Page 83 - BBC History The Story of Science & Technology - 2017 UK

1835 Ada married a pleasant but not espe- the fundamental relations of pitched sounds
cially intellectual aristocrat, Lord William in the science of harmony and of musical
King, who in due course inherited the title of composition could be expressed and adapted
Earl of Lovelace. He was devoted to Ada and within the Analytical Engine, it might
admired her greatly. He once reportedly compose elaborate and scientific pieces of
remarked: “What a general you would make.” music of any degree of complexity or extent.”

A pioneering friendship Ada Lovelace’s legacy
By this time Ada had also encountered On 27 November 1852, Ada died from cancer,
another man who made a huge impression on Lovelace saw this portion of Difference most likely of the uterus. She was only 36, the
her, on both a personal and intellectual level. Engine No. 1 – an early design from the same age at which her father had died. She
This was Charles Babbage, who she met on 5 1820s – at Babbage’s home in London now lies next to him in the sealed Byron
June 1833 at a party. Ada was fascinated by family tomb in St Mary Magdalene Church,
Babbage and his plans to build a cogwheel Ada clearly had Hucknall, in Nottinghamshire.
calculating machine, which he called the Her reputation as a pioneer in the thinking
Difference Engine. Babbage was surely insights into the of the early history of the computer is
flattered by the attention from a famous unquestionably deserved. Some even claim
young lady – Ada’s fame stemmed from her Analytical Engine Lovelace was the world’s first computer
father, and she was something of a celebrity. programmer, though as Babbage biographer
Babbage invited Lady Byron and Ada to visit that Babbage and computer science historian Doron Swade
his home on Dorset Street, near Manchester MBE points out, Babbage’s programs predate
Square in London, to see a completed model seemingly lacked Lovelace’s by seven years.
he had made of his Difference Engine Lovelace became fascinated by the
(a working model one-seventh of the full-size algorithms that the Analytical Engine might
machine, the whole of which Babbage never Yet modern research has made it clear that calculate, and one of the great tragedies in the
managed to complete). Ada was deeply Lovelace’s contribution to the thinking at the history of computing is that she was not
impressed. She and Babbage became friends, heart of the prehistory of the computer was involved in Babbage’s work more. In August
though due to the fact that Ada was only 17 enormous. In 1843 she translated a paper on 1843, Ada wrote a long letter to Babbage
when they met, in the early days they usually the Analytical Engine from French, written suggesting that he let her help manage all the
met only when Lady Byron was present. by an Italian scientist and future prime aspects of the Analytical Engine build project
In 1834, Babbage began working on an minister of Italy, Luigi Federico Menabrea. that required the influencing of important
even more ambitious machine, which he Lovelace went far beyond merely translating people. But he rejected her offer. It is not clear
called the Analytical Engine. This was this paper – she wrote around 20,000 words of why; the best guess is that while he greatly
essentially a general-purpose programmable her own Notes that discussed the engine’s approved of her work in publicising his
digital computer that used cogwheels potential. Her translation and Notes were engines, and the Analytical Engine in
operating in base 10 (our everyday math- published under her initials, AAL. particular, he felt uncomfortable about letting
ematical numbering system that uses decimal While it is clear Babbage helped Lovelace Ada be involved in the project itself. What is
numbers), rather than electronic components with some of the technical material in her fascinating is that even after Babbage’s curt
operating in binary. Otherwise, it featured Notes, theories that Babbage wrote most of rejection of Ada’s offer of help, she and
most of the logical components of a modern the Notes himself have now been discredited. Babbage remained lifelong friends.
electronic computer. These included memory, This is partly because linguistic analysis While Babbage never completed a
storage and programming, for which Babbage shows that the voice the Notes were written in Difference Engine or an Analytical Engine
borrowed the idea of using punched cards was very much Ada’s, but also because Ada himself, in 1991 a team at the London Science
from the programmable Jacquard Loom (a clearly had insights into the Analytical Engine Museum – working under Swade’s leadership
programmable loom first demonstrated in that Babbage seemingly lacked. Babbage saw – completed the fully working full-size
1801, which could weave any pattern). It even it as a brilliant machine for doing mathematics, calculation element of the Difference Engine.
featured security measures to warn the which it certainly was, but, there is no clear In 2002, they successfully completed a
operator when they made a mistake. evidence that he ever saw it as anything more. full-scale working Difference Engine. The
Lovelace was even more fascinated by the Lovelace’s Notes, on the other hand, reveal project took 17 years to complete and is a
Analytical Engine than by the Difference that she regarded the machine as something most impressive sight: a magnificent piece of
Engine. Yet while Babbage’s plans for the that could not only enact calculations, but pioneering 19th-century engineering realised
Analytical Engine never got beyond the also carry out all kinds of processes that could in the 20th century.
GETTY design stage, they include 2,200 notations and govern all kinds of applications. She famously of feminist scientific achievement, a heroine
Today, Ada is quite rightly seen as an icon
about 300 design drawings. For a long time,
remarked that the “Analytical Engine weaves
many modern commentators, typically male algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard Loom of the mind, and one of the earliest visionaries
computer scientists, were scathing about weaves flowers and leaves”. This brilliant in the early history of the computer.
Lovelace’s contribution to Babbage’s work, insight is an important part of Lovelace’s
regarding her at best as merely someone contribution towards the early history of the James Essinger is the author of Ada’s Algorithm, a
who was helpful in publicising his computer. She called her own particular brand biography of Ada Lovelace, and of the
efforts. Babbage called her his of thinking about science “poetical science”, forthcoming biography of Charles Babbage,
‘interpretess’ – clearly that was and also recognised that the Analytical Machines of the Mind. (James Essinger warmly
how he regarded her Engine could even compose music if properly acknowledges the kind assistance given him with
contribution. set up to do so. As she wrote: “Supposing that this article by Doron Swade MBE)

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