The novel “The Difference Engine” by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling was published for the first time in 1990.

Edward Mallory is a paleontologist who’s having a break between his various trips and is in London. Following a chance meeting with Lady Ada Byron, the daughter of the British Prime Minister, he gets involved in an international plot that revolves around the Modus, a program on punched cards which, when used with one of the machines developed upon Charles Babbage’s projects, allows winning bets.