I don't know how my husband discovered the irregularly updated cross between a blog and web comic known as 2D Goggles but I'm glad he did. The premise is that a time-traveller has visited the England of the 1830s and given "a few ideas" to Charles Babbage (detailed bio. here), designer of the first programmable (mathematical) computer. Because the integrity of the space-time continuum has thus been compromised, those in charge of it seal off that branch of the continuum. The comic lives in this alternative history, one in which Babbage's design is fully built, and in which the person who wrote the first program for his computer (Countess Ada Byron King) lives to provide much-needed bearings (and brakes) for the hamster-wheel in his brain.
The joy of the comic--beyond the delightfully whimsical premise, of course--lies in its inside jokes, as well as the slyness with which it can make them. Ms. Padua has clearly done her homework--with a passion that can only come from a love of leaving fingerprints in the dust of the great attic that is history.
Given my 'druthers, I'd dearly love to see the comic branch out to include other Victorian "girl geeks," among them Mary Somerville, who was one of Lovelace's mentors (and who probably introduced her to Babbage). Somerville was self-taught in mathematics, and she could not only absorb vast quantities of scientific ideas, but had the (much) rarer gift of making them accessible. And, whereas the Countess' life was cut short in its thirties, Somerville just was hitting her stride in her forties.
And, although their timelines would have barely overlapped, it could be quite fun to see the mathemetician/statisitican side of Florence Nightingale besides. Although she probably was not, technically, the inventor of the "coxcomb" graph (a variation on the pie chart), her influence on history (and standards of hygiene that you and I now take for granted) would have been much more limited without her considerable number-crunching abilities. I was surprised to find such a big deal made of her "pioneering" of the uses of graphs until I realized, "Oh--right. You had to explain facts & figures to Parliament. Oh dear. I'm so sorry."
But I'm sure that Ms. Padua's not unaware of the possibilities, given how much she's already invested in imbuing her "alternative" history with the real deal. Nerdy fan-girl that I am, I'll just sit back and enjoy whatever flowers upon that charming branch of the space-time continuum.
