All that changed when he set up shop in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and cobbled together a team that included, among others, a German glassblower, an African American engineer, a Swiss watchmaker, an American mathematician, and a British textile machinist.

FORBES: Thoreau's Idea Hunt, and Ours

Most British readers will have strong memories of Ruth Lawrence, the brilliant mathematician who rose to national fame when she went to Oxford University aged 12.

BBC: From kindergarten to campus

Nothing much happened, however, until 1946 when an American mathematician called Warren Weaver became intrigued with the way the British had used their pioneering Colossus computer to crack the military codes produced by Germany's Enigma encryption machines.

ECONOMIST: A gift of tongues