Ada Lovelace (1815 - 1852)

Lord Byron's daughter, the first computer programmer

Lord Byron's daughter Lady Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace could have been like any other Regency noblewoman but she defied society's mores to become a brilliant scholar, an inventor and the world's first computer programmer.

How did she become an academic?

Augusta Ada Byron was born on 10 December 1815, the daughter of the great Romantic poet Lord Byron. But Ada never knew him since her mother, Lady Byron, separated from him when Ada was only five weeks old. Byron soon left England never to return.

Lady Byron wanted to make sure Ada did not grow up to be a poet like her father and enlisted the noted mathematician August De Morgan to tutor Ada. It was through him that Ada became interested in mathematics and physics.

What made her turn to inventing?

In 1834, De Morgan introduced Ada to Charles Babbage - the noted mathematician and inventor.

Babbage had created a prototype of the first calculator, known as the difference machine. Ada was intrigued by the potential of such a machine and by Babbage's new project, an analytical engine which 'could not only foresee but could act on that foresight'.

But Ada had to put her work on hold when she married Lord William Lovelace. In the next few years, she gave birth to their three children. In 1841, soon after Ada's third child was born, Babbage's report on his progress on the analytical engine was published in French by the Italian mathematician Menabrea. Ada saw the opportunity to return to work.

She translated the article and she showed the results to Babbage. Impressed by her understanding of the subject, he suggested she add her own notes to the article. When she had finished, it was three times as long as the original and included her own suggested improvements to the prototype.

When Babbage created the machine, he had used the standard decimal system of numbers but Ada suggested a binary system (using only zeroes and ones), would be much more simple. Ada also created the programming code that was used to run the machine. In short, she became the first ever computer programmer.

Why is she relatively unknown today?

In those days, it was not considered seemly for aristocratic women to be interested in Maths and Science. Ada's notes on Menabrea's article were published in 1843 but under the pen-name of AAL.

She received a lot of credit from people in the know but it was short-lived as only a year later she became very ill. She died in 1852, aged 36.

Her work was not recognised until 30 years after her notes were published but today, after comparing her notes to modern programming, it shows just how far ahead of her time she was. In 1979, the U.S. Department of Defence developed a software language named ADA3 in her honour.

Ada has also been recognised as a female role model by the Association for Women in Computing, which delivers an award in her name to women who has shown outstanding achievements in science and technology.