Ada and Annabella

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. This day came about because Suw Charman-Anderson, a London-based social media consultant and digital rights activist, realising that women's contributions to science and technology often go unrecognised decided to do something about it. She issued a challenge that has been taken up by people, men and women, all around the world:

Augusta Ada King, née Byron, Countess of Lovelace (1815 - 1852), wrote the world’s first computer programmes for the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine that Charles Babbage had invented.

In 1834, at the age of 18, Ada learned of Babbage's ideas for a new mechanical calculating machine, the Analytical Engine. He conjectured: what if a calculating engine could not only foresee but could act on that foresight? Although others of that time were unimpressed, Ada was touched by the "universality of his ideas". Babbage's developments were reported at a seminar in Turin, Italy, in 1841 and written up in a French article that Ada later translated into English. Upon showing Babbage her translation, he invited her to add her own notes - these turned out to be three times the length of the original article.

Babbage had not yet built his machine and his focus was solely on its potential to do calculations (number-crunching). Ada, on the other hand, foresaw that such a machine might be used to compose complex music, to produce graphics, and would be used for both practical and scientific use. She devised a plan for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. This plan is now regarded as the first computer program.

In her 1843 publication, Lady Lovelace predicted how such a machine would be used. 166 years later, I am writing this blog entry because her predictions were realised.

However, my contribution to Ada Lovelace Day is not just about Ada's vision. There are many woman, past and present, who inspire and amaze me with their contributions to technology. Today, I am not focused on actual achievements but on the contribution of education.

Augusta Ada Byron was the only legitimate child of the poet Lord George Gordon Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke, commonly known as Annabella. Annabella (1792 - 1860) was a gifted mathematician who had, unusually for those times, been educated in science and mathematics by a former Cambridge University professor. Her passion for mathematics has been immortalised with Byron's references to her as his "Princess of Parallelograms". Shortly after Ada's birth, Lady Byron separated from her husband amid mounting concerns over his mental stability.

Lady Byron feared her daughter would be predisposed to Byron's behaviours and dark moods. She attempted to keep Byron's genes at bay by schooling Ada in science and mathematics, and discouraging literary study. In the single-parent household of Lady Byron and her daughter, mathematics became an important part of the emotional connection between the two women.

I find the story of Ada and Annabella compelling. Many people know the story of these two women from the many literary references and letters associated with the poet Lord Byron. Those involved in computer sciences know the story of Ada Lovelace. To me, the power of the story of Annabella and Ada is all about education. As role models for encouraging women to study mathematics I doubt you will find any better.

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