The Difference Engine
The Difference Engine is a novel about Charles Babbage and Lady Ada Byron. Computer Science students know Charles Babbage as the inventor who came up with the idea of a programmable computer. Charles Babbage was never actually able to create a working prototype of his Analytical Engine which would have been made of steam operated gears and levers. A model is located in the Smithsonian. The Difference Engine is a work of speculative science fiction. It describes what the Industrial Revolution might have looked like in Britain if Babbage had succeeded. The Difference Engine was written by both William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.