Press release: What links an ancient shipwreck, textile mills and the computer?

11 September 2024

Gresham Professor of IT, Victoria Baines, to give talk on Tuesday, 24 September, online and in central London 

More than 120 years ago, a salvage exercise on a shipwreck uncovered a mystery that baffled scientists for decades: a computer dating back to Roman times.  

Although only a third of the device was rescued, The Antikythera Mechanis had a complex gearing system thought to have been used to predict eclipses and other astronomical events.  

In Manchester, at the turn of the 19th century, a French weaver devised an invention that revolutionised work in the textile industry – the Jacquard machine. This allowed unskilled workers to create detailed patterns that ultimately created the fashion industry. It cut costs and allowed for the mass production of fabrics.  

What links the two seemingly unconnected events is computers, just not as we know them.  

One of the first lectures in the 2024-25 academic year at Gresham College will explain their role in creating computer languages that play a major role in our lives today.  

Gresham Professor of IT, Victoria Baines, will give the lecture entitled The Ancient History of Computers and Code on Tuesday, 24 September. It takes place from 6pm at the college’s base in Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn.  

She will delve far back into the archives of processing, prediction, difference, and analytical engines to discover who really made them work.  

What if these early programs were used today?  

Professor Baines said: "Computers used to be people, not machines.  

“If we think about the Lancashire cotton mills that my great grandparents worked in, women programmed those computers, many thousands of them.” 

She continued: “Over the last year at Gresham, we have been talking about the future of IT. This year is about looking backwards, not in a retrograde way, but to help people feel like they have been part of it all along, and this is not something that is separate from them.  

“They shouldn’t find it mystifying because it’s been around them forever.” 

Gresham College is London’s oldest higher education institution. Founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, it has been delivering free public lectures for over 427 years from a lineage of leading professors and experts in their field who have included Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Iannis Xenakis and Sir Roger Penrose. 

Entry is free, and the lecture will be streamed live on YouTube. This is also free. 

In-person places can be booked online via Gresham College’s website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/history-computers

ENDS 

Notes to Editors 

Pictures available on request 

Gresham College lectures are always free to attend and have been since the college was founded in the 16th century. Lasting no more than an hour, the lectures are given by some of the finest minds in the academic world, including the ten Gresham Professors. They are aimed at everyone – no academic background is needed.  

The academic year runs from September to the end of June. 

Most lectures take place at its home in Barnard’s Inn Hall in Holborn, and broadcast live on YouTube.  

In-person tickets are available on Eventbrite one month in advance of each lecture.  

For more information about this story or to arrange an interview with a Gresham Professor please contact: Phil Creighton press@gresham.ac.uk 

About Gresham College 
Gresham College has been providing free, educational lectures - at the university level - since 1597 when Sir Thomas Gresham founded the college to bring Renaissance Learning to Londoners. Our history includes some of the luminaries of the scientific revolution including Robert Hooke and Sir Christopher Wren and connects us to the founding of the Royal Society. 

Today we carry on Sir Thomas's vision. The College aims to stimulate intellectual curiosity and to champion academic rigour, professional expertise and freedom of expression. www.gresham.ac.uk

Gresham College is a registered charity number 1039962 and relies on donations to help us encourage people's love of learning for many years to come. For more details or to make a gift, visit our website.  

About the Pre-History of IT lecture series
Computers have been around for a lot longer than we realise, but not always as electrically powered machines. In her series of lectures, Gresham Professor Victoria Baines will explore the machines you never knew existed, some spanning hundreds of years. Highlights will include a look at how we owe Wi-Fi and GPS to a Hollywood actress, the earliest robots, and how present-day data thieves are loved by some and vilified by others.