Ada Lovelace

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace(néeByron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), also known asAda Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work onCharles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purposecomputer, theAnalytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation.
Lovelace was the only legitimate child of poetLord Byronand reformerAnne Isabella Milbanke.All her half-siblings,Lord Byron's other children, were born out of wedlock to other women.Lord Byron separated from his wife a month after Ada was born and left England forever. He died in Greece when she was eight. Lady Byron was anxious about her daughter's upbringing and promoted Lovelace's interest in mathematics and logic in an effort to prevent her from developing her father's perceivedinsanity. Despite this, Lovelace remained interested in her father, naming her two sonsByronandGordon. Upon her death, she was buried next to her father at her request. Although often ill in her childhood, Lovelace pursued her studies assiduously. She marriedWilliam Kingin 1835. King was madeEarl of Lovelacein 1838, Ada thereby becoming Countess of Lovelace.
Lovelace's educational and social exploits brought her into contact with scientists such asAndrew Crosse, Charles Babbage,Sir David Brewster,Charles WheatstoneandMichael Faraday, and the authorCharles Dickens, contacts which she used to further her education. Lovelace described her approach as "poetical science"and herself as an "Analyst (& Metaphysician)".
When she was eighteen, Lovelace's mathematical talents led her to a long working relationship and friendship with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage, who is known as "the father of computers". She was in particular interested in Babbage's work on the Analytical Engine. Lovelace first met him on 5 June 1833, when she andher motherattended one ofCharles Babbage's Saturday night soiréeswith their mutual friend, and Lovelace's private tutor,Mary Somerville.
Between 1842 and 1843, Lovelace translatedan articleby the military engineerLuigi Menabrea(laterPrime Minister of Italy) about the Analytical Engine, supplementing it withan elaborate set of seven notes, simply called "Notes". 
Lovelace's notes are important in the earlyhistory of computers, especially since the seventh one contained what many consider to be the first computer program—that is, an algorithm designed to be carried out by a machine. Other historians reject this perspective and point out that Babbage's personal notes from 1837 to 1840 contain the first programs for the engine.She also developed a vision of the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching, while many others, including Babbage himself, focused only on those capabilities.Her mindset of "poetical science" led her to ask questions about the Analytical Engine (as shown in her notes), examining how individuals and society relate to technology as a collaborative tool.The programming languageAdais named after her.
Lord Byronexpected his child to be a "glorious boy" and was disappointed whenLady Byrongave birth to a girl.The child was named after Byron's half-sister,Augusta Leigh, and was called "Ada" by Byron himself.On 16 January 1816, at Lord Byron's command, Lady Byron left for her parents' home atKirkby Mallory, taking their five-week-old daughter with her.Although English law at the time granted full custody of children to the father in cases of separation, Lord Byron made no attempt to claim his parental rights,but did request that his sister keep him informed of Ada's welfare.
On 21 April, Lord Byron signed thedeed of separation, although very reluctantly, and left England for good a few days later.Aside from an acrimonious separation, Lady Byron continued throughout her life to make allegations about her husband's immoral behaviour.This set of events made Lovelace infamous in Victorian society. Ada did not have a relationship with her father. He died in 1824 when she was eight years old. Her mother was the only significant parental figure in her life.Lovelace was not shown the family portrait of her father until her 20th birthday.
Lovelace did not have a close relationship with her mother. She was often left in the care of her maternal grandmother Judith, Hon. Lady Milbanke, who doted on her. However, because of societal attitudes of the time—which favoured the husband in any separation, with the welfare of any child acting as mitigation—Lady Byron had to present herself as a loving mother to the rest of society. This included writing anxious letters to Lady Milbanke about her daughter's welfare, with a cover note saying to retain the letters in case she had to use them to show maternal concern.In one letter to Lady Milbanke, she referred to her daughter as "it": "I talk to it for your satisfaction, not my own, and shall be very glad when you have it under your own."Lady Byron had her teenage daughter watched by close friends for any sign of moral deviation. Lovelace dubbed these observers the "Furies" and later complained they exaggerated and invented stories about her.
Lovelace was often ill, beginning in early childhood. At the age of eight, she experienced headaches that obscured her vision.In June 1829, she was paralyzed after a bout ofmeasles. She was subjected to continuous bed rest for nearly a year, something which may have extended her period of disability. By 1831, she was able to walk with crutches. Despite the illnesses, she developed her mathematical and technological skills.
Ada Byron had an affair with a tutor in early 1833. She tried to elope with him after she was caught, but the tutor's relatives recognised her and contacted her mother. Lady Byron and her friends covered the incident up to prevent a public scandal.Lovelace never met her younger half-sister,Allegra, the daughter of Lord Byron andClaire Clairmont. Allegra died in 1822 at the age of five. Lovelace did have some contact withElizabeth Medora Leigh, the daughter of Byron's half-sister Augusta Leigh, who purposely avoided Lovelace as much as possible when introduced at court.
Lovelace became close friends with her tutorMary Somerville, who introduced her to Charles Babbage in 1833. She had a strong respect and affection for Somerville,and they corresponded for many years. Other acquaintances included the scientistsAndrew Crosse,Sir David Brewster,Charles Wheatstone,Michael Faradayand the authorCharles Dickens. She waspresented at Courtat the age of seventeen "and became a popular belle of the season" in part because of her "brilliant mind".By 1834 Ada was a regular at Court and started attending various events. She danced often and was able to charm many people, and was described by most people as being dainty, althoughJohn Hobhouse, Byron's friend, described her as "a large, coarse-skinned young woman but with something of my friend's features, particularly the mouth".This description followed their meeting on 24 February 1834 in which Ada made it clear to Hobhouse that she did not like him, probably due to her mother's influence, which led her to dislike all of her father's friends. This first impression was not to last, and they later became friends.
On 8 July 1835, she marriedWilliam, 8th Baron King, becoming Lady King. They had three homes:Ockham Park, Surrey; a Scottish estate onLoch TorridoninRoss-shire; and a house in London. They spent their honeymoon at Ashley Combe nearPorlock Weir, Somerset, which had been built as a hunting lodge in 1799 and was improved by King in preparation for their honeymoon. It later became their summer retreat and was further improved during this time. From 1845, the family's main house wasHorsley Towers, built in theTudorbethanfashion by the architect of the Houses of Parliament,Charles Barry,and later greatly enlarged to Lovelace's own designs.
They had three children:Byron(born 1836);Anne Isabella(called Annabella, born 1837); andRalph Gordon(born 1839). Immediately after the birth of Annabella, Lady King experienced "a tedious and suffering illness, which took months to cure".Ada was a descendant of the extinctBarons Lovelaceand in 1838, her husband was madeEarl of Lovelaceand Viscount Ockham, meaning Ada became the Countess of Lovelace.In 1843–44, Ada's mother assignedWilliam Benjamin Carpenterto teach Ada's children and to act as a "moral" instructor for Ada.He quickly fell for her and encouraged her to express any frustrated affections, claiming that his marriage meant he would never act in an "unbecoming" manner. When it became clear that Carpenter was trying to start an affair, Ada cut it off.
In 1841, Lovelace andMedora Leigh(the daughter of Lord Byron's half-sister Augusta Leigh) were told by Ada's mother that Ada's father was also Medora's father.On 27 February 1841, Ada wrote to her mother: "I am not in the leastastonished. In fact, you merelyconfirmwhat I have foryears and yearsfelt scarcely a doubt about, but should have considered it most improper in me to hint to you that I in any way suspected."She did not blame the incestuous relationship on Byron, but instead blamed Augusta Leigh: "I fear she is more inherently wicked than he ever was."In the 1840s, Ada flirted with scandals: firstly, from a relaxed approach to extra-marital relationships with men, leading to rumours of affairs;and secondly, from her love of gambling. She apparently lost more than £3,000 on the horses during the later 1840s.The gambling led to her forming a syndicate with male friends, and an ambitious attempt in 1851 to create a mathematical model for successful large bets. This went disastrously wrong, leaving her thousands of pounds in debt to the syndicate, forcing her to admit it all to her husband.She had a shadowy relationship with Andrew Crosse's son John from 1844 onwards. John Crosse destroyed most of their correspondence after her death as part of a legal agreement. She bequeathed him the only heirlooms her father had personally left to her.During her final illness, she would panic at the idea of the younger Crosse being kept from visiting her.
From 1832, when she was seventeen, her mathematical abilities began to emerge,and her interest in mathematics dominated the majority of her adult life.Her mother's obsession with rooting out any of the insanity of which she accused Byron was one of the reasons that Ada was taught mathematics from an early age. She was privately educated in mathematics and science byWilliam Frend,William King,and Mary Somerville, the noted 19th-century researcher and scientific author. In the 1840s, the mathematicianAugustus De Morganextended her "much help in her mathematical studies" including study of advanced calculus topics including the "numbers of Bernoulli" (that formed her celebrated algorithm for Babbage's Analytical Engine).In a letter to Lady Byron, De Morgan suggested that Ada's skill in mathematics might lead her to become "an original mathematical investigator, perhaps of first-rate eminence".
Lovelace often questioned basic assumptions through integrating poetry and science. Whilst studyingdifferential calculus, she wrote to De Morgan:
Lovelace believed that intuition and imagination were critical to effectively applying mathematical and scientific concepts. She valuedmetaphysicsas much as mathematics, viewing both as tools for exploring "the unseen worlds around us".
Lovelace died at the age of 36 on 27 November 1852,fromuterine cancer.The illness lasted several months, in which time Annabella took command over whom Ada saw, and excluded all of her friends and confidants. Under her mother's influence, Ada had a religious transformation and was coaxed into repenting of her previous conduct and making Annabella her executor.She lost contact with her husband after confessing something to him on 30 August which caused him to abandon her bedside. It is not known what she told him.She was buried, at her request, next to her father at theChurch of St. Mary Magdalenein Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.
Throughout her life, Lovelace was strongly interested in scientific developments and fads of the day, includingphrenologyandmesmerism.After her work with Babbage, Lovelace continued to work on other projects. In 1844, she commented to a friend Woronzow Greig about her desire to create a mathematical model for how the brain gives rise to thoughts and nerves to feelings ("a calculus of the nervous system").She never achieved this, however. In part, her interest in the brain came from a long-running preoccupation, inherited from her mother, about her "potential" madness. As part of her research into this project, she visited the electrical engineer Andrew Crosse in 1844 to learn how to carry out electrical experiments.In the same year, she wrote a review of a paper by BaronKarl von Reichenbach,Researches on Magnetism, but this was not published and does not appear to have progressed past the first draft.In 1851, the year before her cancer struck, she wrote to her mother mentioning "certain productions" she was working on regarding the relation of maths and music.
Lovelace first metCharles Babbagein June 1833, through their mutual friend Mary Somerville. Later that month, Babbage invited Lovelace to see the prototype for hisdifference engine.She became fascinated with the machine and used her relationship with Somerville to visit Babbage as often as she could. Babbage was impressed by Lovelace's intellect and analytic skills. He called her "The Enchantress of Number".In 1843, he wrote to her:
During a nine-month period in 1842–43, Lovelace translated the Italian mathematicianLuigi Menabrea's article on Babbage's newest proposed machine, theAnalytical Engine.With the article, she appended a set of notes.Explaining the Analytical Engine's function was a difficult task; many other scientists did not grasp the concept and the British establishment had shown little interest in it.Lovelace's notes even had to explain how the Analytical Engine differed from the original Difference Engine.Her work was well received at the time; the scientistMichael Faradaydescribed himself as a supporter of her writing.
The notes are around three times longer than the article itself and include (inNote G),in complete detail, a method for calculating a sequence ofBernoulli numbersusing the Analytical Engine, which might have run correctly had it ever been built(only Babbage's Difference Engine has been built, completed in London in 2002).Based on this work, Lovelace is now considered by many to be the first computer programmerand her method has been called the world's first computer program.
Note Galso contains Lovelace's dismissal ofartificial intelligence. She wrote that "The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever tooriginateanything. It can dowhatever we know how to order itto 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 byAlan Turingin his paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence".Most modern computer scientists argue that this view is outdated and that computer software can develop in ways that cannot necessarily be anticipated by programmers.
Lovelace and Babbage had a minor falling out when the papers were published, when he tried to leave his own statement (criticising the government's treatment of his Engine) as an unsigned preface, which could have been mistakenly interpreted as a joint declaration. WhenTaylor'sScientific Memoirsruled 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 historianBenjamin Woolleytheorised that "His actions suggested he had so enthusiastically sought Ada's involvement, and so happily indulged her ... because of her 'celebrated name'."Their friendship recovered, and they continued to correspond. On 12 August 1851, when she was dying of cancer, Lovelace wrote to him asking him to be her executor, though this letter did not give him the necessary legal authority. Part of the terrace at Worthy Manor was known asPhilosopher's Walk;it was there that Lovelace and Babbage were reputed to have walked while discussing mathematical principles.
In 1840, Babbage was invited to give a seminar at theUniversity of Turinabout his Analytical Engine.Luigi Menabrea, a young Italian engineer and the futurePrime Minister of Italy, transcribed Babbage's lecture into French, and this transcript was subsequently published in theBibliothèque universelle de Genèvein October 1842.
Babbage's friendCharles Wheatstonecommissioned Ada Lovelace to translate Menabrea's 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 Menabrea's paper, were then published in the September 1843 edition of Taylor'sScientific Memoirsunder theinitialismAAL.
Ada Lovelace's notes were labelled alphabetically from A to G. In Note G, she describes analgorithmfor the Analytical Engine to computeBernoulli numbers. It is considered to be 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.The engine was never completed and so her program was never tested.
In 1953, more than a century after her death, Ada Lovelace's notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine were republished as an appendix toB. V. Bowden'sFaster than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines.The engine has now been recognised as an early model for a computer and her notes as a description of a computer and software.
In her notes, Ada 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 Isaacsonascribes Ada's insight regarding the application of computing toanyprocess based on logical symbols to an observation about textiles: "When she saw somemechanical loomsthat usedpunchcardsto direct the weaving of beautifulpatterns, it reminded her of how Babbage's engine used punched cards to make calculations."This insight is seen as significant by writers such as Betty Toole and Benjamin Woolley, as well as the programmerJohn Graham-Cumming, whose project Plan 28 has the aim of constructing the first complete Analytical Engine.
According to the historian of computing and Babbage specialistDoron Swade:
Lovelace recognized the difference between the details of the computing mechanism, as covered in an 1834 article on the Difference Engine,and the logical structure of the Analytical Engine, on which the article she was reviewing dwelt. She noted that different specialists might be required in each area.
Though Lovelace is often referred to as the first computer programmer, some biographers, computer scientists and historians of computing suggest otherwise.
Allan G. Bromley, in the 1990 articleDifference and Analytical Engines:
Bruce Collier wrote 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.Bromley notes several dozen sample programs prepared by Babbage between 1837 and 1840, all substantially predating Lovelace's notes.Dorothy K. Steinregards Lovelace's notes as "more a reflection of the mathematical uncertainty of the author, the political purposes of the inventor, and, above all, of the social and cultural context in which it was written, than a blueprint for a scientific development".
Doron Swadehas said that Ada only published the first computer program instead of actually writing it, but agrees that she was the only person to see the potential of the analytical engine as a machine capable of expressing entities other than quantities.
In his book,Idea Makers,Stephen Wolframdefends Lovelace's contributions. While acknowledging that Babbage wrote several unpublished algorithms for the Analytical Engine prior to Lovelace's notes, Wolfram argues that "there's nothing as sophisticated—or as clean—as Ada's computation of the Bernoulli numbers. Babbage certainly helped and commented on Ada's work, but she was definitely the driver of it." Wolfram then suggests that Lovelace's main achievement was to distill from Babbage's correspondence "a clear exposition of the abstract operation of the machine—something which Babbage never did".
The computer languageAda, created on behalf of theUnited States Department of Defense, was named after Lovelace.The reference manual for the language was approved on 10 December 1980 and theDepartment of Defense Military Standardfor the language,MIL-STD-1815, was given the number of the year of her birth.
In 1981, theAssociation for Women in Computinginaugurated itsAda Lovelace Award.As of 1998, theBritish Computer Society(BCS) has awarded theLovelace Medal,and in 2008 initiated an annual competition for women students.BCSWomensponsors the Lovelace Colloquium, an annual conference for women undergraduates.Ada Collegeis a further-education college inTottenham Hale, London, focused on digital skills.
Ada Lovelace Dayis an annual event celebrated on the second Tuesday of October,which began in 2009.Its goal is to "... raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths," and to "create new role models for girls and women" in these fields.
TheAda Initiativewas a non-profit organisation dedicated to increasing the involvement of women in thefree cultureandopen source movements.A specialist technical college, for pupils aged 16–19, in England is named "Ada, the National College for Digital Skills", it has campuses inWhitechapel,Tottenham HaleandManchester.The building of the department of Engineering Mathematics at theUniversity of Bristolis called the Ada Lovelace Building.The Engineering in Computer Science and Telecommunications College building inZaragoza Universityis called the Ada Byron Building.The computer centre in the village ofPorlock, near where Lovelace lived, is named after her. Ada Lovelace House is a council-owned building inKirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, near where Lovelace spent her infancy.
In 2012, aGoogle Doodleand blog post honoured her on her birthday.In 2013,Ada Developers Academywas founded and named after her. Its mission is to diversify tech by providing women and gender-diverse people the skills, experience, and community support to become professional software developers to change the face of tech.On 17 September 2013, theBBC Radio 4biography programmeGreat Livesdevoted an episode to Ada Lovelace; she was sponsored by TV presenterKonnie Huq.
As of November 2015, all newBritish passportshave included an illustration of Lovelace and Babbage.In 2017, a Google Doodle honoured her with other women onInternational Women's Day.On 2 February 2018,Satellogic, a high-resolutionEarth observationimaging and analytics company, launched aÑuSattypemicro-satellitenamed in honour of Ada Lovelace.In March 2018,The New York Timespublished a belated obituary for Ada Lovelace.
On 27 July 2018,Senator Ron Wydensubmitted, in theUnited States Senate, the designation of 9 October 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 (S.Res.592)was considered, and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by unanimous consent. In November 2020 it was announced thatTrinity College Dublin, whose library had previously held forty busts, all of them of men, was commissioning four new busts of women, one of whom was to be Lovelace.
In March 2022, a statue of Ada Lovelace was installed at the site of the former Ergon House in theCity of Westminster, London, honoring its scientific history. The redevelopment was part of a complex withImperial Chemical House.The statue was sculpted by Etienne and Mary Millner and based on the portrait byMargaret Sarah Carpenter.  The sculpture was unveiled on International Women's Day, 2022. It stands on the 7th floor of Millbank Quarter overlooking the junction of Dean Bradley Street andHorseferry Road.
In September 2022,Nvidiaannounced theAda Lovelacegraphics processing unit(GPU) microarchitecture.In July 2023, theRoyal Mintissued four commemorative£2 coinsin various metals to "honour the innovative contributions of computer science visionary Ada Lovelace and her legacy as a female trailblazer."
Thebicentenaryof Ada Lovelace's birth was celebrated with a number of events, including:
Special exhibitions were displayed by theScience Museumin London, Englandand theWeston Library(part of theBodleian Library) inOxford, England.
Lovelace is portrayed inRomulus Linney's 1977 playChilde Byron.InTom Stoppard's 1993 playArcadia, the precocious teenage genius Thomasina Coverly—a character "apparently based" on Ada Lovelace (the play also involvesLord Byron)—comes to understandchaos theory, and theorises thesecond law of thermodynamics, before either is officially recognised.
In the 1990steampunknovelThe Difference EnginebyWilliam GibsonandBruce Sterling,Lovelace delivers a lecture on the "punched cards" programme which provesGödel's incompleteness theoremsdecades before their actual discovery. Lovelace andMary Shelleyas teenagers are the central characters inJordan Stratford's steampunk series,The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency.
Lovelace features inJohn Crowley's 2005 novel,Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land, as an unseen character whose personality is forcefully depicted in her annotations and anti-heroic efforts to archive her father's lost novel.
The 2015 playAda and the EnginebyLauren Gundersonportrays Lovelace and Charles Babbage in unrequited love, and it imagines a post-death meeting between Lovelace and her father.Lovelace and Babbage are also the main characters inSydney Padua's webcomic and graphic novelThe 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.
In the 1997 filmConceiving Ada, a computer scientist obsessed with Ada finds a way of communicating with her in the past by means of "undying information waves".
Lovelace, identified as Ada Augusta Byron, is portrayed by Lily Lesser in the second series ofThe Frankenstein Chroniclesaired on ITV in 2017. She is employed as an "analyst" to provide the workings of a life-sized humanoid automaton. The brass workings of the machine are reminiscent of Babbage's analytical engine. Her employment is described as keeping her occupied until she returns to her studies in advanced mathematics.
Lovelace and Babbage appear as characters in thesecond seasonof the ITV seriesVictoria(2017).Emerald Fennellportrays Lovelace in the episode, "The Green-Eyed Monster."
"Lovelace" is the name of the operating system designed by the character Cameron Howe inHalt and Catch Fire, which aired onAMCin the US in 2015.
Lovelace features as a character in "Spyfall, Part 2", the second episode ofDoctor Who, series 12, which first aired onBBC Oneon 5 January 2020.The character was portrayed by Sylvie Briggs, alongside characterisations of Charles Babbage andNoor Inayat Khan.
Six copies of the 1843 first edition ofSketch of the Analytical Enginewith Ada Lovelace's "Notes"have been located. Three are held at Harvard University, one at the University of Oklahoma, and one at the United States Air Force Academy.On 20 July 2018, the sixth copy was sold at auction to an anonymous buyer for £95,000.A digital facsimile of one of the copies in the Harvard University Library is available online.
In December 2016, a letter written by Ada Lovelace was forfeited byMartin Shkrelito the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for unpaid taxes owed by Shkreli.