Lady Ada Lovelace

Programmer / theorist

December 10, 1815 — November 27, 1852

inducted in the class of 2000

Notable accomplishments:

  • Co-wrote, with Charles Babbage, and published the first software for Babbage’s proposed Analytical Engine (1843)

Quotes:
“Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.” (“Notes Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with Notes from the Translator,” 1843)

“The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis, but it has no power of anticipating any analytical revelations or truths. Its province is to assist us in making available what we are already acquainted with.” (“Notes Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with Notes from the Translator,” 1843)

Suggested reading:
“Ada, Countess of Lovelace” by Doris Langley Moore (1977)

“The Calculating Passion of Ada Byron” by Joan Baum (1986)

“Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age” by James Essinger (2012)

Learn more:
Oxford University’s site about Lady Ada Lovelace

Finding Ada website