Her life was short (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852, dying at the young age of 36) and intense. She could have been easily been mistaken for a character taken from the pages of a novel. Her life was plagued by poor health, a weak constitution, painful disease, a dependence on opiates later on life to palliate the pain caused by her illness, and mounting gambling debts. However, her life was also filled with an intellectual depth and curiosity unusual for any person, but even more so for a woman living in the midst of Victorian society.  

She was born as Augusta Ada Byron from the famous and notorious poet Lord Byron and his wife Lady Byron (nicknamed by her husband as “the princess of Parallelograms”). She later married William, 8^th Baron King, thus becoming Lady King (and later Countess of Lovelace). She mothered 3 children. 

Her parents had very dissimilar personalities, which probably explains, at least in part, the dissolution of their marriage when Ada was only 1 month of age. Her father was wild, sensitive, imaginative, and highly instable (“mad, bad, and dangerous to know”, as described by his lover Lady Caroline Lamb). Her mother was intellectually gifted, rational, disciplined, and strict. Their daughter was a curious mix of these traits. Noticing a creative and poetic nature in Ada, Lady Byron decided to instill in her a rigorous scientific education with the objective of removing her poetic instincts which, she feared, might lead her to a life of dissolution like her father’s. This was highly unusual at the time, when young women were provided an education in practical skills needed to fulfill their expected roles in polite society and to oversee the management of their households.

Contrast this with Ada’s education, which included classes with private tutors on music, French, mathematics, and science. One of her childhood achievements at the age of 12 was the conceptualization of a steam-powered flying machine, modeled after studying the anatomy of birds and reflected in a book titled “Flyology”, which is testament to her creativity and interest in intellectual pursuits. One of her tutors was the famed Augustus De Morgan (British mathematician and logician, best known for formulating De Morgan’s laws and the concept of mathematical induction), who spoke highly of Ada’s abilities: “the power of thinking on these matters which Lady L. has always shown from the beginning of my correspondence with her, has been something so utterly out of the common way for any beginner, man or woman, that this power must be duly considered by her friends with reference to the question whether they should urge or check her obvious determination to try not only to reach out but to get beyond, the present bound of knowledge”. 

On June 5, 1833, Ada (aged 17) met Charles Babbage (aged 42), a Cambridge educated mathematician who was working on the creation of a calculating machine (Babbage was himself quite a character, and I will write a separate article about him). The association between Babbage and Ada would prove to be an improbable match but a highly successful one. Babbage had designed a prototype for a calculating machine called the Difference Engine which he showed to Ada, sparkling an intellectual partnership and lifelong friendship. At the time, calculations were done by hand with the aid of mathematical tables, a process that was laborious and error prone, especially in long calculations. The Difference Engine can be thought of as a special-purpose device (built to do only one kind of thing), and was essentially a calculating machine which mechanically calculated and tabulated the value of any 7^th order polynomial to 31 decimal places. The Difference Engine was also able to print a copy of the results and to automatically make printing plates. 

Babbage later designed a more advanced machine called the Analytical Engine. This machine was also mechanical (as opposed to electronic), and theoretical (as Babbage never built any of his machines). The Analytical Engine, a large contraption that would have a size comparable to that of a steam locomotive, was comprised of stacks of cog wheels with numbers in them (0 to 9). Unlike the Difference Engine, the Analytical Engine was capable of performing the four basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) but also incorporated notions such as arithmetic logic, control flow, and integrated memory. To program it, Babbage used punch cards. The Analytical Engine was, therefore, a precursor of general-purpose machines. 

Extracted from the delightful book “The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer” by Sydney Padua.

Ada was closely involved in the Analytical Engine project, translating to English the paper written by the Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea on the machine. Her main contribution, however, was on the authorship of a series of notes which she attached to her translation. In the Notes (which were 3 times longer than the original paper) Ada not only demonstrated her deep understanding of the subject but also glimpsed at the future of computers in a way that was far more visionary than Babbage’s. One of the most famous passages of the Notes is Note G, where Ada describes the process for the Analytical Engine to calculate a series of Bernoulli numbers. This is regarded by many as the first computer program. 

Unlike Babbage, whose focus was only on the automation of mathematical calculations, Ada understood, 100 years ahead of her time, the revolutionary power of computers and its applications beyond mathematics to any process involving the manipulation of data. 

Where textile industry meets computer science 

Weaved fabric, whose origins can be traced to brocades dated as far back as the 4^th century, represents intricate and complex designs composed by weaving threads (historically silk) of different colors to form a pattern. The production of this type of fabric was manual, laborious, and time intensive (by the end of the day, an experienced weaver was expected to complete 13 square centimeters -or 2 square inches- of fabric). This explains the very high costs associated with this fabric, which was only accessible to the wealthiest classes. The process of creating weaved fabric involved a drawn-loom which was operated by two people: a weaver and a draw-boy. While the weaver provided the directions, the draw-boy lifted the threads as indicated by weaver. The work of a draw-boy (typically done by a small boy) was not only tedious, but very physically demanding. Many draw-boys were crippled for life after preforming this work for a long time. 

Joseph Marie Jacquard (France, 1752-1834) was the son of the owners of a small weaving business in Lyon. He initially worked at the business as a draw-boy. After his parents died, and having inherited the family business, he set up to automate the loom. After some experimentation, his solution was a mechanical device (the Jacquard loom) which consisted on a set of perforated cards which were joined by a continuous chain. The cards represented a weaved design which was originally drawn on paper, with each card corresponding to one row of the design. The holes in the punched cards represented where the thread was to be lifted. This mechanism effectively eliminated the work of the draw-boy, made possible the production of fabric at a much faster speed, and allowed for design patterns to be easily replicated. 

Babbage was very interested by Jacquard’s invention. Babbage saw the potential in using the same mechanism to communicate to the Analytical Engine instructions to calculate complex formulas, incorporating the punch cards into the machine. Not only Baggage was impressed by Jacquard’s invention, but his work also inspired Ada. In her own words through the Notes: “The distinctive characteristic of the Analytical Engine (…) is the introduction into it of the principle which Jacquard devised for regulating, by means of punched cards, the most complicated patterns in the fabrication of brocaded stuffs. It is in this that the distinction between the two engines lies. Nothing of the sort exists in the Difference Engine. We may say most aptly, that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves”. 

The Jacquard loom so strongly captivated Babbage that he commissioned French astronomer François Aragoto procure a portrait of Joseph Marie Jacquard made using the Jacquard loom and buy it for him. The portrait was woven in silk using 24,000 punch cards and depicts exquisite detail. The historical significance of the portrait is enormous when considering that “(i)t is no exaggeration to say that without this woven portrait, Ada would almost certainly have never had the insight she did – not only into Babbage’s Analytical Engine, but into her dream of what a computer could be”. (James Essinger, Ada’s Algorithm).

Woven Portrait of Jean Marie Jacquard (Didier, Petit et Cie – 1839)

The Notes

Let’s Ada speak for herself through some of her most remarkable ideas expressed in the Notes (the emphasizes is my own, not Ada’s):

On how the Analytical Engine was much more than a calculating machine: “The bounds of arithmetic were however outstepped the moment the idea of applying the cards had occurred; and the Analytical Engine does not occupy common ground with mere ‘calculating machines’. It holds a position wholly its own; and the considerations it suggests are most interesting in their nature. In enabling mechanism to combine together general symbols in successions of unlimited variety and extent, a uniting link is established between the operations of matter and the abstract mental processes of the most abstract of the most abstract branch of mathematical science. A new, a vast, and a powerful language is developed for the future use of analysis, in which to wield its truths so that these may become of more speedy and accurate practical application for the purpose of mankind than the means hitherto in our possession have rendered possible. Thus not only the mental and the material, but the theoretical and the practical in the mathematical world, are brought into more intimate and effective connection with each other”. 

On the Analytical Engine’s multiple applications and its indirect benefit of reducing tedious and repetitive work: “Thus the engine may be considered as a real manufactory of figures, which will lend its aid to those many useful sciences and arts that depend on numbers. Again, who can foresee the consequences of such an invention! In truth, how many precious observations remain practically barren for the progress of the sciences, because there are not powers sufficient for computing the results! And what discouragement does the perspective of a long and arid computation cast into the mind of a man of genius, who demands time exclusively for meditation, and who beholds it snatched from him by the material routine of operations!”

On how the Analytical Engine could be used in any field where information can be conveyed symbolically (i.e. music): “The operating mechanism can even be thrown into action independently of any object to operate upon (although of course no result could then be developed). Again, it might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine. Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent”. 

Conclusion

A theme that permeates through Ada’s history is the fascinating results that can arise when seemingly different disciplines and approaches intersect. In a word of hyper-specialization, it is a powerful reminder of how creativity can be sparked by the most obscure and disparate thoughts. 

A first example of this can be observed in the adaptation of a technology developed for the textile industry to the creation of a computation machine. Another example can be found in Ada’s own personality and experience, with that unique mix of a poetic sensitivity, and mathematical knowledge and intuition. Ada was able to see the intrinsic beauty in mathematics (in the words of Bertrand Russel, a beauty cold and austere like that of sculpture) and was inspired by this to grasp the far-reaching implications of computation way ahead of her contemporaries.  

I would like to point out that there exists some controversy as to extent of Ada’s contributions. On the most critical end of the spectrum, Bruce Collier stated in “The Little Engines That Could’ve” that “(t)here is one subject ancillary to Babbage on which far too much has been written, and that is the contribution of Ada Lovelace… It is no exaggeration to say that she was a manic-depressive with the most amazing delusions about her own talents, and a rather shallow understanding of both Charles Babbage and the Analytical Engine… To me, this familiar material seems to be made obvious once again that Ada was a mad as a hatter… I guess someone has to be the most overrated figure in the history of computing”. 

Irrespective on which position one takes on the value and depth of Ada’s contributions, her compelling and accurate vision on the power of computing cannot be denied. Had these visions been realized, the computer revolution could have started a century earlier. Hers is a mind worth knowing. 

 

Main picture credit: Watercolour, Ada Lovelace, possibly by A E Chalon (1780-1860), [c1840], Science Museum Group Collection.