Essay 01 Design Document, Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace

“I should wish that … you do not give me reward because I think the reward of your being pleased with me sufficient, besides when you do that I don’t do the good thing because I know I ought to do it but because I want to obtain the reward, and not because I want to know it to be right, and if I was encouraged in this, when I was grown up I should be a very disagreeable creature, and I should never do any good without I had a reward.

Visionary of the Digital Age IXDS-5403 Media History and Theory Professor David Edwin Meyers Lindsey Wilson College

Leilani Moore July 2016 M.A. Interactive Design

2 Born on December 10, 1815 was Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, though better known as Ada Lovelace. She introduced many concepts and was the first to envision computer programming in the 1850s. Her father a poet, she inherited an imaginative personality and had a gift for mathematics. In spite of her success, Ada lived an emotionally disheartening thirty-six years.

Little Girl Lost Augusta Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815 to Lord George Gordan Byron and Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke Byron, an aristocratic but emotionally troubling couple. Ada was born into a life of division and aloofness, with her mother, fleeing Byron in the middle of the night when Ada was only a month old. Byron would never see his wife and child again. Her mother preferred to call her only “Ada” following the demise of the marriage.

Anabella’s parents were angry at the ill treatment of their daughter and slowly turned her against Byron. Ada grew up without knowing her father, imposed with strict discipline and prudent education during her childhood. Ada’s mother encouraged the strict teaching of mathematics and science to her daughter, although it was not customary to teach such subjects to women of the time. She hoped to increase Ada’s self-control and prevent her from growing into the unpredictable person Lord Byron was.

Is thy face like thy mother’s, my fair child!

Ada! Sole daughter of my house and heart?

When last I say thy young blue eyes they smiled, And then we parted, - not as now we part, But with a hope.

Awaking with a start The waters heave around me; and on high The winds lift up their voices: I depart, Whither I know not but the hour’s gone by When Albion’s lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.

Lord Byron

Nicknamed the “princess of parallelograms” by Ada’s father, Lady Byron was driven to provide Ada with a mathematical education, snuffing out her imagination which Ada’s mother saw as dangerous and potentially destructive. She wanted her daughter to be completely rational, void of compulsiveness, to protect Ada from any inherited characteristics from her ill-fated father.

Through a ticket-based system Ada was either given a reward or punishment.

Upon good performance, Ada was given paper tickets as a reward, which were taken away when expectations were not met. She was also often shut in a closet as a punishment when the ticket system failed to motivate her. Thus Ada developed a feeling of dread towards her mother while trying to meet her expectations which lingered into her adult life to the day of her death.

Ada wrote many letters to her mother while growing up since Lady Byron traveled frequently, leaving Ada behind with her governesses. These letters give an account of Ada’s rigid and lonely childhood and also reflect Ada’s need for approval and love from her mother.

As Ada wrote on September 7, 1824: I should wish that … you do not give me reward because I think the reward of your being pleased with me sufficient, besides when you do that I don’t do the good thing because I know I ought to do it but because I want to obtain the reward, and not because I want to know it to be right, and if I was encouraged in this, when I was grown up I should be a very disagreeable creature, and I should never do any good without I had a reward.

The following letter shows ten-year-old Ada longing to please her mother with her performance, dated June 1st, 1826: My Dearest Mammy, No letter from Lady Tarn yet. Louisa is a little better today. She was very much pleased yesterday with a box of the most beautiful things imaginable from Miss Noel. There were beautiful little wee wee baskets, one larger basket, and some pincushions in the form of little guitars, another carriage and Louisa is to have a dozen more carriages of different sorts.

I attempted the double rule of three but I could not understand it, however I will not give it up yet, the book does not teach as well as you do … My purse is getting on beautifully. It is for Louisa’s trade and though it is a coarse purple one, I have some thoughts of buying it and giving it to you.

The bridge at Birfons that Ada would visit as a child. Courtesy: Ada’s Algorithm

Today I have been doing some Italian, and I have written about Arrowroot, and made out a little alphabetical list of all the things I am going to write about from Bingley’s Useful Knowledge. There are two dozen different things I wish to write about, and I have been puzzling hard at a sum in the rule of three which I could not do, the question is if 750 men are allowed 22500 rations of bread per month how many rations will a garrison of 1200 men require?

I think by the time you come back, I may have learnt something about decimals,

Mrs. Montgomery is very kind to me, and I am not very unhappy though of course I should be happier if you were here … I get up between six and half past six, breakfast at nine, dine at one, and sup at six. I hope I am not very troublesome … My watch is very useful to me here, I only wish I could wear it … Have you got me a governess yet? …

I must conclude. If you have too much to do, pray don’t write to me at all, I am dying to ride over on horseback to Battle to meet you on Wednesday. I wish above everything that such an arrangement would be made.

Goodbye, yours affectionately, A. Ada Byron

While enduring a rigid and hollow childhood, Ada grew up remote from Lord Byron, both geographically and emotionally, and unaware of her father’s warm interest in her. Ada suffered many illnesses as a child, never in particularly good health. Lord Byron continued to lead his life abroad, never finding financial security or emotional happiness.

Lord Byron died on April 19, 1824, after falling ill with the flu. According to the account of his valet, Byron’s last words were: “oh, my poor dear child! – my dear Ada! My God, could I have seen her! Give her my blessing …”

He fathered an illegitimate daughter, named Allegra, whom sadly died at the age of 5 while under the care of nuns at an Italian convent. While at the convent, little Allegra longed for visits from her father but he never attempted to see his daughter. The following letter is the only one from Allegra to her dad, dated September 28, 1821: Dear Papa, It being fair-time, I should like so much a visit from my Papa as I have so many wishes to satisfy. Won’t you come to please your Allegra who loves you so?

And so Allegra, like her half-sister, Ada, whom she never knew, grew up without the love and attention from Lord Byron.

George Gordan Byron, 6th Baron Byron Courtesy: Ada’s Algorithm

New Beginnings When Ada turned thirteen in 1828, she began studying with several friends of Lady Byron instead of receiving her instruction from governesses, to enhance her education and develop a good moral background. By the age of 14, Ada became stricken with a serious illness that left her bedridden for three years. During this time she became extremely focused on her studies, worked hard, and became very tough on herself and her educational downfalls. She was now very much like her mother, becoming very serious and critical of herself.

By the 1830s, aristocratic Britain was flourishing financially and socially. Days and evenings were filled with big luncheons, amorous liaisons, and glittering parties while the majority of Britons lived in poverty, barely able to eat above the starvation level. However, this was also a time of changing times. One of the biggest causes of these changes was the great impact of machine technology. This fascinated Ada and quickly became an innovative passion for her to dwell on. It was during this time that a

mathematician named Charles Babbage surfaced in London’s fashionable society. The British textile industry was experiencing tremendous growth requiring coal powered steam engines to keep up with the textile production.

In 1833, Ada became fascinated with the ingenious French silk-weaving machine developed and patented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804. The Jacquard loom was an automated weaving loom that used a long chain of punch cards to direct the creation of the desired fabric patterns. This enabled a single weaver to work about twenty-four times faster as before and produce around two feet of finished fabric every day.

Innovation and Discovery Ada was transfixed with this loom, which set her imagination alight by the idea of any machine. It was during this time in the summer of 1833 that Ada met the mathematician, Charles Babbage at a party whom shared and understood her fascinated interest in mechanical questions.

Babbage was adamant to develop his own calculating machine that would be automatic. He conceived his Difference Engine that did just that. The development of his calculating machine took over 12 years with the only interruption in its process being the death of his wife in 1827.

Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2, Designed 1847-49, Completed 2002 (Photograph: Doron Swade)

Babbage would act as a mentor and inspiration for 17 year-old Ada, erupting an imagination and a vision of a different kind of loom, that would weave not silk thread, but numbers and mathematics. This was the first glimpse of the seedling that would 100 years later result in the computer.

With the advancement and more extensive the role technology played in society, the more demand for accurate mathematical tables became. Influenced by earlier scientists and mathematicians,

This demonstration piece became known throughout scientific London. It was able to carry out some calculations, producing calculations for mathematical tables, subtractions, multiplications and divisions. Babbage built a portion of his Difference Engine, but his project remained at a dead end due to no precision metal industry. The intricate and precise cogwheels could only be made very slowly by hand, making it impossible to meet the demands of the thousands of cogwheels needed for his machine.

Ada, as young as she was, understood mechanics and beauty of this invention and how Babbage’s brilliant innovation linked the world of mathematics to a physical machine.

Charles Babbage, 1850

Following the Difference Engine, was a new idea conceived by Babbage, a general purpose computer that could carry out varying operations based on programming instructions given to it, switching from one task and performing another, being able to self instruct to switch tasks.

The sequence of tasks could be modified, thus devising a general-purpose machine that was versatile and reprogrammable.

Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Lord_Byron

One hundred years ahead of his time, Babbage designed the first computer like machine which he named the Analytical Engine. Inspired by the punch card driven Jacquard loom, Babbage stated that using punch cards rather than steel drums would enable unlimited number of instructions could be input. The sequence of tasks could be modified, thus devising a general-purpose machine that was versatile and reprogrammable.

Babbage had few believers in his Analytical Engine, except for Ada Lovelace, who understood and appreciated the concept of a general –purpose machine. She elaborated on the functions and the ability of this piece, envisioning an amazing attribute of processing not only numbers but also any symbolic notations, including musical and artistic ones. Ada saw the beauty and poetry in this idea and was determined to open the eyes of others to see it as well.

Ada also believed that the Analytical Engine just not be limited to math and numbers but would be able to store, manipulate, process, and act upon anything that could be expressed in symbols. Ada expressed these words that would echo through decades:

“The Analytical Engine could, in theory, even perform operations on musical notations: Supposing for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and musical compositions were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity.”

As a result of painkillers her doctors provided, Ada experienced mood swings and hallucinations.

Ada suffered from uterine cancer while in London and died on November 27, 1852. She was laid to rest next to her father at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Nottingham, England.

Ada writes following a visit to her father’s grave at Newstead Abby, not long before her own demise:

Ada’s vision of a machine that could process and remember calculations, algebraic patterns and all types of symbolic relationships as easily as the Jacquard loom could weave silk, made her the visionary of the computer age that lay decades ahead.

Ada’s Demise Having such skills with numbers, Ada tried her luck in gambling. Her hopes of winning large failed and she found herself economically troubled. Ada’s health suffered, as well. In her later years, Ada experienced several health problems, including cholera. It greatly affected her breathing and digestive system.

Ada Lovelace, 1838.

(A. E. Chaton, RA) Courtesy: Ada’s Algorithm

“Low and melancholy. All is like death round one; and I seem to be in the mausoleum of my race. What is the good of living, when thus all passes away and leaves only cold stone behind it? There is no life here, but cold dreary death only … I am glad to see the home of my ancestors but I shall not be sorry to escape from the grave. I see my own future continuing visibly around me … I have not yet seen my father’s rooms. No one is here but the Hamilton Greys, and we are perfectly quiet, and just like Goody Two Shoes!

Only I feel as if I had become a stone monument myself. I am petrifying fast.”

References Ada Lovelace (Biography) “Ada Lovelace.” Bio. A&E, 2016. Web. 28 July 2016. <• http://www.biography.com/people/ada-lovelace-20825323 The Incredible Story of Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace, the World’s First Computer Programmer https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/the-incredible-story-of-lord-byrons-daughter-ada-lovelace-the-worlds-f-1406539730.html>.

Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age Essinger, James. Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age. N.p.: n.p., 2015. Print.

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

Isaacson, Walter. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. N.p.: n.p., 2014. Print.

Ada Lovelace MacDonald, Violet. “Ada Lovelace.” Find My Past. N.p., 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 28 July 2016. <• https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/the-incredible-story-of-lord-byrons-daughter-ada-lovelace-the-worlds-f-1406539730.html>.