Ada
Byron Lovelace
was one of the most charming personalities in computer history. She is
known as a British mathematician, musician, and is best known as the first
computer programmer. She wrote about Charles Babbage’s “Analytical
Engine”, explaining the process with such clarity and precision that her
work became the leading text explaining the process now known as computer
programming. A software language that was developed in 1979 by the U.S.
Department of Defense was named Ada in her honor.
Ada Byron Lovelace was born on December 10, 1815 to the famous poet, Lord
Byron and Annabella Milbanke. Lord Byron was a strikingly handsome man who
traveled widely and wrote his poetry with a biting criticism of British
society. While he fell in love with Annabella, their marriage lasted only
a year. Five weeks after Ada was born, Lady Bryon asked for a separation
from her husband, and was given sole custody of the child. Lord Byron left
for Italy and never returned to his home. He never saw his daughter again.
He died in Greece when Ada was eight years old.
Ada was an active athletic child, loving gymnastics, dancing, and
horseback riding. She became an accomplished musician, playing the piano,
violin, and harp
As
a teenager, Ada had all the advantages of the elite in London. She
attended concerts, theaters, and elegant parties. She met many famous
people, including the queen.
Even though she loved the arts, Ada was more interested in how things
worked. She was fascinated by mechanical things and loved to figure out
what make machines work. Lady Byron, being afraid that Ada would end up
being a poet like her father, encouraged her daughter in her studies of
mathematics and the sciences.
When she was seventeen years old, Ada met Mrs. Somerville, a remarkable
woman who had just published a book on mathematical astronomy, “The
Mechanism of the Heavens”. This woman became a mentor to Ada and while
she encouraged the young lady in her mathematical studies, she also tried
to put mathematics and technology in a human context.
It
was Mrs. Somerville who arranged for Ada to meet Lord William King, Earl
of Lovelace, who was to later become her husband.
Ada met Charles Babbage at a dinner party
put on by Mrs. Somerville. It was here that she first heard of Mr.
Babbages Analytical Engine and Ada was intrigued by his ideas. As his idea
progressed in later years, Ada suggested to Babbage that a plan be written
for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. He commissioned Ada
to write that plan, and this very plan is now considered the first
“computer program”.
After she wrote the description of Babbage’s Analytical Engine, her life
was difficult. She was plagued with illnesses and she died of cancer in
1852 at the age of 36.
www.historyswomen.com
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Figlia
del poeta inglese Lord Byron ebbe un ruolo molto importante nella storia
dell’informatica, anticipando i principi organizzativi del calcolo
automatico moderno
Ada
Lovelace (1815-1852) ebbe un ruolo molto importante nella storia
dell'informatica, anticipando i principi organizzativi del calcolo
automatico moderno.
Figlia
del poeta inglese Lord Byron, Ada manifestò sin da ragazzina un grande
interesse per le scienze, in particolare per la matematica e la meccanica,
che studiò sotto la guida della madre, una donna colta e amante delle
scienze.
Determinante
fu l'incontro con il matematico inglese Charles Babbage, inventore
dell'antenato del computer moderno. Tra i due nacque una profonda amicizia
e una collaborazione che durò molti anni. Babbage stava progettando la
sua "macchina analitica", un calcolatore meccanico in grado di
calcolare e stampare tavole matematiche.
Intelligente
e ambiziosa, Ada desiderava partecipare a questo progetto: tradusse dal
francese una monografia dell'ingegnere italiano Menabrea, in cui veniva
illustrata la costruzione della macchina analitica, e vi aggiunse numerose
annotazioni proprie. Scoprì e corresse un errore commesso dallo stesso
Babbage e diede contributi originali riguardo alla programmazione della
macchina. Ideò infatti diversi programmi per eseguire calcoli di
matematica superiore. Il suo lavoro venne pubblicato nel 1843 nelle Taylor's
Scientific Memoirs.
Vi
erano tuttavia numerosi ostacoli alla realizzazione concreta della
macchina analitica: essa risultava infatti estremamente costosa e troppo
avanzata per l'ingegneria del tempo.
Il
progetto non venne mai realizzato, nonostante i grandi sforzi di Ada per
procurarsi le somme necessarie per portarlo a termine: perse tutte le sue
sostanze e si indebitò pesantemente al gioco.
Morì,
ancora molto giovane, nel 1852.
(a cura di Federica Pozzi) |