Ada Lovelace, whilst perhaps not a household name, was an English mathematician who is credited with being the first computer programmer. Her thwarted potential, and her passion and vision for technology, have made her a powerful symbol for modern women in technology.
Born in 1815 as Ada Gordon, she was the daughter of the famously erratic poet Lord Byron. Her mother, from whom Ada inherited her mathematical talents, was afraid she would inherit her father's volatile poetic character. In an effort to control her temperament, she raised Ada under a strict regimen of science, logic and maths. By the age of 12, Ada was already drawing up elaborate plans for flying machines after studying the anatomy of birds, and her fascination with machines only got stronger.
Shortly before marrying the Earl of Lovelace when she was 19, Ada's mentor (the scientist Mary Sommerville) introduced her to the Cambridge maths professor Charles Babbage. They quickly became lifelong friends and he once described her as 'the Enchantress of Numbers'. Babbage had spent many years designing what he called the 'Analytical Engine', which was essentially the first design for a general-purpose computer, and Ada became heavily involved in this project.
“The more I study, the more insatiable do I feel my genius for it to be.”
In 1842 the Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea wrote an article describing the theory behind this analytical engine, and Babbage asked Ada to translate it and expand the article with her own notes, since she understood the machine so well. The final article ("Sketch of the Analytical Engine, With Notes from the Translator) is over 3 times the length of the original article and contains several early ‘computer programs' and algorithms, as well as further suggestions for how the machine could be used beyond the field of mathematics - such as music composition, graphics production and other scientific uses. Although Babbage had attempted to design programs for his engine before, Lovelace’s were the first to be published and were much more elaborate and complete, earning her the title of the first computer programmer.
However, the Analytical Engine was never built and Lovelace's notes did not garner much attention at the time. She died of uterine cancer at the age of 36 in 1852. The impact of her work was not felt until almost an entire century later, when her notes were republished and became one of the critical documents that inspired Alan Turing's work on the first modern computers in the 1940s.
Ada Lovelace is now recognised as one of the most important figures in Computer Science. The second Tuesday of every October is celebrated as Ada Lovelace day to highlight the achievements of women in STEM, and in 1979 the US Department of Defense created a high-order programming language called Ada in recognition of her huge contribution to technology.
To view and shop the 'Ada' top, click here.
Commentaires