Ada Lovelace is widely known as the world's first computer programmer. In the 1840s, she wrote the world’s first machine algorithm for an early computing machine that existed only on paper.
Ada Lovelace, also known as "The Enchantress of Numbers."
Daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron, she was born Augusta Ada Byron on December 10, 1815. She was just a teenager when she met Cambridge mathematics professor Charles Babbage, who in 1834 designed his Analytical Engine, the first general purpose computer.
Charles Babbage, 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871.
In 1842, Babbage gave a lecture on the engine, which was transcribed in French. Ada, now known as the Countess of Lovelace, was charged with translating it into English, to which she added her own notes. These notes made is very clear that she had as in-depth an understanding of how the machine worked as Babbage. She actually wrote the data input that would program the machine, which is now considered the first computer program.
The Analytical Engine, the first fully-automatic calculating machine. The Science Museum.
More than this though, she saw that numbers could be used to mean more than just quantities, that a machine that understands numbers could in-turn understand any data that is represented by numbers. Ada predicted that machine could be used to compose music, create graphics and much more. Turns out she was right!
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