Lovelace Stabilisers
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[edit | edit source]Lovelace Stabilisers[1] are a specialisation of the Analytical Engine, reduced in size by the watchmaker's craft to enable them to be carried aboard vessels of the air (such as aeronefs, steam wings and æthernefs). Named for the amateur mathematician, Ada Lovelace, who pioneered complex programming, they perform the complex hysteresis calculations necessary to maintain the stability of electrostatic levitation at a large scale. As will readily be understood, without them flight would be impossible, save by such primitive means as dirigible or projectile travel. To perform calculations at the velocity and frequency required would be quite beyond the abilities of any mortal computer.
Because of the situation into which they are deployed, Lovelace Stabilisers are not powered directly by steam, as most Analytical Engines are. Instead, for compatibility with the stabilisers' inputs, steam propulsion from the host vehicle is converted to galvanic power by means of a dynamo.
Footnotes
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Lovelace Stabilisers are entirely an imaginative feature of Steam Elephants' alternate history. They have never existed.