In August 1843, a brilliant young countess, Ada Lovelace, approached an irascible inventor to offer her help to secure funding for the world's first mechanical computer. She alone had grasped the full implications of such a machine and had even written the first computer program for it. But the inventor, Charles Babbage, refused. Had Ada succeeded, the information technology revolution could have begun in Victorian Britain. She'd have ushered in the computer age a whole century earlier.

In August 1843, a brilliant young countess, Ada Lovelace, approached an irascible inventor to offer her help to secure funding for the world's first mechanical computer. She alone had grasped the full implications of such a machine and had even written the first computer program for it. But the inventor, Charles Babbage, refused. Had Ada succeeded, the information technology revolution could have begun in Victorian Britain. She'd have ushered in the computer age a whole century earlier.