Ada Byron, who by marriage became Ada Lovelace (1815 – 1852) is known for translating and annotating a description of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, an ancestor of the computer. Her notes contain the first algorithm intended to be executed by a machine and Ada Lovelace is considered the first female programmer.
Passionate about mathematics
Born on December 10, 1815, Ada Byron is the daughter of Annabella Milbanke, mathematician, and poet Lord Byron. Her parents' marriage was a disaster and, due to Byron's violent behavior, Annabella left him on January 16, 1816, when Ada was one month old. On April 21, Byron signs the act of separation and leaves England; he will never see his wife and daughter again.
Passionate about mathematics, Annabella ensures that her daughter has a thorough education in science. In 1832, young Ada met Mary Sommerville, a Scottish writer and scientist, who helped her progress. In 1833, through him, Ada met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and inventor who designed calculating machines. He invented an analytical machine capable of reading instruction cards, the mechanical ancestor of today's computer. Ada is fascinated by these inventions and the two scientists become close.
Babbage's analytical engine and the first computer program
In 1835, the young woman married William King, Count Lovelace, with whom she had three children:Byron, Annabella and Ralph Gordon. Devoted, William approves and encourages the activities of his wife but his fragile health, damaged by pregnancies, prevents him from devoting himself to mathematics for several years. In 1839, she resumed her studies with the mathematician Auguste De Morgan and offered her services to Charles Babbage for the development of his analytical engine. From then on, she devoted herself to this project.
In 1842, a description of Babbage's analytical engine appeared in French in a Swiss newspaper and it was proposed to Ada Lovelace to translate this memoir into English. She devoted nine months to it then, on the idea of Charles Babbage, undertook to complete, correct and annotate the description of the analytical engine. One of his notes contains a very detailed algorithm (for calculating a sequence of rational numbers), often considered the first real computer program. She also describes the analytical engine as capable of applications beyond mathematics, such as composing pieces of music.
Seeking to fund Babbage's schemes, Ada takes to gambling but earns only debt. Ada Lovelace died at the age of 36, on November 27, 1852, of cancer of the uterus.