Who was Ada Lovelace, what did she invent and why do we celebrate Ada Lovelace Day?

NINETEENTH century mathematician Ada Lovelace imagined the modern-day computer more than a century before it came into being.

Though the computer she wrote about was never created, her extensive notes have led to her being widely regarded as the very first computer programmer. Here’s what we know about Lord Byron’s gifted daughter and why a day has been named after her.

Who was Ada Lovelace?

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was born in London on December 10, 1815, as the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron.

The famed writer separated from his wife Anne Isabella “Annabella” Milbanke just a month after Ada was born and left England forever four months later.

He died in the Greek War of Independence when Ada was just eight years old.

Annabella gave the primary care of her child over to her own mother, Judith Milbanke, writing concerned letters to her to act the part of a loving mother.

Ada was struck by repeated illness throughout her childhood, and in 1829 was subject to a year’s bed rest after a bout of measles.

Despite her apparent indifference to her child, Annabella did encourage her daughter to devote herself to mathematics and logic – partly in a bid to prevent her from developing what she perceived as Byron’s madness.

As a child she showed exceptional gift of imagination and penned a book, Flyology, describing how to fly.

As a teenager her exceptional gifts led her to develop a long working relationship with British mathematician Charles Babbage, who has become known as “the father of computers”.

Much of Lovelace’s mathematical education came through exchanging letters and sometimes meeting with mathematicians, including Dr William Frend, Mary Somerville and mathematician and logician Augustus de Morgan.

In 1833 Ada had an affair with a tutor and tried to elope with him. They were stopped by the tutor’s relatives and her mother and friends covered up the scandal.

Two years later she married William King, who became the Earl of Lovelace in 1838, and the couple had three children.

Ada died from uterine cancer at the age of 36, the same age as her father.

What did she invent?

Ada is known as the first ever computer programmer for designing an early model for a computer more than a century before they were invented.

During a nine-month period in 1842–43, Lovelace translated the Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea’s article on Babbage’s newest proposed machine, the Analytical Engine.

Her notes are three times longer than the article itself and include a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers with the engine.

The engine was never completed so her program was never tested, but it is thought to be the first published algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer.

Her invention has been disputed by some critics, however – with some considering her to be an illuminater rather than an inventor.

But whatever your view, Ada is widely regarded as the first person to see the potential of the analytical machine capable of expressing entities rather than quantities.

Why do we celebrate Ada Lovelace Day?

Ada’s contributions to computer science were not discovered until the 1950s and have since been recognised in science, literature, theatre and film.

In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defence named a newly developed computer language “Ada,” after Lovelace.

Since November 2015 all new British passports have an illustration of Lovelace and Babbage on pages 46 and 47.

A computer language has even been named after her on behalf of the United States Department of Defence.

Since 2009 her life has been celebrated through an annual event on the second Tuesday of October to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and to create new role models for girls and women in the field.

Across the world more than 100 events are being put on, with at least one taking place on every continent.

The day was founded by Suw Charman-Anderson in 2009.

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