Byronic Greece II - Byron, Ada & Babbage

[Justin Pickard]

An examination of a specific butterfly from the previous timeline:-

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=14752

Basically, Lord Byron survives his encounter with malaria in 1824. Having consolidated the position of the Greek rebels in the fortress-town of Lepanto, Byron returns to the UK in 1828 in order to gain support from the British government. Pressure from both the Commons and the Lords, strengthened by growing pan-Hellenic sentiments, ultimately forces Wellington's hand in dispatching UK troops to Greece in 1829.

In the timeline, I envisioned Byron retiring to Greece in his older years (around 1845), becoming something of a national institution up to his death in 1854.

However, this leaves 1828-45 with Byron still alive in the UK, if not gallavanting around Europe. Any ideas as to what he would have got up to?

What artistic / poetic projects would he have engaged in? How would this have affected the cultural landscape of the time? A greater emphasis on neo-classicism, romanticisim etc?

I had a vague idea for him to mend the rift with his daughter, Ada Lovelace, at some point in this period - ensuring better treatment for her illness in 1852, delaying her death until 1857, allowing her to outlive her father and inherit his fortune.

Could this money have helped fund Babbage's plans, albeit at a stage where he was getting too old to be directly involved in any Analytical Engine-based project. Maybe a commercial adaption of some of the techniques / technology developed through his engineering attempts. Perhaps some other (younger) historical contemporaries are dragged into the project - what happens then?

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All input is most welcome. I'm looking for ideas to develop a more comprehensive timeline up to the turn of the century, but need to work on several seemingly disparate butterflies of the original POD. It's an ongoing project, so more facets of the history will probably be posted over the coming months, once my exams are over. I'm aiming for a decent setting for some fairly realistic steampunkish fiction in the far future...

 

[Grey Wolf]

All input is most welcome. I'm looking for ideas to develop a more comprehensive timeline up to the turn of the century, but need to work on several seemingly disparate butterflies of the original POD. It's an ongoing project, so more facets of the history will probably be posted over the coming months, once my exams are over. I'm aiming for a decent setting for some fairly realistic steampunkish fiction in the far future...

Its certainly a good aim I've often tried to develop a 'realistic' timeline in order to set a story, but usually I get so bogged down that I abandon the timeline befiore the story. Even if not, then I often find I'm too bland when I do start. I wish you success

What was Babbage's main lack in OTL ? Money ? A sponsor ? Freedom ?

Grey Wolf

 

[Count Dearborn]

I think it was the fact that the tech couldn't be made small enough.

 

[Forum Lurker]

Not size, but rather the tolerances were too large. Had machining tolerances been improved, or indeed had the funds existed for a machine sufficiently massive to disregard the difference, it'd have worked.

 

[Tielhard]

Nice idea unfortunately the two problems that bedeviled Babbage:

1) measurement, accuracy and precision in machine tools,
2) producing drawings for very complex dynamic mechanical systems,

could not be addressed by a cash alone. The former was solved after Brabbage's death, by Whitworth and many others in an evolutionary approach that took many years. If I am honest the second is probably not fully solved even today although CAD, CAE and configuration are giant steps in the right direction.