While translating papers about Charles Babbage's work (he is considered the father of the computer) from Italian she added notes that included an algorithm encoded for processing by a machine. The first ever program and for this she is called the founder of computing. However Charles Babbage's analytical machine (to perform arithmetic calculations, an improvement on his earlier difference engine which computed additions) was never finished and so her code for calculating Bernoulli numbers ( a number series) was never actually tested. But the concepts were revolutionary nonetheless. Modern day constructs of the machines are at the science museum, I wish I had read about this before I went!
And now a bit of background. Her father was the poet Lord Bryon and he is actually one of the few poets I have heard of since I always loved his poem 'We'll go no more a-roving' although I'm not sure I always knew what 'a-roving' was. I suppose it could still be as innocent as I first thought but I highly doubt it after reading about his life.
I find it interesting that most websites I have read consider Adas achievements to be a collaboration of her fathers literary talents and her mothers mathematical skills when her parents separated a month after she was born and her father left the country four months later. And if Wikipedia is to be believed her mother only cared for her so far as to keep custody and check she wasn't as insane as she believed Bryon to be. But I quite like the fact that Bryon called her mother the 'Princess of Parrelograms' and Babbage later described Ada as an 'Enchantress of Numbers', pretty neat nicknames right? With his poems, her work for the abolition of slavery and their daughters work in building the foundations of computer programming, the scandal should hardly be important.
But then it's almost human instinct to crave drama I suppose. But most of the story seems to have been told by Ada's mother, Annabella. I find it hard to believe that she would allow her daughter to be named after her husbands half sister if she did believe him to have had an incestuous affair with her. By all accounts she was a very intelligent woman and accusing a husband of insanity is probably one of the few reasons for divorce that would not implicate a woman in that era. That said, Lord Bryon would hardly be the first mad poet and it appears to run in the family. It was so very hard to see through the walls of a Victorian household, I could hardly guess at the truth and I'd be surprised if Ada had access to it either. Although she is reported to have said that her mothers confession that Adas cousin was her half sister only confirmed Adas own suspicions. And she certainly had secrets of her own, with affairs and gambling debts rumored. Although I could easily convince myself it was all just down to a miscalculation in her experiments... And she certainly resisted an affair with the tutor her mother sent to her house.
Anyway the 14th of October is in my calender to celebrate Ada Lovelace day. It is meant as an inspiration for all women in science by all the women in science but there's plenty to think about just looking at her alone.
Actually it turns out her and her fathers grave is just a half hour bus ride away from where I stay at university, I wonder if it is too morbid to visit... Its at the Church of Our Lady of Magdalena (NG15 7AS) . Watch this space I suppose.
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