Ada Lovelace
The world's first computer programmer
"Mathematical science shows what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things. But to use and apply that language, we must be able fully to appreciate, to feel, to seize the unseen, the unconscious."-- Ada Lovelace
Who was Ada Lovelace?
Augusta Ada King Noel, also known as The Countess of Lovelace and better known as Ada Lovelace, was a pioneer in the fields of mathematics and science.
A feminist, she was known for her strong views on women's rights. She herself was a skilled computer programmer and she believed that women should be allowed to study science and maths.
Augusta Ada King Noel was married to William King-Noel, the first Earl of Lovelace, who was also an accomplished nobleman and scientist. Ada fought in a male-dominated world to carve a niche for herself. As the first ever computer programmer, she made sure that her work was relevant for future generations.
The beginning of everything related to the technology we have at our disposal today was the result of the work of many people. One of the most important contribution was made by Ada Lovelace, who wrote the first algorithm in the world. Her contribution to Babbage's analytical engine changed the course of everything that was created in the following decades.
Learn a little more about the history of this creative and revolutionary woman:
-
December 10, 1815
Ada was born in London, England, as Augusta Ada Byron, and was the only legitimate child of Lord George Gordon Byron, the poet, and his wife Lady Annabella Byron. She is remembered for being the daughter of Lord Byron, but her father was not a great example to her: in fact, she was raised by her mother, also mathematician Anne Isabella Milbanke. -
1828
At the age of 12, Ada Byron designs and begins to construct a flying machine. -
1833
Ada Byron meets Charles Babbage, mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer. They begin to collaborate and correspond by letter, and Babbage writes to a friend that he has met "the Enchantress of Number." -
1835
Ada Byron marries William King and adds King to her name. -
1836
On May 12, her first child, Byron, is born. -
1837
On September 22, her second child, Anna Isabella (Annabella) is born. -
1838
Ada Byron King's husband is named Count of Lovelace and she becomes Ada Lovelace, the name by which she is most commonly known today. -
1839
On July 2, her third child, Ralph Gordon, is born. -
1842-1843
Ada Lovelace translates, over the course of 9 months, the article by Luigi Menabrea, the Italian mathematician, on Babbage's proposed Analytical Machine. -
1843
Ada Lovelace adds a set of notes, around 3 times longer than the translation of Menabrea's paper. In the last section, she writes a complete method to solving for a Bernoulli sequence on the Analytical Engine, later found to be correct. -
1844
Ada Lovelace writes to a friend regarding her wish to mathematically model the brain, developing a "calculus of the nervous system." -
1851
Ada Lovelace attempts to derive a mathematical model to win large bets, but loses a great deal of money and must admit her gambling to her husband. -
1852
On November 27, Ada Lovelace dies from uterine cancer, exacerbated by bloodletting. -
1953
Ada Lovelace's notes on the Analytical Engine are republished, and she becomes known as the first writer of an algorithm specifically designed to run on a computer.
*All information sourced from Wikipedia.
"Imagination is the Discovering Faculty, pre-eminently. It is that which penetrates into the unseen worlds around us, the worlds of Science."
-- Ada Lovelace
Contributions
Ada Byron was a teenager when she met Cambridge mathematics professor Charles Babbage, who had invented the Difference Engine, a mechanical computer designed to produce mathematical tables automatically and error-free. Babbage never built the actual machine due to personal setbacks and financing difficulty. By 1834 he had moved on to design his Analytical Engine, the first general purpose computer, which used punch cards for input and output. This machine also lacked financing and was never built. (Babbage's Difference Engine was finally constructed in 1985–2002, and it worked.)
Babbage was impressed with the brilliant young woman, and they corresponded for years, discussing math and computing as he developed the Analytical Engine. In 1842, Babbage gave a lecture on the engine at the University of Turin. Luigi Menabrea, a mathematician (and future Italian prime minister), transcribed the lecture in French. Ada, now in her late 20s and known as Countess of Lovelace, was commissioned to translate the transcript into English. Lovelace added her own notes to the lecture, which ended up being three times as long as the actual transcript. It was published in 1843.