LAURIE WALLMARK: So my
name is Laurie Wallmark.
And I wrote this book
called "Ada Byron Lovelace
and the Thinking Machine."
I did not illustrate the book.
I am not that talented.
I had a very
talented Illustrator.
Her name was April Chu.
And here's the
dedication to the book.
I dedicated it to my
daughters, Kim and Lisa, who
love math as much as Ada did.
Now, a funny thing
about this dedication
is my illustrator's dedication.
She dedicated it to
her husband, Toby.
My husband's name is Toby,
so as far as I'm concerned,
I dedicated it to my children
and my husband, Toby.
OK.
So one of the things I need you
people to help me with-- I'm
going to be asking
questions along the way.
And one of the things
I want you to notice
is look here in the corner here.
We have gears.
You're going to
see a lot of gears,
because we're talking
about machines.
So let's get started.
I'm going to read and then
maybe ask you a few questions
to help me out.
"Ada was born into
a world of poetry,
but numbers, not words,
captured her imagination.
Her mother, Lady Byron,
had a passion for geometry.
In fact, her nickname was the
Princess of Parallelograms.
But her famous father
dominated the household.
Beloved for his romantic
poems, Lord Byron
was a celebrity
throughout the world."
So my first question
for you is how do we
know that mom liked math?
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Well, she had--
wait, I can't say the shape,
but I can-- there's a picture.
LAURIE WALLMARK: So he's holding
a geometric shape, right?
AUDIENCE: Yes, I can't--
LAURIE WALLMARK: OK.
How else?
How do you think she
knows what math is?
How do you think she knows that
she loves math, not that she--
AUDIENCE: She has a
passion for geometry.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Right.
Well, I wrote those
words, but what's
in the picture that
tells you that?
AUDIENCE: That there's this
bird and it has [INAUDIBLE].
LAURIE WALLMARK: Mm-hm.
It's got these
numbers over the crib.
And the blackboard.
One of the best things
about picture books
is it's not just the author.
You also get an Illustrator.
So the Illustrator gets to
add things to the story.
OK.
So how about dad?
How do we know that
he likes writing?
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: He is holding a poem.
LAURIE WALLMARK:
He's holding a what?
AUDIENCE: Poem.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Oh,
he's holding a poem.
Yes.
His poem is called
"Epitaph for a Dog."
That was one of the real
poems that Lord Byron
wrote, and here's a dog.
"Unfortunately,
Lord Byron was also
notorious for his
scandalous behavior.
So scandalous that Lady
Byron bundled up her new baby
and fled London to her parents'
home over 100 miles away.
Ada never saw her father again.
Now Ada could only know her
father through his books.
And Ada was lonely.
Her journals filled with pages
of inventions and equations
kept her company.
The best part was when her
sketches flew off the page
and became real."
So do either of you see
something funny in the birds?
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: There's
a machine bird.
LAURIE WALLMARK:
There's a machine bird.
Do you think that
really existed?
No, I think that
was her imagination.
Inventors have to have
a good imagination
to be able to think
up some things.
And then I'd like to introduce
you to Mrs. Puff, her cat.
You're going to see a lot
of Mrs. Puff as we go along.
"Ada's latest invention
was a flying machine.
She had built a
set of real wings,
but could they actually fly?
First, Ada needed to
compute the wings' power.
She broke the problem
into steps-- surface area
and weight, wind
speed and angles.
Multiplying and dividing
over and over again.
Ada loved numbers, but these
calculations seemed endless.
Wasn't there an easier way?
Writing for so long
made her fingers hurt.
She wiggled them and
returned to her numbers.
15 times 12 equals 180."
So what in this picture shows
us how much she liked flying
and wanted to invent
a flying machine?
What do you see?
AUDIENCE: She has
a flying horse.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Right,
she has a flying horse.
And in fact, that's
how she thought
it would work-- putting
wings on a horse.
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: A horse with
wings is called Pegasus.
LAURIE WALLMARK: That's right.
A horse with wings
is called Pegasus.
Right.
And now you can see her
drawing a Pegasus and then
some of the wings.
[COUGHS]
"The sky darkened
and thunder crashed.
Rain pounded on the roof and
pelted through the open window.
Ada jumped up to
latch the shutters.
The curtains flapped
in and out like sails
billowing in the wind.
Sails?
Sails were like wings.
Ada could use the wind to do
an experiment for her flying
machine.
She grabbed her
journal and charged out
into the howling storm."
What is her expression?
What do you think
she's thinking?
AUDIENCE: Smiling.
LAURIE WALLMARK: She's smiling.
What's she thinking, though?
Yeah.
What do you think
she's thinking?
AUDIENCE: She's thinking that
that storm will [INAUDIBLE].
LAURIE WALLMARK: Mm-hm.
How about Mrs. Puff, though?
What's Mrs. Puff thinking?
AUDIENCE: Me?
LAURIE WALLMARK: Yeah.
AUDIENCE: No, don't do that!
LAURIE WALLMARK: Right.
Cats don't like
water, and Mrs. Puff
is not at all happy about
what's happening here.
"Again and again, Ada
launched her model sailboat
across the pond.
Each time, she
adjusted the sails
and studied the effect on
the little boat's speed.
A storm of numbers
and calculations
whirled in her mind and
spilled onto her pages."
What's happening
with Mrs. Puff now?
AUDIENCE: She is under
the bed, and she does not
like water like most cats.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Right.
She does not like water.
She is waiting to
get out of there.
That's for sure.
This is my favorite
drawing in the whole book.
"Night fell, Ada
returned home muddy,
dripping wet, and triumphant.
When Nannie saw
Ada, she scolded her
for being out in such
dreadful weather.
She sniffed that she didn't
care what Lady Byron thought.
Girls should not
waste their time
with math, and science,
and experiments,
and other such nonsense.
But to Ada, it wasn't
nonsense at all.
Numbers were her friends.
After dinner, she sprawled on
the floor with her puzzle book.
Her head was hot and achy.
The numbers squirmed
about on the page,
and her eyes felt as
if they were filled
with sand from the pond."
Now, there's something
on this page that's
a little funny that I didn't
notice till a friend of mine
pointed it out.
What's something funny
happening on this page?
AUDIENCE: Frog.
LAURIE WALLMARK: There's a frog
coming out of the boot there.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
LAURIE WALLMARK: You're right.
You know what I
think it probably
is is it's the inside versus
the outside of a shoe.
But I never noticed
that before just
like I hadn't noticed the frog.
AUDIENCE: How could
you not miss the frog?
LAURIE WALLMARK: I don't know.
Like I said, illustrators bring
an awful lot to picture books.
That's what's really
nice about them.
"By morning, Ada
had a high fever.
Nannie didn't scold now.
She was worried.
She cabled mama to
come home right away.
Ada had the measles.
For many long days
and nights, mama
read Ada her favorite books.
The fever finally
broke, but the measles
left her paralyzed and blind."
Do you know what "paralyzed"
and "blind" mean?
AUDIENCE: I think it means like
"blind" means your eyesight is
just [INAUDIBLE] away, and
then "paralyzed" mean you can't
move your head or something.
LAURIE WALLMARK: What do
you think "paralyzed" means?
AUDIENCE: Well, I was gonna
say that when you're blind,
you can't see
anything [INAUDIBLE]
LAURIE WALLMARK: That's right.
AUDIENCE: I read a book
about Helen Keller.
She's blind and deaf.
LAURIE WALLMARK: That's
right. "Paralyzed"
means that that part of
your body can't move.
So for Ada, it was her legs.
She couldn't move her legs.
"To keep Ada's mind sharp, mama
quizzed her on math problems.
How much was 82 minus 25?
18 times 47?
96 divided by 13?
Numbers chased each other around
and around in Ada's head."
And there she is with Mrs.
Puff keeping her company
through that long,
hard time of her life.
"Mama posed ever
harder problems,
and Ada solved them
all-- problems like,
how long does it take
to travel to London?
By carriage, it was
an overnight journey.
But Ada's flying machine could
go much faster than a carriage.
If Ada flew, she'd
be able to reach
London in only a few hours,
just in time for tea!
Ada's number
[INAUDIBLE] company.
15 times 12 was still
180 and always would be,
whether Ada could see or not.
Over the next few weeks,
her eyes got better,
but it was three
long years before she
could put away her crutches.
The girl who wanted to
fly could not even walk.
But Ada still had her
numbers, numbers that mattered
to her more than ever."
OK, so in this picture,
there's some fantastical things
going on in this picture.
What do you see?
AUDIENCE: There's a flying
angel and a flying machine
[INAUDIBLE] flying machine.
LAURIE WALLMARK: OK.
So I think it's actually
a picture of Ada flying.
AUDIENCE: Yeah, I said that.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Oh, OK.
And what do you
see that's funny?
AUDIENCE: There's a lot of tea--
there's a teapot and some--
LAURIE WALLMARK:
There's a teapot?
AUDIENCE: And there's tea too.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Like
creamer and sugar.
Yeah, those are not
normally buildings
that you see in town, right?
The illustrator put them
in to reflect the text.
"Mama recognized her
daughter's passion.
She hired tutors so
Ada could learn math
at an even higher level.
Ada's favorite was Mary
Fairfax Somerville,
the well-known scientist
and mathematician.
Somerville was living
proof that girls
could do math and do it well.
She had even written
books on the subject,
another thing girls were
not supposed to do."
Now, the funny thing
about this picture
is-- see the three
women right here?
Which one do you think is Ada?
I thought it was
obvious, by the way.
And clearly, it's not.
So which one do you
guys think is Ada?
OK, what color?
AUDIENCE: I think
it's probably blue.
LAURIE WALLMARK: The blue one?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Why?
AUDIENCE: Because [INAUDIBLE].
LAURIE WALLMARK: OK.
Who do you think is Ada?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
LAURIE WALLMARK: Which one?
AUDIENCE: The red one.
LAURIE WALLMARK: OK.
I thought it was the red one
also for several reasons.
One, she's sort of
looking up to this person,
you know, like
listening to her talk.
She's a little bit shorter,
and she's in front.
But when I've read this
book to other kids,
sometimes they say blue,
sometimes they say yellow,
sometimes they say red.
So something that I thought was
absolutely obvious, certainly
very true, how could anyone
believe anything else, well,
they can.
AUDIENCE: Which one's correct?
LAURIE WALLMARK: I have no idea.
And every time I
do this, I think,
I have got to email the
Illustrator and ask her.
And then I forget by
the time I get home.
AUDIENCE: OK. [INAUDIBLE]
LAURIE WALLMARK: [LAUGHS] I'm
sure she does know even though
I don't.
"Somerville was so impressed by
Ada's sharp reasoning skills,
she invited Ada and
her mother to a party.
Not just a party for dancing and
dining, but for sharing ideas.
The guests were scientists
like Michael Faraday, who
studied electromagnetism,
and Charles Wheatstone
who invented a device to display
three-dimensional images.
But for Ada, the one
who mattered most
was Charles Babbage.
He was a famous
mathematician and inventor,
just like Ada wanted to be.
Though she was only
17 and Babbage 41,
Ada spoke about math with a
precision and understanding
that impressed him, so much
so that Babbage invited
her to visit his laboratory."
Funny thing about this spread
has nothing to do with my book,
but has to do with
Google Boston.
I was in Google
Boston two weeks ago
giving Take Your Child
to Work Day events.
And I was in the
Charles Babbage room.
They also have an Ada Lovelace
room and a Grace Hopper room.
And I'm writing a book
about Grace Hopper
that comes out next year.
But I was in the Babbage room.
"Ada brought her journals to
show him her own experiments
and inventions.
Their tea grew cold as they
talked about their love
of machines and mathematics.
Babbage didn't see her
as simply a young girl.
He treated her like the fellow
mathematician and inventor
she already was.
Before, numbers had
been Ada's only friends.
Now Babbage was a
friend as well."
OK.
Ada's looking at a mechanical
doll that Babbage had.
But look at her
magnifying glass.
What do you see in that glass?
AUDIENCE: It's a bird.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Just
a regular old bird?
AUDIENCE: It's a fish bird!
A flying fish.
LAURIE WALLMARK: I think it is
a mechanical bird just like she
was dreaming of before.
Now she's seeing a machine,
this mechanical doll.
And in her mind-- yeah.
AUDIENCE: Why would
he make it and then--
LAURIE WALLMARK: He didn't
make the mechanical doll.
He had bought it.
AUDIENCE: Who?
[INAUDIBLE]?
LAURIE WALLMARK: I don't know.
AUDIENCE: What did he make?
He made the [INAUDIBLE].
LAURIE WALLMARK: No,
he made the machine
that we're going
to see in a moment.
OK, so let's-- in fact, here
we are in the moment where
we're going to see the machine.
"Babbage showed Ada
his difference engine,
a revolutionary
mechanical calculator.
He knew Ada would understand
how his extraordinary invention
worked.
Ada did more than understand.
She couldn't wait to see the
difference engine in action.
She chose to have the machine
solve a simple problem, one
she could easily do in
her head-- 15 times 12."
OK, so how big is a calculator?
AUDIENCE: Small.
LAURIE WALLMARK: How
big's a calculator?
AUDIENCE: Small.
Enough to fit in your hand.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Right.
It's about hand size.
It is certainly not this big.
AUDIENCE: Yeah, it's a--
LAURIE WALLMARK: But back then--
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
LAURIE WALLMARK:
Back then, that's
what you needed to have just
something that could add,
subtract, multiply, and divide.
"Reaching inside the machine,
Ada rotated the metal columns
until the numbers
15 and 12 appeared.
With a crank of the handle,
she powered the calculator.
Gears clicked and turned,
cylinders pumped up and down,
small hammers clanked as
the number spiraled upward,
guiding the machine to
the correct solution.
After a few turns of
the handle, the answer
appeared on the
final column-- 180.
It was right."
Now, when I was doing
research for the book--
and I did a lot of research,
as you can imagine--
one of the things I
found was the Computer
Museum out in California had
built a difference engine.
And they have,
speaking of YouTube,
they have it on YouTube.
You can see it in action.
So that's how I knew about
things spiraling upward
and things clanking, because I
could see the machine that they
built.
"Babbage told Ada he had
designed an even more powerful
device, a mechanical computer.
His analytical engine
would solve harder problems
by working through
them step by step.
It could even make decisions
all by itself, a true thinking
machine.
The only trouble was Babbage
hadn't actually built it.
In fact, he never built it.
He ran out of money.
Ada carried home a stack
of Babbage's lab books,
30 in all, filled with notes
about the analytical engine.
[INAUDIBLE] she studied
the technical descriptions
and pored over the diagrams.
Ada quickly realized that
without instructions,
the analytical engine would be
a useless pile of metal parts.
It needed numbers
to make it work--
her numbers, her friends.
Ada decided to
create an algorithm,
a set of mathematical
instructions
for the analytical engine.
The machine could follow
these instructions
and solve a complex math
problem, one difficult
to figure out by hand."
In this picture, do you see
something in this picture
that you see on me?
AUDIENCE: The thing
on your shirt.
LAURIE WALLMARK: The
thing on my shirt.
This is a punched card,
and this was the way
that the machine would
receive instructions.
It would just be
a card with holes
punched in the right places.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: Is that
why you picked these?
Or is that why you
picked the shirt?
LAURIE WALLMARK:
Well, remember I had
nothing to do with the picture.
The illustrator did the picture.
AUDIENCE: Yeah, but is that
why you picked that shirt?
LAURIE WALLMARK: Yes.
AUDIENCE: Oh.
LAURIE WALLMARK: And the person
who made this shirt-- it also
says "Lovelace, 1815,"
which is when she was born.
OK.
So here's Mrs. Puff.
What do you think
she's thinking?
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: I need to go to bed,
because I'm still stretching.
LAURIE WALLMARK: I think
Mrs. Puff is a little bored.
Watching someone else do
computer programming is not
the most exciting thing.
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: No.
She has, like, a-- has
a happy face, like,
uh, yeah, you do that,
I'm gonna fall asleep.
Now [INAUDIBLE].
LAURIE WALLMARK: Oh, she
just doesn't need to do it.
It's time for her to go to bed.
I see.
"She worked for months,
revising her instructions.
Countless lines of
numbers and symbols
poured onto her journal pages.
After checking and
rechecking her algorithm
through the night, Ada
finally laid down her pen.
She hadn't found any errors.
The world's first computer
program was complete.
The gears of Ada's mind
whirred with possibilities
for future inventions,
all controlled
by computing machines.
She imagined computers
would someday
design powerful flying machines
and majestic sailing ships.
They would draw pictures
and compose music.
And they would play games
and help with homework."
These are things that you're
used to computers doing today,
right?
But back then, it truly
was revolutionary.
It was like science fiction
that someone would think this.
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Why would she--
wait, did you just write that?
Because that's what
I'm thinking right now.
LAURIE WALLMARK:
She thought that up.
AUDIENCE: No, you
made the lady up.
LAURIE WALLMARK: I
made the writing up,
yes, but she is the one
who thought that computers
might be able to compose music.
She is the one that thought
that they could be used
by engineers to design things.
AUDIENCE: You are, because
you made her think that.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Well, since she
was born in 1815, which was--
AUDIENCE: Yeah,
but you made her.
LAURIE WALLMARK:
[LAUGHS] In some ways,
I made her come to life, yes.
But the other thing I want to
point out on this page, here
are her notes where she
wrote the computer program.
And it just says AAL.
It stands for either Ada
Augusta Lovelace or Augusta Ada
Lovelace.
And I can never
remember which one,
and I always forget
to keep looking it up.
But the important part is
it's only her initials.
Why didn't she sign her name
to this very important work
that she did?
AUDIENCE: Because she
didn't want to brag.
LAURIE WALLMARK: She
didn't want to brag.
That could be.
What do you think?
Why do you think?
AUDIENCE: Because
she didn't want to.
You made her do that.
Because you made her.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Uh-huh.
Dads, why do you think?
AUDIENCE: Maybe she didn't
want the [INAUDIBLE].
LAURIE WALLMARK: They
didn't want-- she was afraid
if people knew she
was a woman, they
wouldn't take it seriously.
They would think, oh, it's just
a girl, a woman who did that,
so it can't be right.
But it was right.
It was revolutionary back
in that time and even later.
Do you people know, I assume,
the Harry Potter books?
Who wrote "Harry Potter?"
AUDIENCE: JK Rowling!
LAURIE WALLMARK: Or Jo
Rowling is her name.
Right?
But she didn't use
her name either.
AUDIENCE: I remember reading
the second "Harry Potter."
LAURIE WALLMARK: Yup.
AUDIENCE: That's how I know.
LAURIE WALLMARK: Right.
So even now, women
sometimes will just
use their initials
instead of their name.
"Because Babbage never finished
building the analytical engine,
Ada never got to
see her program run.
But the influence of
her work lives on.
More than 100 years
before the invention
of the modern computer,
Ada had glimpsed the future
and created a new profession--
computer programming.
Ada couldn't know that one
day a computer language
would be named after her-- Ada.
And one of Ada's uses-- to
guide modern flying machines.
The girl who needed crutches
ended up flying after all."
And that's the story of Ada.
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: I don't
know any computer
stuff that has Ada in it.
LAURIE WALLMARK: The
programming language
Ada was developed by the
Department of Defense.
And for a while,
every program written
by people in the Army, the Navy,
the Marines, the Air Force--
AUDIENCE: They name
it Ada, though?
LAURIE WALLMARK: They named
it after Ada to honor her.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
LAURIE WALLMARK: She's real.
AUDIENCE: Oh.
LAURIE WALLMARK:
She's a real person.
Absolutely.
AUDIENCE: Wait, is
this the [INAUDIBLE]?
LAURIE WALLMARK: This is a
biography of a real person.
AUDIENCE: Wait,
so does that mean
I could use this for a
biography [INAUDIBLE]?
LAURIE WALLMARK: Yes, you could.
AUDIENCE: OK.
LAURIE WALLMARK: And if
you look in the back,
there's a little bit more
information about her program
and some of her nicknames.
