Konrad Zuse (1910–1995) was a German engineer and perhaps the most isolated of the computing pioneers. Working in his parents’ Berlin sitting room, he realised that mechanical calculators were hampered by the decimal system. In 1938, he completed the Z1, a binary mechanical computer, followed by the Z3 in 1941.
Zuse’s brilliance lay in his “found-object” engineering; he famously used discarded 35mm film stock as punched tape. He proved that the digital revolution didn’t require government support, only a single, relentless mind and Boole’s logic.