Mr. Percy Edwin Ludgate

An Irish accountant in Dublin and working alone, he designed an Analytical Engine. He was unaware of Charles Babbage's designs; although he later went on to write about Babbage's machine. His engine used multiplication as its base mechanism unlike Babbage's which used addition, and his 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. He 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 and worked on only part-time. His design featured several novelties, including a method of implementing multiplication referred to at the time as "Irish logarithms". Little is known about his life, as his only records are his scientific writings. 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.