ada lovelace augusta ada king countess of lovelace ne byron 10 december 1815 27 november 1852 was an english mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on charles babbages proposed mechanical generalpurpose computer the analytical engine she was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation and published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine as a result she is sometimes regarded as the first to recognise the full potential of a computing machine and the first computer programmer lovelace was the only legitimate child of the poet lord byron and his wife anne isabella annabella milbanke lady wentworth he died of disease in the greek war of independence when ada was eight years old her mother remained bitter and promoted adas interest in mathematics and logic in an effort to prevent her from developing her fathers perceived insanity despite this ada remained interested in byron and was upon her eventual death buried next to him at her request she was often ill in her childhood ada married william king in 1835 king was made earl of lovelace in 1838 and ada in turn became countess of lovelace her educational and social exploits brought her into contact with scientists such as andrew crosse sir david brewster charles wheatstone michael faraday and the author charles dickens contacts which she used to further her education ada described her approach as poetical science when she was a teenager her mathematical talents led her to a long working relationship and friendship with fellow british mathematician charles babbage also known as the father of computers and in particular babbages work on the analytical engine lovelace first met him in june 1833 through their mutual friend and her private tutor mary somerville between 1842 and 1843 ada translated an article by italian military engineer luigi menabrea on the engine supplementing it with an elaborate set of notes simply called notes these notes contain what many consider to be the first computer programthat is an algorithm designed to be carried out by a machine lovelaces notes are important in the early history of computers she also developed a vision of the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or numbercrunching while many others including babbage himself focused only on those capabilities she died of uterine cancer in 1852 at the age of 36 biography early life ada aged four byron expected his baby to be a glorious boy and was disappointed when his wife gave birth to a girl on 16 january 1816 adas mother annabella at byrons command left for her parents home at kirkby mallory taking onemonthold ada with her ada aged seven by alfred dorsay 1822 somerville college oxford this set of events made ada famous in victorian society byron did not have a relationship with his daughter and never saw her again he died in 1824 when she was eight years old her mother was the only significant parental figure in her life her mother became baroness wentworth in her own right in 1856 annabella did not have a close relationship with the young ada and often left her in the care of her own mother judith hon lady milbanke who doted on her grandchild however because of societal attitudes of the timewhich favoured the husband in any separation with the welfare of any child acting as mitigationannabella had to present herself as a loving mother to the rest of society this included writing anxious letters to lady milbanke about adas welfare with a cover note saying to retain the letters in case she had to use them to show maternal concern ada aged seventeen 1832 ada was often ill beginning in early childhood at the age of eight she experienced headaches that obscured her vision in early 1833 ada had an affair with a tutor after being caught she tried to elope with him but the tutors relatives recognised her and contacted her mother annabella and her friends covered the incident up to prevent a public scandal adult years watercolor portrait of ada king countess of lovelace circa 1840 possibly by alfred edward chalon lovelace became close friends with her tutor mary somerville who introduced her to charles babbage in 1833 she had a strong respect and affection for somerville on 8 july 1835 she married william 8th baron king becoming lady king they had three children byron born 12 may 1836 anne isabella called annabella born 22 september 1837 and ralph gordon born 2 july 1839 immediately after the birth of annabella lady king experienced a tedious and suffering illness which took months to cure in 1841 lovelace and medora leigh the daughter of lord byrons halfsister augusta leigh were told by adas mother that her father was also medoras father education throughout her illnesses she continued her education lovelace often questioned basic assumptions by integrating poetry and science while studying differential calculus she wrote to de morgan i may remark that the curious transformations many formulae can undergo the unsuspected and to a beginner apparently impossible identity of forms exceedingly dissimilar at first sight is i think one of the chief difficulties in the early part of mathematical studies i am often reminded of certain sprites and fairies one reads of who are at ones elbows in one shape now and the next minute in a form most dissimilar lovelace believed that intuition and imagination were critical to effectively applying mathematical and scientific concepts she valued metaphysics as much as mathematics viewing both as tools for exploring the unseen worlds around us death painting of ada lovelace at a piano in 1852 by henry phillips while she was in great pain at the time she sat for the painting as phillips father thomas phillips had painted adas father lord byron lovelace died at the age of 36 the same age that her father had died on 27 november 1852 she was buried at her request next to her father at the church of st mary magdalene in hucknall nottinghamshire a memorial plaque in latin to her and her father is in the chapel attached to horsley towers work throughout her life lovelace was strongly interested in scientific developments and fads of the day including phrenology portrait of ada by british painter margaret sarah carpenter 1836 lovelace first met charles babbage in june 1833 through their mutual friend mary somerville later that month babbage invited lovelace to see the prototype for his difference engine in 1843 he wrote to her forget this world and all its troubles and if possible its multitudinous charlatansevery thing in short but the enchantress of number during a ninemonth period in 184243 lovelace translated the italian mathematician luigi menabreas article on babbages newest proposed machine the analytical engine with the article she appended a set of notes the notes are around three times longer than the article itself and include in section g section g also contains lovelaces dismissal of artificial intelligence she wrote that the analytical engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything it can do whatever we know how to order it to perform it can follow analysis but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths this objection has been the subject of much debate and rebuttal for example by alan turing in his paper computing machinery and intelligence lovelace and babbage had a minor falling out when the papers were published when he tried to leave his own statement a criticism of the governments treatment of his engine as an unsigned prefacewhich would imply that she had written that also when taylors scientific memoirs ruled that the statement should be signed babbage wrote to lovelace asking her to withdraw the paper this was the first that she knew he was leaving it unsigned and she wrote back refusing to withdraw the paper the historian benjamin woolley theorised that his actions suggested he had so enthusiastically sought adas involvement and so happily indulged her because of her celebrated name first computer program lovelaces diagram from note g the first published computer algorithm in 1840 babbage was invited to give a seminar at the university of turin about his analytical engine luigi menabrea a young italian engineer and the future prime minister of italy transcribed babbages lecture into french and this transcript was subsequently published in the bibliothque universelle de genve in october 1842 babbages friend charles wheatstone commissioned ada lovelace to translate menabreas paper into english she then augmented the paper with notes which were added to the translation ada lovelace spent the better part of a year doing this assisted with input from babbage these notes which are more extensive than menabreas paper were then published in the september 1843 edition of taylors scientific memoirs under the initialism aal ada lovelaces notes were labelled alphabetically from a to g in note g she describes an algorithm for the analytical engine to compute bernoulli numbers it is considered the first published algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer and ada lovelace has often been cited as the first computer programmer for this reason in 1953 more than a century after her death ada lovelaces notes on babbages analytical engine were republished as an appendix to bv bowdens faster than thought a symposium on digital computing machines beyond numbers in her notes lovelace emphasised the difference between the analytical engine and previous calculating machines particularly its ability to be programmed to solve problems of any complexity she realised the potential of the device extended far beyond mere number crunching in her notes she wrote this analysis was an important development from previous ideas about the capabilities of computing devices and anticipated the implications of modern computing one hundred years before they were realised walter isaacson ascribes lovelaces insight regarding the application of computing to any process based on logical symbols to an observation about textiles when she saw some mechanical looms that used punchcards to direct the weaving of beautiful patterns it reminded her of how babbages engine used punched cards to make calculations according to the historian of computing and babbage specialist doron swade ada saw something that babbage in some sense failed to see in babbages world his engines were bound by numberwhat lovelace sawwhat ada byron sawwas that number could represent entities other than quantity so once you had a machine for manipulating numbers if those numbers represented other things letters musical notes then the machine could manipulate symbols of which number was one instance according to rules it is this fundamental transition from a machine which is a number cruncher to a machine for manipulating symbols according to rules that is the fundamental transition from calculation to computationto generalpurpose computationand looking back from the present high ground of modern computing if we are looking and sifting history for that transition then that transition was made explicitly by ada in that 1843 paper controversy over extent of contributions though lovelace is referred to as the first computer programmer some biographers and historians of computing claim otherwise allan g bromley in the 1990 article difference and analytical engines all but one of the programs cited in her notes had been prepared by babbage from three to seven years earlier the exception was prepared by babbage for her although she did detect a bug in it not only is there no evidence that ada ever prepared a program for the analytical engine but her correspondence with babbage shows that she did not have the knowledge to do so bruce collier who later wrote a biography of babbage wrote in his 1970 harvard university phd thesis that lovelace made a considerable contribution to publicizing the analytical engine but there is no evidence that she advanced the design or theory of it in any way eugene eric kim and betty alexandra toole consider it incorrect to regard lovelace as the first computer programmer as babbage wrote the initial programs for his analytical engine although the majority were never published in his book idea makers stephen wolfram defends lovelaces contributions while acknowledging that babbage wrote several unpublished algorithms for the analytical engine prior to lovelaces notes wolfram argues that theres nothing as sophisticatedor as cleanas adas computation of the bernoulli numbers babbage certainly helped and commented on adas work but she was definitely the driver of it wolfram then suggests that lovelaces main achievement was to distill from babbages correspondence a clear exposition of the abstract operation of the machinesomething which babbage never did doron swade a specialist on history of computing known for his work on babbage analyzed four claims about lovelace during a lecture on babbages analytical engine she was a mathematical genius she made an influential contribution to the analytical engine she was the first computer programmer she was a prophet of the computer age according to him only the fourth claim had any substance at all he explained that ada was only a promising beginner instead of genius in mathematics that she began studying basic concepts of mathematics five years after babbage conceived the analytical engine so she couldnt have made important contributions to it and that she only published the first computer program instead of actually writing it but he agrees that ada was the only person to see the potential of the analytical engine as a machine capable of expressing entities other than quantities in popular culture an illustration inspired by the a e chalon portrait created for the ada initiative which supported open technology and women lovelace has been portrayed in romulus linneys 1977 play childe byron in tom stoppards 1993 play arcadia the precocious teenage genius thomasina coverly a character apparently based on ada lovelacethe play also involves lord byron comes to understand chaos theory and theorises the second law of thermodynamics before either is officially recognised lovelace and babbage are the main characters in sydney paduas webcomic and graphic novel the thrilling adventures of lovelace and babbage the comic features extensive footnotes on the history of ada lovelace and many lines of dialogue are drawn from actual correspondence lovelace and mary shelley as teenagers are the central characters in jordan stratfords steampunk series the wollstonecraft detective agency as of november 2015 all new british passports have included an illustration of lovelace and babbage on pages 46 and 47 in 2017 a google doodle honoured her on international womens day the cardano platform uses ada as the name for their cryptocurrency and lovelace as the smallest subunit of an ada in 2018 lady lovelace appears as a character in the second season of the pbs masterpiece series victoria played by emerald fennell on february 2 2018 satellogic a highresolution earth observation imaging and analytics company launched a usat type microsatellite named in honor of ada lovelace in july 2018 a rare copy of ada lovelaces notes commemoration blue plaque to lovelace in st jamess square london the computer language ada created on behalf of the united states department of defense was named after lovelace the reference manual for the language was approved on 10 december 1980 and the department of defense military standard for the language milstd1815 was given the number of the year of her birth in 1981 the association for women in computing inaugurated its ada lovelace award ada lovelace day is an annual event celebrated on the second tuesday of october the engineering in computer science and telecommunications college building in zaragoza university is called the ada byron building she is also the inspiration and influence for the ada developers academy in seattle washington the academy is a nonprofit that seeks to increase diversity in tech by training women trans and nonbinary people to be software engineers in 2018 the new york times published a belated obituary for ada lovelace on 27 july 2018 senator ron wyden submitted in the united states senate the designation of october 9 2018 as national ada lovelace day to honor the life and contributions of ada lovelace as a leading woman in science and mathematics the resolution sres592 was considered and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by unanimous consent ancestry ancestors of ada lovelace 16 william byron 4th baron byron 8 vice admiral the hon john byron 17 the hon frances berkeley 4 captain john byron 18 john trevanion 9 sophia trevanion 19 the hon barbara berkeley 2 george gordon byron 6th baron byron 20 alexander gordon of gight 10 george gordon of gight 21 margaret duff 5 catherine gordon 22 alexander innes 11 catherine innes 23 katherine abercromby 1 augusta ada king countess of lovelace 24 sir ralph milbanke 4th baronet of halnaby 12 sir ralph milbanke 5th baronet of halnaby 25 anne delaval 6 admiral sir ralph milbanke 6th baronet of halnaby 26 john hedworth 13 elizabeth hedworth 27 susanna sophia pelsant 3 anne isabella milbanke 11th baroness wentworth 28 sir clobery noel 5th baronet of kirkby mallery 14 edward noel 1st viscount wentworth 29 elizabeth rowney 7 the hon judith noel 30 william lamb 15 judith lamb 31 martha bicentenary the bicentenary of ada lovelaces birth was celebrated with a number of events including the ada lovelace bicentenary lectures on computability israel institute for advanced studies 20 december 2015 31 january 2016 ada lovelace symposium university of oxford 1314 october 2015 adaadaada a onewoman show about the life and work of ada lovelace using an led dress premiered at edinburgh international science festival on 11 april 2015 special exhibitions were displayed by the science museum in london england part of the bodleian library in oxford england publications menabrea luigi federico lovelace ada 1843 sketch of the analytical engine invented by charles babbage with notes by the translator translated by ada lovelace in richard taylor scientific memoirs 3 london richard and john e taylor pp666731 computer programming portal biography portal code debugging the gender gap great lives series 31 august october 2013 the episode aired on 17 september 2013 was dedicated to the story of ada lovelace list of pioneers in computer science timeline of women in science women in computing women in stem fields footnotes citations baum joan 1986 the calculating passion of ada byron archon isbn9780208021199 elwin malcolm 1975 lord byrons family john murray essinger james 2014 adas algorithm how lord byrons daughter ada lovelace launched the digital age melville house publishing isbn9781612194080 fuegi j francis j octoberdecember 2003 lovelace babbage and the creation of the 1843 notes annals of the history of computing 25 4 1626 doi101109mahc20031253887 hammerman robin russell andrew l 2015 adas legacy cultures of computing from the victorian to the digital age association for computing machinery and morgan claypool doi1011452809523 isbn9781970001518 isaacson walter 2014 the innovators how a group of hackers geniuses and geeks created the digital revolution simon schuster kim eugene toole betty alexandra 1999 ada and the first computer scientific american 280 5 7681 bibcode1999sciam280e76e doi101038scientificamerican059976 lewis judith s julyaugust 1995 princess of parallelograms and her daughter math and gender in the nineteenth century english aristocracy womens studies international forum 18 4 387394 doi101016027753959580030s marchand leslie 1971 byron a portrait john murray menabrea luigi federico 1843 sketch of the analytical engine invented by charles babbage scientific memoirs 3 archived from the original on 15 september 2008 retrieved 29 august 2008 with notes upon the memoir by the translator miller clair cain ada lovelace 18151852 new york times march 8 2018 moore doris langley 1977 ada countess of lovelace john murray isbn0 7195 3384 8 moore doris langley 1961 the late lord byron philadelphia lippincott isbn9780060130138 oclc358063 stein dorothy 1985 ada a life and a legacy mit press series in the history of computing cambridge ma the mit press isbn9780262192422 toole betty alexandra 1992 ada the enchantress of numbers a selection from the letters of ada lovelace and her description of the first computer strawberry press isbn9780912647098 toole betty alexandra 1998 ada the enchantress of numbers prophet of the computer age strawberry press isbn9780912647180 turney catherine 1972 byrons daughter a biography of elizabeth medora leigh scribner isbn9780684127538 woolley benjamin february 1999 the bride of science romance reason and byrons daughter au pan macmillan isbn9780333724361 retrieved 7 april 2013 woolley benjamin february 2002 the bride of science romance reason and byrons daughter mcgrawhill ryerson isbn9780071388603 retrieved 7 april 2013 wikimedia commons has media related to ada lovelace wikiquote has quotations related to ada lovelace inspirefest2018 works by ada lovelace at open library untangling the tale of ada lovelace stephenwolframcom 10 december 2015 ada lovelace founder of scientific computing women in science sdsc ada byron lady lovelace biographies of women mathematicians agnes scott college papers of the noel byron and lovelace families uk archives hub archived from the original on 24 april 2012 retrieved 24 april 2012 ada lovelace the analytical engine babbage computer history ada the analytical engine educause archived from the original on 10 august 2009 retrieved 10 august 2009 ada lovelace countess of controversy tech tv vault g4 tv ada lovelace streaming in our time audio uk the bbc radio 4 6 march 2008 ada lovelaces notes and the ladies diary yale the fascinating story ada lovelace sabine allaeys youtube ada lovelace the worlds first computer programmer on science and religion maria popova brain how ada lovelace lord byrons daughter became the worlds first computer programmer maria popova brain oconnor john j robertson edmund f ada lovelace mactutor history of mathematics archive university of st andrews vtelord byrontopics barony of byron byronic hero early life newstead abbey timeline of lord byron people anne isabella lady byron wife ada lovelace daughter allegra byron daughter john byron father claire clairmont nicolo giraud contessa guiccioli jane harley john cam hobhouse lady caroline lamb augusta leigh maternal halfsister medora leigh thomas moore walter scott john william polidori percy bysshe shelley mary shelley edward john trelawny longerpoetry hours of idleness 1807 english bards and scotch reviewers 1809 the giaour 1813 the bride of abydos 1813 the corsair 1814 lara a tale 1814 hebrew melodies 1815 the siege of corinth 1816 parisina 1816 the prisoner of chillon 1816 the dream 1816 prometheus 1816 darkness 1816 the lament of tasso 1817 beppo 1818 childe harolds pilgrimage 181218 don juan 181924 incomplete upon byrons death in 1824 mazeppa 1819 the prophecy of dante 1819 the vision of judgment 1821 the age of bronze 1823 the island 1823 plays manfred 1817 marino faliero 1820 sardanapalus 1821 the two foscari 1821 cain 1821 heaven and earth 1821 werner 1822 the deformed transformed 1822 shorterpoetry the first kiss of love 1806 thoughts suggested by a college examination 1806 to a beautiful quaker 1807 the cornelian 1807 lines addressed to a young lady 1807 lachin y gair 1807 epitaph to a dog 1808 maid of athens ere we part 1810 she walks in beauty 1814 my soul is dark 1815 the destruction of sennacherib 1815 fare thee well 1816 when we two parted 1817 loves last adieu so well go no more a roving 1830 prose fragment of a novel 1819 letters memoirs related byron 1908 play childe byron 1977 play lord byron 1972 opera the bride of frankenstein 1935 film lady caroline lamb 1972 film gothic 1986 film rowing with the wind 1988 film haunted summer 1988 film vtetimelines of computingcomputing before 1950 19501979 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s softwareopensource software 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s programming languages hypertext technology operating systems dos family windows linux virtualization development malware computer science artificial intelligence quantum computing internet web browsers internet conflicts men in computing charles babbage john backus george boole vint cerf john cocke stephen cook j presper eckert david a huffman bob kahn brian kernighan andrew koenig donald knuth joseph kruskal douglas mcilroy john von neumann dennis ritchie guido van rossum bjarne stroustrup ken thompson linus torvalds alan turing paul vixie larry wall stephen wolfram steve wozniak women in computing kathleen antonelli jean bartik adele goldstine lois haibt betty holberton ada lovelace margaret hamilton grace hopper nancy leveson marlyn meltzer klara dan von neumann frances spence ruth teitelbaum authority control worldcat identities bibsys 3063884 bne xx4907321 bnf cb123997091 data gnd 119232022 isni 0000 0000 7689 7871 lccn n78030997 ndl 01237915 nkc jo2016900225 selibr 251062 snac w6b09txc sudoc 028921488 viaf 61632881 