last battles, military luck, unfortunately, turned away from him.
Schütz : My name is Per Georg Schütz, from Stockholm. And this is my son Edward.
Babbage : Nice to meet you.
Edward considers knotted and individual parts laid out in the corners of the workshop. He stumbles upon an unfinished model of a difference machine, retreats a step to get a better look at it, and gasps.
Edward : Dad, look! It is vertical.
Schutz : Vertical? Can not be!But the basic design solutions at least the same?
Eagerly consider differential machine.
Babbage : Of course, vertical, but what else will it be?
Edward : Dad and I thought it should be horizontal. The horizontal version is more practical.
Schutz : Pay attention, Edward, to this ratchet. In the article, his description was missing, but we pretty accurately guessed everything.
Edward : But these installation fonts have a completely different solution. It will be necessary to analyze which of the options is better.
Babbage : Wait, wait, gentlemen, I do not quite understand. What article are you talking about?
Schutz: On the article by Luigi Menabria, published about eleven years ago in the journal "Library of the University of Geneva." We met her in the English translation, printed in “Scientific Notes”, with comments by a certain A. L. Unfortunately, there were no drawings for the article, so my son and I had to restore your thoughts, engineering designs and ideas. It took a lot of time, but the result exceeded expectations. Your ideas, Mr. Babbage, turned out to be perfectly fair and workable.
Babbage ( confused ): I do not understand. Would you like to say that, based on an article printed eleven years ago describing the operation of my car, you were able to build a mechanical calculator?
Schutz: Did I not say these words, Mr. Babbage?
Pause.
Babbage : So you say that the mechanical computer is built?
Schutz : Well, yes.
Babbage : And well, does it work?
Schutz : Tabulates functions with constant first and third differences. The model, supplemented by a printing mechanism, was demonstrated at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Using a short stay in London, my son and I went to express our admiration for you, Mr. Babbage, to the person who formulated the principles of mechanical computation. Only the article by Menabria about your analytical machine, Mr. Babbage, prompted us and my son to take up the work and complete it in triumph.
Babbage: Henry, do you hear? Mechanical calculator built!
Henry nods. Babbage laughs, covering his face with his hands. When he takes his hands off his face, tears flow down his cheeks.
Excuse me, gentlemen. In recent years, my health is no good. So you say you built it?
Edward : They built it, but it's expensive for my father.
Babbage : Yes, yes. Tell us how you managed it? You are probably a very wealthy person, if you could do it.
Schutz: Was well-to-do. Once I practiced law, then I bought a printing house, at the same time becoming a co-owner of an influential newspaper. But the article of Menabria about your analytical machine confused me. Under your influence, Mr. Babbage, I started making all kinds of mechanical knots, after which Edward joined me. Soon our savings with my son melted away, and I was forced to sell a printing house, having got a job working as an ordinary employee of the newspaper. However, work on the machine, although with all sorts of difficulties, continued. If it were not for the support of the Swedish parliament, the construction of a mechanical calculator would never have been completed.
Babbage : And how much have you received from your parliament?
Schutz : Ten thousand rikstaler.
Babbage: Ten thousand rikstaler? Wait a minute, how much is it? But it's less than six hundred pounds!
Schütz : Near that.
Babbage laughs again.
Babbage : Sorry, gentlemen, nerves. I am very sorry that you cannot repeat what was said to Sir Robert Peel, also to my former chief mechanic Clement. However, how can I help you? While you are in England, dispose of me as you see fit, I in turn will do for you everything that is in my power. Where is your calculator located? Is it possible to put it in London? Which of the other English scientists have you visited? I have some connections, I hope to awaken interest in your mechanical calculator. Answer, answer soon, gentlemen!
A man appears in the doorway of the workshop.
Person: Mr Babbage?
Babbage : Yes, in front of you is Charles Babbage. Who are you?
Man : Don't you recognize me, Mr. Babbage? I am Whitworth, draftsman of Mr. Clement.
This is indeed Vitvort, flabby, but dressed with a needle and acquired a proud posture during the years of absence.
Babbage : Yes, now I find out. What fate, Whitworth? How many years have we not seen?
Vitvort : About twenty years, since that time, as Mr. Clement quarreled with you and calculated all his employees. I hope you managed to scratch my drawings and all the parts made from my former boss?
Babbage: It was possible, though not immediately and with great difficulty. Duke Wellington, until he resigned, gave me all possible assistance. Here they are, the drawings, all here.
Nods at the papers piled in the corner of the workshop.
But now it’s not the differential, but the analytical machine that takes me more.
WhitworthA: This is very good, Mr. Babbage, because I come to you with a business proposal. If you do not know, after the dismissal, I went to Manchester, and there, after many years of hard work, I organized my own workshop. Now I am rich and can afford your analytical machine. Yes, Mr. Babbage, do not be surprised. I suggest you move to Manchester to start all over again. My instrumental workshop and my considerable finances are at your service. Just do not assume that this is a charitable offer. After construction, I use your car for commercial purposes, it will work tirelessly, bringing money to your and my new projects. I have been waiting for this moment for many years, Mr. Babbage, and now I am happy that I finally waited.
Babbage laughs for the third time, and tears are rising again in his eyes.
Babbage : Excuse me, Vitvort, my health has recently completely deteriorated. I appreciate your luxury offer, but the fact is that you are ten or eleven minutes late. The fact is that a mechanical calculator has already been built.
Whitworth : It can not be! So you built it after all? But why I do not know about this?
Babbage : It was built by these magnificent Swedes.
Nods at Shyuttsev. Those with dignity bow.
Whitworth ( Schutzam ): Have you built a mechanical calculator? And he acts? Incredible!I urgently need to talk with you, gentlemen. First, answer, with what accuracy are the calculations made? Secondly, what functions can be processed on your computer? Thirdly, what is the likelihood of errors? I hope the mechanical calculator is in full your property and with its delivery to England there will be no problems?
They step aside and talk about something animatedly.
Henry : What will you do now, Mr. Babbage?
Babbage : How what, my son? I will continue the construction of the analytical machine. I doubt that Messrs. Schiutz managed to embody all the engineering ideas that had accumulated in my head over forty years into metal. No scientific article can accommodate all my ideas. And still, it is very, very strange.
Henry : What is strange?
Babbage : It is strange to feel that life ends. Overcome conflicting feelings. I devoted myself to achieving a great idea, but I never imagined that it would be implemented without my direct participation. Yes, I worked for subsequent generations, but did not expect that humanity would do without me at all! Swedes! My God, who would have thought - the Swedes! And the mighty and good England because of the connivance of the ministers and the sluggishness of the treasurers, with complete national insensitivity and indifference, is again out of work.
A stone flies into the room, this time through another window. Jingle glass. Shyuttsy with Whitworth shudder and move back in fear. Rabidy Babbage pokes out and screams.
Babbage: Leave me alone! I am a learned gentleman, and finally leave me alone! I demand silence! I can not stand the noise! Is it really impossible to keep quiet? Black! Scum! Fiends of the human race !!! I hate you! I hate you all! You are bad people! You are unworthy of human rank! If you are so selfish and short-sighted, humanity, damn you!

A curtain