Hey there, tiktakers! As you know, this March
8 is International Women's Day, a perfect
occasion to remember some of the female figures
that have marked our History. And this time,
we would like to remember the first woman
programmer in history.
Augusta Ada Byron, known as Ada Lovelace,
was a talented English mathematician, and
a pioneer in the field of computer programming.
She was born in London on December 10th, 1815,
and was the daughter of the famous romantic
poet Lord Byron and Lady Annabella Byron.
Ada didn't spend much time with her father.
Known for his love affairs, Lady Byron separated
from her husband shortly after Ada's birth.
A few months later, Lord Byron left England,
and Ada never saw him again. He died in Greece
when she was only 8 years old.
The little girl had an unusual upbringing
for an aristocratic girl from the mid-19th
century. She studied literature and music
along with astronomy and mathematics. It is
believed that her mother thought that feeding
the rational and objective part of her brain
would prevent Lovelace from developing her
father's unpredictable temperament. Although
she couldn't prevent Ada from being fascinated
by her father and from considering mathematics
a “poetic science”.
Sadly, due to a severe unknown illness, she
spent a long time unable to get out of bed.
But far from being discouraged, she took the
opportunity to let her imagination fly. Excited
by the idea of flying, she was determined
to invent the machine that would allow her
to move through the air. She spent years studying
the anatomy of birds and creating sketches
for her project.
From the beginning, Lovelace showed a talent
for numbers and language. At 17, one of her
tutors, Mary Somerville, introduced her to
Charles Babbage, a well-known mathematician
and inventor, who was impressed by the young
woman's intelligence and knowledge. Immediately
they started a voluminous correspondence on
topics related to mathematics.
Ada was fascinated with Babbage's ideas. Known
as the father of computing, he was the creator
of the differential machine, a mechanical
calculator.
In 1834, Babbage had plans for the construction
of a new model of calculating machine, a general
analytical machine that would become the antecedent
of the modern computer.
Ada married in 1835 to William King, who became
the Count of Lovelace three years later. They
had three children together. Ada and her husband
shared their love for horses and socialized
with many of the illustrious minds of the
time, such as Charles Wheatstone, Michael
Faraday, and Charles Dickens.
It was 1842 when Ada translated an article
written by the Italian mathematician Louis
Menabrea about the analytical machine. But
she not only translated the original text,
she also added her own thoughts and ideas.
The article ended up being three times longer
than the original piece. Those notes were
the origin of her fame as the first female
programmer in history.
Ada described how codes could be created for
the device to handle letters and symbols along
with numbers. She also described concepts
such as the loop and the subroutine; she wrote
a program that allowed to calculate the values
of Bernoulli numbers and how to perform trigonometric
operations that used variables with the machine.
And also, she detailed the use of punch cards.
Her work was published in 1843 in an English
scientific journal. Ada signed with her initials
to avoid the censorship of the time, but still
her work was relegated to the background until
years later.
Lovelace didn't have a strong health; she
had problems with asthma and her digestive
system. Her last years were somewhat stormy.
The nervous breakdowns, debts, and scandals
followed. She died of uterine cancer in London
on November 27th, 1852 when she was only 36.
She was buried at her request at the cemetery
in Nottinghamshire.
In 1979, the Department of Defense of the
United States recognized the contributions
of this young woman and created a programming
language in her honor called ADA.
Ada Lovelace is considered to be the first
female programmer in history, a woman ahead
of her time who, over the years, would receive
recognition for the great work developed in
the computer field.
