Speaking Volumes | The Countess of Lovelace and the world’s first computer
It might be difficult to believe that the first computer programmer was a woman who died in 1852, or that the first general purpose computer was designed in 1837. Computers are ingrained in our psyche as a sign of modernity, not as inventions that predate Thomas Edison by 10 years.
But who was this computer programmer, and what was a computer like in 1837?
Ada Lovelace was born in 1815, the only child of Lord Byron and his wife Anne. Lovelace inherited her father’s sense of poetry and romance, and from a young age blended them with a love of mathematics.
In 1833 she met Charles Babbage, a renowned scientist and mathematician. The pair would become friends and corresponded often. Babbage had already built a mechanical calculator that could solve complex mathematical equations, but he had also designed an even more sophisticated device that he called the Analytical Engine. It was this design that captured the imagination of Ada Lovelace; she offered her assistance in Babbage’s quest to construct the device.
As Babbage lectured and made presentations around Europe, a thorough description of his design was published in French by Luigi Menabrea. A year later Lovelace would publish her own English translation of this article along with her own insights. In fact, her “Notes by the Translator” ended up being twice the length of Menabrea’s article and more famous than the article itself.
Lovelace’s “Notes” discussed concepts that would become integral to the development of computers over the next century, such as the idea of a general-purpose computer: not simply a device to perform one preset task, but a machine that could be programmed to perform a limitless number of tasks. She realized that this machine would not be limited to mathematical tasks; any information that could be conveyed in writing could be stored and manipulated. Words, music, pictures- all of these could be processed by the Analytical Engine.
Ada Lovelace’s “Notes” also contains her primary claim to fame, a step-by-step explanation of a computer program that bears strong resemblance to the computer code of today. Babbage assisted with some of the calculations, but the bulk of the work was Lovelace’s alone. Along with the equations were extensive coding instructions with a table and diagram designed and drawn by Lovelace.
The Analytical Engine itself has never been fully constructed, although pieces of it have been built throughout the decades. Modern analysis of its capabilities has confirmed its title as the first computer, however. For all its limitations, the Analytical Engine would be able to perform any task that a modern computer can.
Ada Lovelace is commemorated on the second Tuesday of October, known as Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration founded in 2009 by the technologist Suw Charman-Anderson.
You can find more about Ada Lovelace in the books “The Innovators” by Walter Isaacson and “The Book of Gutsy Women” by Hillary Clinton. Her life has also been immortalized in “Enchantress of Numbers,” a novel by Jennifer Chiaverini. Check these books out from your local library to learn more about this amazing woman.
Your library is online: www.mymanatee.org/library. Free masks are available at all library locations.
Speaking Volumes is written by members of the staff at the Manatee County Public Library System. Joel Mimbs is an assistant at the Central Library.