Ada and Babbage finally build the Engine

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This beautiful drawing is from The Guardian Website

Have you heard of Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) she was born Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate child of Annabella Milbanke and the poet Lord Byron. Ada had an unusual upbringing for an aristocratic girl in the mid-1800s. At her mother’s insistence, tutors taught her mathematics and science.

Around the age of 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, (1791-1871). He was a fellow mathematician and computer pioneer. He designed the first automatic computing engine, but failed to build it.

However at her initiative, Ada suggested to Babbage that she would write a plan for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. This plan is now regarded as the first “computer program.” A few years ago (1979) a software language was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and named “Ada” in her honor.

A recently published graphic novel resurrected Lovelace and Babbage and gets them to finish what they started. The animator/author actually has them building the machine. The author Sydney Padua, is a London-based computer animator. The novel is entitled “Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage”. This graphic book is for sale on Amazon or you can borrow it from many local libraries.

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Posted on January 28, 2016, in Tech History and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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