Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace

1815-1852

English Mathematician

Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, was a pioneer in the field of computer science. The work she did on a paper describing Charles Babbage's analytical engine revealed her understanding of the machine we now call the computer. Her remarkable insight far exceeded an understanding of the technology available in her lifetime.

In 1815 Augusta Ada Byron was born in London to Annabella Millbanke, an amateur mathematician, and the renowned poet Lord Byron (George Gordon). Byron inherited her father's creative traits and her mother's love of mathematics.

Byron's parents separated soon after her birth, and her mother raised her with the help of private tutors. Byron's tutors fostered her early interest in systems as well as her desire to understand how things operated. Along with traditional subjects, tutors taught the young girl mathematics and astronomy. Math and science became her favorite subjects.

As a teenager Byron outgrew her governess tutors. She continued to teach herself mathematics. Correspondence with informal tutors including the mathematician Mary Somerville (1780-1872) improved her mathematical skills. However, social prohibitions limited her potential to develop into a great mathematician. In the early nineteenth century the universities did not enroll women as students. The higher level of mathematical instruction available to men at Cambridge University was denied to Byron.

In 1833 Byron met Charles Babbage (1792-1871), a mathematician and pioneer in the field of computer science. The friendship that formed between these two individuals led to Byron's work in the field of computer science.

Babbage designed a machine with the capability of calculating complex numerical problems. He also imagined a machine that when programmed could do any type of calculation. His advanced ideas would have produced an early version of the computer that would use modern computing ideas. However, Babbage never produced his computer because the technology needed to construct the machine was not available in the early 1800s. What was available was Byron's willingness and ability to describe and write programs for Babbage's conceptual machine called the analytical engine.

In 1842 L. F. Menabrea, an Italian mathematician, wrote a descriptive paper on the analytical engine. It became Byron's task to translate this paper from French into English. Babbage gave her permission to add her own notes to the paper. The product of this task became Byron's noteworthy contribution to the field of mathematics.

Byron translated Menabrea's words and added her ideas to the paper. The finished document she published was three times the length of the original paper. Included was a sample set of instructions, or a program, for the machine. She also noted that these types of machines were unable think for themselves, rather their functioning depended on their programmers. Byron's work on this paper showed her insight into the future of computers, as she revealed an understanding of the concept of a programmed machine that was beyond her time. Along with Babbage, she understood the basics of a machine she would never have the opportunity to actually work on.

This publication was Byron's only major mathematical contribution. It was not until after her death that her role as author of this visionary piece became public. Since societal views held it improper for women to write technical papers, Byron had signed only her initials to her work. Thirty years after the paper was published, Byron's full name appeared as the paper's author.

The mathematical community forgot Byron's work on this paper until the second half of the twentieth century. During the late 1970s, mathematicians and computer scientists reexamined her work. They noted her exceptional ability to see the technology of the future so clearly and acknowledged her early efforts to write computer programs. The United States Department of Defense honored her contribution to computer science in 1979 when they named their high-evel computer language ADA.

HEATHER M. MONCRIEF-MULLANE