Napoleon invented the computer?

Well, not quite, but listener Arni Sigurdsson from Iceland found this website which explains how Napoleon was important to the development of the modern computer. According to the site:

Napoleon’s troops in Egypt buy shawls and start a fashion craze.

In Europe the shawls get made on automated, perforated-paper control looms.

This gives an American engineer Herman Hollerith the idea to automate calculation using punch cards.

Which get used to control ENIAC, the first electronic computer!

Thanks for the link Arni, fascinating!

The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast #37 – Fouche’s Machiavellian Machinations

Somehow we managed to get another entire episode just out of Joseph Fouche, Minister of Police, Duke of Otranto, and his machinations after Napoleon’s abdication to try to ensure his own position of power in post-Napoleonic France. We also talk about what’s happening during this period of instability with Marshals Ney, Davout and Murat. Napoleon, although the topic of much discussion, is, in this episode, almost a minor character.

Joseph Fouche

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”.

The Biography Show #001 – Alexander The Great

Well as you know, David and I have been threatening to inflict another podcast series on you for a while and I’m happy to announce that one of them is finally here!

And it isn’t the one we were expecting to launch first.

Introducing – The Biography Show.

The idea behind The Biography Show is to examine the lives of some of history’s most influential people. We kick off the series with a 90 minute talk about the life of Alexander III of Macedon, otherwise known as Alexander “The Great”.

The Biography Show

We still intend on doing a Napoleon-type series on Caesar sometime this year but we’re both waiting for our schedules to clear up a little.

Paris accommodation

After the International Napoleonic Society conference that’s being held in Corsica in July, I intend on spending a few days in Paris (July 12 – 15). If anyone out there has recommendations on affordable accommodation, please let me know. 🙂

Audio Feed vs Video Feed

Okay, I’ve worked out why the video is coming down in the audio feed. If that happened to you, and you didn’t want the video, my apologies. Here’s how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The reason it happened (I think) is that the iTunes feed on the main Napoleon page points to our meta-feed. It will suck down EVERYTHING.

If you want only the audio versions of the show, unsubscribe from the show in iTunes and use THIS AUDIO ONLY FEED.

If you want only the video, get THIS VIDEO ONLY FEED.

If you want it all, GET THE BIG DADDY FEED.

#36 (Video) – The End Of The Empire

Welcome to a very special edition of the Napoleon podcast – now with added video!

When David and I were recording the latest episode of the show yesterday I sprung on him the idea of capturing the video of our skype chat and putting that up as an added version of the show. My smiling mug is missing from this video (I forgot to check “capture picture-in-picture”) but that just means David takes up more of the screen. 🙂

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