Ada+Lovelace

Kelvin Van //__** Introduction **__// From the development of machinesduring the Industrial Revolution, machines have really never been pr ogrammed to automatically perform tasks on their own. Ada Lovelace's Analytical Engine in 1843 revolutionized how machines work to perform simple tasks such as math (Tonle). Lovelace had such a thirst for learning that she was never "Satisfied… because understand it well as I [do], my comprehension can only be an infinitesimal fraction of all I want to understand"(Anderson). Lovelace is credited with being the first programmer as her interest to learn fueled her motivation to create something for millions to use today.

//__** Personal Background **__//  Ada Lovelace's parents married each other on January 2 1815 and she was born into the Byron family in England on December 10 1815 (Tonle, Conner). Lovelace's father, Lord Byron, was a poet and along with a love for mathematics (Tonle). Lady Lovelace was highly intelligent as she was well educated by private tutors and liked science and math (Tonle). However, this marriage did not last long and Lovelace's parents divorced only weeks after she was born (Conner). Months after the divorce Lord Byron left England and Lovelace never got to meet her father. When Ada Lovelace was eight years old, her father died in Greece and she never knew of his death (Conner). At an early age, Lovelace enjoyed mathematics and just about anything to do with machines (Tonle). However, Lovelace along with her dad had some mental instabilities. Although she loved math, her favorite subject was geography which her mother did not approve of. Lovelace also enjoyed poetry and often wrote it on her spare time when she was not performing math or machine related things (Huang). However, as she grew up, Lady Lovelace believed that she should not take any part into poetry as it reminded her of Lord Byron. Lovelace's friends and family encouraged her to continue through with her education (Tonle). Throughout her life, Lovelace received private tutors that she studied with. One of these tutors was William King-Noel who she will grow up to marry in the following years (Conner). At the age of 19, Lovelace marries William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace (Anderson). William respected her beliefs and supported her ideas. Through this she met Charles Babbage who at the time was working on the analytical machine. They soon became friends and Lovelace worked with him to finish the machine. On November 27, 1852, Marylebone, United Kingdom, Lovelace died at the age of 37 from stomach cancer (Anderson).

__//** Personality Traits **//__ Throughout Lovelace's life, she had a love for machines and mathematics but was a pretty shy person and had little friends (Tonle). With the friends that she had she would commonly joke around with them pulling pranks and other things. Ada was very smart and had a huge thirst for learning and throughout her life kept learning new things (Conner).  Lovelace was a very nice girl but since she was pretty shy did not make many friends. However, Lovelace was a very sick person for most of her life commonly becoming ill (Tonle). She would spend most of her times with personal tutors and became good friends with all of her trainers. Lovelace had no problems with shyness among friends and her friends really did not notice that she was shy at all since she was so outgoing. Lovelace was a very honest person saying anything on her mind to friends and family (Conner).

__//** Obstacles **//__  Throughout Lovelace's life, she suffered many childhood diseases such as measles and chickenpox (Anderson). Five weeks after her birth, her parents divorced. Her mom would give Lovelace harsh punishments for making mistakes. After suffering measles and the other childhood diseases she suffered she developed Uterine cancer and died at the age of 36 (Ayers). Lovelace suffered from mental instabilities she most likely inherited from her father (Anderson). She was also a victim of a lot of discrimination for being a woman with a dream of becoming a mathematician. After her marriage, Lovelace suffered from a addiction to gamboling and was in heavy debt at the time of her death.

__//** Historical Significance **//__ During a party when Lovelace was 17 , she met Charles Babbage, a mathematician, and they soon got along very well together (Huang). Soon after they met Babbage started to teach Lovelace more complicated mathematics. Before the completion of the difference machine by Babbage, Lovelace got a chance to look at it and was soon captivated about how the device worked. Soon after Babbage began to work on a new machine called the analytical engine. In theory this machine was meant to complete super complex calculations. During its creation Lovelace was asked to translate an article of the analytical engine (Toole). However, while working on the translation she got carried away and started to write about things that were not part of the original text but her own personal thoughts and ideas of what the machine does. Her work added an extra two pages onto what was originally inserted filled completely with her added writing. Soon, her work is published in 1843 by a science journal and with that she used her initials for the publication. Her translation along with notes described how code could be complied together to handle letters, symbols and numbers. Another thing she put into her notes was how that machine would look like construction wise along with the programming language. She also thought about how the engine could repeat certain instructions. This was called looping which computer programs most commonly use today. Lovelace also had Long after her death in about the 1950's, she was credited to be one of the first computer programmer and even had a programming language named after her that was called Ada (Ayers). This programming language was created in the 1980's by the U.S. Department of Defense. Her notes were republished by B.Y. Bowden who has popularized Lovelace. Lovelace is also credited as being the first woman to be a programmer. Lovelace's discoveries revolutionized what computing is today with the creation the first programming language.


 * Reference **

Anderson, Suwcharman. "Ada Lovelace: Victorian computing Visonary." FindingAda.Web. September 15 2014

Ayers, Nancy. "Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Love." Wichita.edu.Web. November 20 2014

Connor, JJO. "Augsta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace." HistoryMsc.Web. October 2 2014

Dorris, Moore. "Ada: Countess of LoveLace." sdsc.edu.Web. December 12 2014

Huang, Jonathan. "Ada Lovelace." Chronarion.Web. October 6 2014

Toole, Betty. "Ada Byron, LadyLovelace." Yale.Web. October 16 2014