The man who ultimately did, Charles Babbage, was as much the Renaissance man as Alberti--he also invented the speedometer, the cowcatcher and the mortality tables that are the basis of today's life insurance.
Both large, horizontal paintings show more or less life-size groups of soberly dressed men in broad-brimmed hats, seated at long tables covered with Turkish carpets.
On August 1st the actuaries' trade body adopted a new set of mortality tables drawing on data collected between 1999 and 2002, It forecasts yet another increase in life expectancy.