Creating Code: Ada Lovelace's Contribution to Computer Science
The idea of inventing new technology can be daunting even in a modern twenty-first century filled with iPhones and drones. The fact that in the eighteen hundreds, a young Ada Lovelace one day thought of creating a computer program before computers were even invented is remarkable. Lovelace, the legitimate daughter of famed poet Lord Byron, is often discredited for her work on Charles Babbage's "Analytic Engine," a precursor to the first computer. Ada Lovelace had a passion and gift for technology, in her short life writing approximately forty pages of code, which is still relevant to computer programming today. Ada Lovelace should be properly recognized as the inventor of computer code as opposed to the men, such as Charles Babbage and Alan Turing, who later used her ideas given Babbage's use of her coding, her work's role in ending the Second World War, and Lovelace's impact on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) as a woman often likened to a witch for her participation in the field.
Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, was born on the tenth of December in 1815 in London, England. Known simply as "Ada", she was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, a scandalous poet who was later exiled by Lovelace's mother for his frequent escapades. Growing up, Lovelace was discouraged from the arts, specifically her father's poetry. Her mother, Lady Anabella Byron, was known as the "Princess of Parallelograms" for her love of mathematics and education. Byron filled young Lovelace's days with astronomy, mathematical equations, and musical theory. Her mother made sure Lovelace was well educated, taking her to many dinner parties with renowned scientists (in particular Charles Darwin), but still supported imagination. A young Lovelace would go on to invent a "flying machine", and attempt to communicate with animals. Although she was encouraged by her mother, some would say that Ada Lovelace's life with technology started when she met Mary Somerville and Charles Babbage.
Mary Somerville was the author of "On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences" (1834). Somerville and Lovelace began a correspondence, sharing their thoughts on the world of science and how they could contribute to it. Somerville became Ada Lovelace's "mentor," showing Lovelace that science was not just for men and that women could pave their own way in the field. Through her mother and Somerville, Ada Lovelace was acquainted with Charles Babbage, and thus began her work on the "Analytical Engine." Charles Babbage was a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Babbage had been working at inventing a machine called the "Analytical Engine," which would allow equations or problems to be easily computed and solved. Lovelace became fascinated with this idea. She likened it to a game called Solitaire played with marbles, in that a marble must follow an unplanned and unpredictable sequence in order to win, "jumping" and passing other marbles. Lovelace used this idea to develop the theory that mathematical formulas could be put into a different, symbolic language. This is thought to be the first documentation of computer code.
Later on, before the Analytical Engine was developed, an Italian engineer by the name of Luigi Menebrea published a scientific paper on the functions of the hypothetical machine. Lovelace, possibly inspired by Somerville, decided to translate the paper from its original French and add her own thoughts. These thoughts, dubbed as notes, are considered to be much more in depth than Menebrea's paper, and were twice the length of the original piece at 20,000 words. Ada Lovelace's notes were later published in "Scientific Memoirs" in 1843. This was the first account of the possibility of a "thinking machine" and what it could do. She hypothesized a machine that had it's on memory, storing information and regenerating it in new ways using sets of numbers called Bernoulli numbers that could function as a code for programming the machine. Ada Lovelace's work became widespread amongst the science community, bringing more interest and fame to both Lovelace as a female scientist and to Burridge's Analytical Engine.
Though it was the nineteenth century, Lovelace's ideas proved to be relevant in one of the modern world's most trying times. In the 1940's Adolf Hitler had started his horrendous persecution of Jewish people. Through something called the Enigma Code, a machine that sent series of encryptions, the Nazis communicated their plans. They changed their code daily, making it almost impossible for the British to decipher and act accordingly. Alan Turing, an employee of the British Intelligence, was tasked to break this code along with a team. In the top secret Bletchley Park, Turing used Ada Lovelace's proposed algorithm for the use of Bernoulli's numbers to work into his code-breaking machine. The machine was a success, solving the German's daily changing codes to figure out when and where their attacks would be. Some would say that this contributed to the downfall of Nazi Germany, and the end of World War Two.
Looking towards more modern times again, one can notice the change that Ada Lovelace helped make in the way women are treated in the world of STEM. Back in Lovelace's time, it was often frowned upon for women to engage in education or any scientific pursuits. In fact, Lovelace was taught at home by her mother, and later after marriage and children began a correspondence with Augustus de Morgan, a professor in London. She was not allowed to attend his classes as he felt that women "lacked stamina for high level mathematics". Despite this belief, he sent Lovelace the same work he was giving his male students and was baffled at her imaginative and accurate mathematical thinking. As she was well ahead of her time, many men referred to Ada Lovelace as a witch (because apparently being a smart girl equates to paganism). Even Lovelace's very own partner fed into this. Babbage was quoted as calling her his "enchantress who has thrown her magical spell around the most abstract of sciences". Thankfully, Lovelace helped to pave the way so that women are now treated more fairly in the world of STEM. Though there are still some elements of sexism and misogyny in the field, it is not nearly as difficult now for a woman to succeed in science and mathematics as it was in Lovelace's time.
Despite the compelling evidence that Ada Lovelace was the inventor of computer code, there are many skeptics. Some would argue that Lovelace did not actually invent a code, she simply theorized what a code could be like. Others also would contend that Babbage or Turing are the creators of computer technology, as they created the machines. To counter both of those arguments, code does not have to be inputted in a computer to count as code. Lovelace created the basis for what code is today, without her theories the world and its technology would be much further behind. On the topic of Babbage and Turing, they were indeed the inventors of the Analytical Engine and the Enigma Machine, but without Lovelace's code, the machines would not function. Despite these skeptical beliefs, it is hard to deny Ada Lovelace's impact on the science world and the work she did that contributed to future technologies.
In closing, through her work's role in Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine as well as Alan Turing's Enigma breaking machine, thus ending the Second World War, and her impact as one of the first women of STEM, Ada Lovelace deserves to be recognized as the true inventor of computer code. Had Lovelace not been encouraged by her mother to pursue science and mathematics, and had she not taken an interest in Burridge's Analytical Engine, technology might not be as advanced as it is today. The fact that Lovelace does not get the proper recognition for her work is not right, although she is certainly more celebrated now then she was in her own time. The United States Department of Defence uses a computer program called 'Ada', and every second Tuesday in October is 'Ada Lovelace day' in her honour. Despite this, history still celebrates Turing and Babbage as the fathers of computer technology. More education and sharing of Ada Lovelace's story could put her in the history books, teaching young girls about her accomplishments and inspiring them to create the technology of the future.