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Ada Byron,
Lady Lovelace
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Ada Byron, Lady
Lovelace (December 10, 1815 – November 27, 1852), was one
of the most picturesque characters in computer history.
August Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815 the daughter of
the illustrious poet, Lord Byron. Fearing that Ada might
become a poet like her father, Ada's mother, herself quite
a mathematician, tutored Ada in mathematics and science
beginning at an early age. In November 1834, Ada first
heard of Charles Babbage's ideas for a new calculating
engine, the Analytical Engine. He conjectured: what if a
calculating engine could not only foresee but could act on
that foresight. Ada was touched by the "universality of his
ideas." During a nine-month period in 1842-1843, Ada
translated Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea's memoir on
Babbage's Analytical Engine. With the article, she appended
a set of notes which specified in complete detail a method
for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the Engine,
recognized by historians as the world's first computer
program. Biographers debate the extent of her original
contributions. In her article, published in 1843, Lady
Lovelace's prescient comments included her predictions that
such a machine might be used to compose complex music, to
produce graphics, and would be used for both practical and
scientific use. A software language developed by the U.S.
Department of Defense was named "Ada" in her honor in
1980.
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