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Ada Home 1997-12 -- Happy Birthday Ada LovelaceAda HomeDecember 10, 1997December 10Happy Birthday Adafrom John McCormickmccormick@cs.uni.edu On December 10, 1815, Anna Isabella (Annabella) Byron, whose husbandwas Lord Byron, gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Ada. Ada's fatherwas a romantic poet whose fame derived not only from his works butalso from his wild and scandalous behavior. His marriage to Annabellawas strained from the beginning, and Annabella left Byron just alittle more than a month after Ada was born. By April of that year,Annabella and Byron signed separation papers, and Byron left England,never to return. Byron's writings show that he greatly regretted that he was unableto see his daughter. In one poem, for example, he wrote of Ada, I see thee not. I hear thee not. But none can be so rapt in thee. Byron died in Greece, at the age of 36, and one of the last thingshe said was, Oh my poor dear child! My dear Ada! My God, could I but have seen her! Meanwhile, Annabella, who was eventually to become a baroness inher own right, and who was herself educated as both a mathematicianand a poet, carried on with Ada's upbringing and education. Annabellagave Ada her first instruction in mathematics, but it soon becameclear that Ada's gift for the subject was such that it required moreextensive tutoring. Ada received further training in mathematics fromAugustus DeMorgan, who is today famous for one of the basic theoremsof Boolean Algebra which forms the basis for modern computers. By theage of eight, Ada had also demonstrated an interest in mechanicaldevices and was building detailed model boats. When she was 18, Ada visited the Mechanics Institute to hear Dr.Dionysius Lardner's lectures on the "difference engine," a mechanicalcalculating machine being built by Charles Babbage. She became sointerested in the device that she arranged to be introduced toBabbage. It was said that, upon seeing Babbage's machine, Ada was theonly person in the room to immediately understand how it worked and toappreciate its significance. Ada and Babbage became good friends and she worked with him forthe rest of her life, helping to document his designs, translatingwritings about his work, and developing programs to be used on hismachines. Unfortunately, Babbage never completed construction of anyof his designs. Even so, Ada is today recognized as being the firstcomputer programmer in history. That title, however, does not do fulljustice to her genius. Around the time that Babbage met Ada, he began the design for aneven more ambitious machine, called the analytical engine, which wenow recognize was the first programmable computer. Ada instantlygrasped the implications of the device, and foresaw its application inways that even Babbage did not imagine. Ada believed that mathematicswould eventually develop into a system of symbols that could be usedto represent anything in the universe. From her notes, it is clearthat Ada saw that the analytical engine could go beyond arithmeticcomputations and become a general manipulator of symbols, and thuswould be capable of almost anything. She even suggested that such adevice could eventually be programmed with rules of harmony andcomposition so that it could produce "scientific" music. In effect,Ada foresaw the field of artificial intelligence over 150 years ago. In 1842, Babbage went to Turin, Italy, and gave a series oflectures on his analytical engine. One of the attendees was LuigiMenabrea, who was so impressed that he wrote an account of Babbage'slectures. At age 27, Ada decided to translate the account intoEnglish, with the intent to add a few of her own notes about themachine. In the end, her notes were twice as long as the originalmaterial, and the document, "The Sketch of the Analytical Engine,"became the definitive work on the subject. It is obvious from Ada's letters that her "notes" were entirelyher own and that Babbage was acting as a sometimes unappreciatededitor. At one point, Ada wrote to him, I am much annoyed at your having altered my Note. You know I am always willing to make any required alterations myself, but that I cannot endure another person to meddle with my sentences. Ada gained the title Countess of Lovelace when she married LordWilliam Lovelace. The couple had three children, but Ada was soconsumed by her love of mathematics that she left their upbringing toher mother. For a woman of that day, such behavior was consideredalmost as scandalous as some of her father's exploits, but her husbandwas actually quite supportive of her work. In 1852, Ada died from cervical cancer. Sadly, if she had livedjust one year longer, she would have witnessed the unveiling of aworking difference engine built from one of Babbage's designs byGeorge and Edward Scheutz in Sweden. Like her father, Ada lived onlyuntil she was 36, and even though they led much different lives, sheundoubtedly admired Byron and took inspiration from his unconventionaland rebellious nature. At the end, Ada asked to be buried beside himat the family's estate.What did you think of this article? Very interestingInterestingNot interestingToo longJust rightToo shortToo detailedJust rightNot detailed enoughComments: Reprinted with permission from "Programming and Problem Solving with Ada"by N. Dale, D. Weems, and J. McCormick (Jones and Bartlett, 1997-- 975 pages, ISBN 0-7637-0293-5).Portrait of Ada, Countess of Lovelace, acknowledged to be the world's firstprogrammer, from the cover of John Barnes's book "Programming in Ada",2nd edition; used with permission ofAddison-Wesley Publishing Company (Mr. Simon Plumtree);the original art was adapted from the portrait of Adaat the offices of John Murray, the London publishing company.Page last modified: 1998-12-10 |
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