Daguerreotype of Ada Lovelace,
about 1843, reproduced
by courtesy of G M Bond
Wikipedia
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Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, (1815-1852) has been credited as the first female computer programmer. She was the daughter of poet Lord Byron, and she often described her approach to mathematics as ‘poetic science’ (Füegi & Francis, 2015). Though barred from being able to attend university, Lovelace learned all she could from mentors such as Charles Babbage and Mary Somerville (2015). She became a mathematician and writer, mostly known for her musings on Babbage’s innovative work on a mechanical calculator (Bromley, 1982).
Most accounts of Lovelace tend to focus on Babbage and his contributions to computer science, with her often reduced to a minor character (Füegi & Francis, 2015). She is sometimes not recognized with being a major pioneer behind modern technological thinking. However, by studying Babbage’s work, Lovelace was able to visualize another use for Babbage’s engine, namely, that those numbers could represent other “things” such as letters or musical notes (2015). Babbage expert, Doron Swade, noted that Ada saw that the machine “could manipulate symbols of which number was one instance, according to rules” (2015, p. 24).
So, while Babbage’s machine has now been recognized as one of the precursors to the modern computer, Lovelace’s copious notes on his machine written in 1843 are recognized to be one of the first computer programming languages (Füegi & Francis, 2015). Lovelace’s contributions have shown us that while we may see a technological tool being utilized for a singular purpose, perhaps we need to view that tool through a different lens and see what other possibilities it may yield.
Two links about Ada Lovelace:
References
Bond, G. (1843). Ada Lovelace (by Antoine Claudet). Wikipedia. https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/2015/10/14/only-known-photographs-of-ada-lovelace-in-bodleian-display/
Bromley, A. (1982). Charles Babbage’s analytical engine, 1838. Annals of the History of Computing, 4(3), 196–197. http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd/Courses/cs80/an-engine.pdf
Füegi, J., & Francis, J. (2015, August 14). Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 “notes.” ACM Inroads, 6(3), 78–86. https://doi.org/10.1145/2810201
Sophia Rare Books. (n.d.). Diagram for the computation of Bernoulli numbers. Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diagram_for_the_computation_of_Bernoulli_numbers.jpg
18 September 2022 at 6:03 am
Wow, Marion, this is fascinating! Thank you for introducing Ada and her significant contributions to computer science. I would have never thought that we could go back this far to see the initial stages in the development of computer programming language. And how amazing to see the work of a woman in this context. I am curious what led you down the path to find Ada?
Thank you for digging deep on this one, I am grateful for this knowledge!
22 September 2022 at 4:15 pm
Hi Leah,
Thanks so much! I learned about Ada Lovelace back when I was teaching elementary school a number of years ago, but I’m not really sure when. I found her fascinating because no one really knew about her contributions to technology so I thought I’d make it easy for myself and research someone I was already familiar with. 🙂
Cheers!
30 September 2022 at 8:24 am
I think I had heard of Ada Lovelace before, but I am not sure. Regardless, your post here has opened my eyes to wanting to know more about this pioneer in computers. She was 150 years ahead of her time.
What do you think Ada would think about computing today?
30 September 2022 at 4:49 pm
That’s a good question! I think she’d be surprised by how far we’ve come, but on the other hand not surprised. She might wonder how her programming language evolved over time to the over 200 we have today. I’ll bet she’d want to take things apart to see how they work. 🙂