The Life And Times Of Ada Lovelace, The First Computer Programmer
December 10, 1815
Birth
Born Augusta Ada Byron, she is the only child of poet Lord Byron and his mathematically-minded wife, Anne Isabella Byron. Her father and mother separate one month after her birth.
Death Of Lord Byron: "Mad, Bad, And Dangerous To Know"
Ada never meets her father, as Lord Byron dies of illness while fighting in the Greek War of Independence. Ada grows up under the custody of her mother who does everything she can to make sure Ada doesn't inherit her father's volatile poetic personality. Ada is rigorously schooled in science, logic, and mathematics and forbidden to see any portraits of her father until her twentieth birthday.
1825
Anabella
Anne Isabella Byron, who goes by Anabella, is not the most doting of mothers. In her early years, Ada mostly grows up under the care of her grandmother, Judith Milbanke. A letter written to Lady Milbanke from Annabella:
"I talk to it [Ada] for your satisfaction, not my own, and shall be very glad when you have it under your own."
1828
Learning to Soar
At age 12, Ada decides she wants to fly. She designs a fanciful steam-powered flying machine by examining the anatomy of birds and experimenting with different materials such as paper, oil-silk, wires, and feathers for the wings.
June 1829
Childhood Illnesses
Ada battles with a variety of illnesses during her childhood, from blinding headaches to a paralyzing bout of measles. She is bedridden for almost a year.
June 1833
A Meeting Of Minds
Ada meets mathematician Charles Babbage. It's a friendship that would change the course of both their lives. Ada is only 18 at the time while Charles is 42, but she impresses him with her intellect and analytic skills. He calls her The Enchantress Of Numbers. Ada grows up with other influential mentors including Mary Somerville, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician, and Augustus De Morgan, who was a leader in the emerging field of symbolic logic.
July 8, 1835
Wedding Bells
Ada marries William King, an english aristocrat. He is 10 years her senior. Ada and William honeymoon at the Worthy Manor near Porlock Weir, Somerset.
1837
The Birth Of A Computer
Charles Babbage begins to conceptualize the Analytical Engine - a predecessor to the modern computer. It had an arithmetical unit, conditional branching loops and integrated memory. Babbage even designed a printer for his Analytical Machine. Ada works with Babbage on the engine through the next few years.
September 22, 1837
Another Anne Isabella
Ada's second child, a daughter, is born. Anne Isabella, to be known as Lady Anne Blunt for most her life, becomes a proliferate horse-breeder.
1838
The Lovelace Legacy
Ada's husband, William King, becomes the Earl of Lovelace, giving Ada the title of "The Right Honourable the Countess of Lovelace." Ada goes down in history as Ada Lovelace.
July 2, 1839
Second Son
Ada gives birth to a second son named Ralph Gordan. Ralph will eventually succeed his father as the second earl of Lovelace.
1842
The Menabrea Paper
Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea publishes his paper on Babbage's lecture on the Analytical Engine. Lovelace translates and expands the article, adding notes from her personal knowledge about the engine.
1843
The First Computer Program
Ada completes her work on the Menabrea Paper. In one section, she describes an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli Numbers. For this, we recognize Ada as the first computer programmer. She was the first person to publish an in-depth set of instructions that a computing device could use to reach a result that had not been previously calculated.
1843
Leaps And Bounds
Lovelace made a huge conceptual leap and saw the potential of using the Analytical Engine to create music or graphics.
“[The Analytical Engine] 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.”
1851
Taking A Gamble
Ada attempts to create a mathematical model for success in placing large bets. The plan fails and she falls into deep debt. Throughout this period of her life she is followed by rumors of extramarital affairs.
November 27, 1852
Death
Ada dies from uterine cancer when she is 36, the same age as her father when he passed away. She is buried next to him at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottingham