Ada Lovelace: The Making of a Computer Scientist
by Christopher Hollings, Ursula Martin and Adrian Rice
First things first: I should state straight away that mathematics and I do *not* get on well. Which is a little odd, because part of my work involves being a finance officer! However, I can do this as I have lots of lovely computer programs to do the difficult work for me; so it’s not surprising, therefore, that I’m grateful to, and keen to learn about, people like Ada Lovelace who were in at the beginning of such things. Coincidentally, I watched an interesting BBC4 documentary re-run recently about Lovelace’s work; so I was very excited to see that the publishing arm of the Bodleian Library was bringing out this book and they’ve been kind enough to provide a review copy.
“The Making of a Computer Scientist” is a beautiful, lavishly illustrated hardback which looks not only at Lovelace’s life but also her mathematical achievements. There is a certain amount of controversy about her status in the scientific world; claims are often made that she produced the first computer program, whereas counter-claims describe her work as simply being a condensation of other works. Certainly, she published no books of research or great scientific discoveries – but that’s because of the world in which she grew up and the way that women were educated at the time.
Ada was born Augusta Ada Byron, daughter of the poet Lord and his wife Annabella Milbanke; her father left when she was one month old and she had minimal contact with him. Her upbringing and education fell to her mother, who was determined to keep the girl’s mind on logical, mathematical subjects so as to counteract any tendency to madness (not for nothing had Lord Byron been known as “mad, bad and dangerous to know”). However, as this book makes clear, women’s education at the time was not straightforward; Ada was reliant on a number of personal tutors, including Mary Somerville (one of the first members of the Royal Astronomical Society) and the mathematician Augustus De Morgan. But her most significant intellectual relationship was with Charles Babbage, inventor of the ‘Analytical Engine’, considered the first computer. Their relationship lasted until Ada’s early death, and the latter had significant input into Babbage’s work on his engine.
Lovelace’s most visible contribution was left in her translation from Italian of a paper by Luigi Menabrea, who had taken notes of talks given by Babbage in Turin; the latter asked Ada to add something of her own, and her appendices were longer than the actual paper itself… Within her notes to the work, she included a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers (don’t ask…) and it’s this which has led to her being considered the first computer programmer and her method as the world’s first computer program. Frankly, I’m not knowledgeable enough to make a judgement on that, but it’s fascinating.
The text of this book is in itself interesting enough, giving a concise outline of Lovelace’s life and work; however, where it really comes into its own is the wealth of visual material it presents, not only about Lovelace herself but also giving context to her life and times. The book is packed with reproductions of unpublished letters, notes and images from the Bodleian archives; paintings of Lovelace and her associates; pictures of contemporary events and also happenings that informed Lovelace’s life. It really is a lovely and informative book!
It’s always important to remember how many things were stacked up against Ada Lovelace, and her wish to learn, analyse and discover. As the authors point out:
Success for a woman in science in nineteenth-century Britain required a combination of many fortunate circumstances: access to education and books; talent and ambition, recognized and nurtured by herself and others; good health; support from husband and parents; and wealth and social standing. Women were unable to attend university, or to join scientific societies or to access scholarly libraries. A woman needed a competent governess and tutors, and then, as her interests matured, mentors to give her access to scientific meetings and papers, and to work with her as intellectual equals, offering criticism as well as flattery. She needed to reconcile her talent and ambition with widespread concerns, among women and men, that mathematics was not an appropriate or decorous activity for women, that women were incapable of serious mathematical work or that they were not strong enough to undertake it.
Against this background, Lovelace’s achievements are all the more impressive and inspirational; although the class element has to be taken into account, as Ada had a husband and three children. If she hadn’t been rich, she wouldn’t have had the luxury of following her intellectual pursuits, having instead to give all her energies to her family.
However, it’s satisfying to note how highly she was regarded by the men she worked amongst. They appreciated her keen intelligence, perhaps acknowledging that as Ada had not been trained like a man in traditional ways of thinking she was therefore better placed to make instinctive leaps of reasoning. Her rigorous mind was often able to spot errors in the work of others (in particular an error of Babbage’s which she spotted and corrected) and it seems her contemporaries recognised a tendency in her to take the land of mathematics in new directions: “the way to enlarge the settled country has not been by keeping within it, but by making voyages of discovery”.
Time and time again, the authors highlight something Ada proposed and discovered, pointing out that she was right and ahead of her time. I confess that as the book progressed and Ada’s mathematical knowledge grew, I lost track of the various formulae explained (they were never my strong point…). Nevertheless, I can appreciate her remarkable achievements, stand in awe of how ahead of her time she was and lament the fact she died so young. If, like me, your maths is extremely basic (ahem), I wouldn’t shy away from approaching this book; it’s a beautiful and very readable account of a pioneering woman who made a notable contribution to science – highly recommended!
(Book kindly provided by the publishers via Emma O’Bryen – for which many thanks!)
heavenali
May 07, 2018 @ 09:19:11
Ada Lovelace was clearly ahead of her time, and I think her achievements were thwarted by the way women were treated in the professional world of men. The maths stuff would be completely in over my head. I read a little bit about her not long ago when I read Jenni Murray’s A History of Britain in 21 women. I’m glad she’s not completely forgotten.
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 07, 2018 @ 14:50:07
Ah – I have that Jenni Murray book lurking! It *is* nice to see Ada getting recognition now- about time too really.
BookerTalk
May 07, 2018 @ 09:35:51
What an extraordinary woman and one about whom I’d not heard. It can’t have been easy for her given she was living at a time when women were not thought to have had a brain even.
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 07, 2018 @ 14:49:13
Exactly – the odds were so stacked against her that her achievements are even more striking.
madamebibilophile
May 07, 2018 @ 09:43:25
I was just thinking about Ada Lovelace the other day, when I walked past her blue plaque. What a remarkable woman. My maths is absolutely appalling too, so it’s good to hear that there’s still plenty to enjoy here even without being a maths whizz!
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 07, 2018 @ 14:48:41
Oh yes – there are formulae but honestly I skipped those and just accepted that she was brilliant!
Paula Bardell-Hedley
May 07, 2018 @ 10:40:47
Oh Karen, give me words any day. Maths? Yuck! Ada Lovelace was an amazing woman for her time and definitely didn’t receive due recognition for her achievements – although, this does at last seem to be improving. Several years ago I read “The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason and Byron’s Daughter” by Benjamin Woolley. It was enjoyable to a point but the author seemed hell bent on showing Ada had a flawed personality and her genius was played down a good deal. I don’t suppose Einstein was a perfect human being but, as ever, it’s different for women. Anyhow, his sympathies seemed to be all for Daddy Byron and he had absolutely nothing positive to say about her mother. I hope this new book does something redress this imbalance. Great review!
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 07, 2018 @ 14:48:07
Thanks Paula! I’m much the same, and despite being slightly berated on Twitter today by mathematicians I still think numbers aren’t really for me – I just love words and images. And isn’t it typical that a book on Lovelace should focus on her dad! She may not have been perfect but as you point out nobody would worry about that if it was a male genius. Luckily the authors of this book are very much on her side!
Dark Puss
May 10, 2018 @ 10:31:52
It’s possible to love numbers, words and images equally 🙂
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 10, 2018 @ 14:05:28
I’m sure it is – but not necessarily for me where the numbers are concerned…. 😉
Jonathan
May 07, 2018 @ 10:56:24
Although I studied physics and have done a fair amount of low-level programming I hadn’t heard of Lovelace until I chanced upon the recent BBC documentary you mentioned. When I ended my studies I was going to read up on many of the physicists and mathematicians who I’d come across….but I got diverted. This sounds like a fascinating book.
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 07, 2018 @ 14:45:00
It *is* really interesting and she packed a lot into her short life. Definitely worth checking out! 😁
Jonathan
May 07, 2018 @ 16:24:54
I notice it’s quite a short book.
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 07, 2018 @ 17:28:53
It is, but very lavishly illustrated which is probably a good way into the subject!!
helen
May 07, 2018 @ 14:03:29
This is very tempting, maths or no maths – I hated maths at school but was pleasantly surprised by Fermat’s Last Theorem, which I read a long time ago now but which made maths actually sound interesting and slightly changed my attitude towards maths and books about it. And I am curious about Ada Lovelace.
Have you seen the graphic novel, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage? Stefanie at So Many Books gave it a very good review a while ago. That might be more my level, or at least a good starting place.
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 07, 2018 @ 14:44:06
I think school has a lot to do with it – and the theories always look and sound so interesting but face me with a formula or a problem and I just go to pieces! The graphic novel is mentioned in the book, with an illustration from it, and it does look fun! 😁
Dark Puss
May 10, 2018 @ 10:30:48
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage” by Sydney Padua is strongly recommended (see my review here: http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/shiny-new-books-archive/issue-6-archive/non-fiction-issue-6/the-thrilling-adventures-of-lovelace-and-babbage-by-sydney-padua/
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 10, 2018 @ 14:05:42
Thank you! I shall check that out!
Silvia
May 08, 2018 @ 13:58:35
Such an interesting woman.
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 08, 2018 @ 14:14:15
She really was – such a fascinating life! 🙂
Chas
May 08, 2018 @ 19:13:30
I was interested in learning more about Ada after seeing Tom Stoppard’s play “Arcadia.” One main character, teenage math genius Tomasina, was based on her, and the presence of Byron hangs over the play.
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 08, 2018 @ 19:29:16
Oh, that’s interesting! I hadn’t heard of the play. And that’s interesting what you say about Byron, because I did get the impression from this book that she was a bit haunted by him.
Lucy
May 08, 2018 @ 19:38:07
I’m fascinated by Lovelace (while totally not grasping the maths stuff, I’ve got instantaneous times tables in my head but that’s about it) and I’m hoping to get ‘In Byron’s Wake’ by Miranda Seymour soon. It’s a biography of Annabella and Ada that’s just been published, and I am intrigued by their (timeless) mother/daughter issues.
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 08, 2018 @ 19:50:18
Oddly enough, I can *still* do my times tables better than a lot of the kids at the school where I work – I had them drummed into me when I was young and they’re still there!
And that book sounds fascinating – ah, mother/daughter issues, don’t you just love them? :s
Dark Puss
May 10, 2018 @ 10:29:41
Can I also recommend “Ada’s Algorithm” by James Essinger and the incomparably good (and witty) “The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage” by Sydney Padua (see my review here: http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/shiny-new-books-archive/issue-6-archive/non-fiction-issue-6/the-thrilling-adventures-of-lovelace-and-babbage-by-sydney-padua/
kaggsysbookishramblings
May 10, 2018 @ 14:11:43
*Sigh* – as if I needed more bookish recommendations…. ;)))))
2018 – so what were my standout reading experiences? :) | Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings
Dec 31, 2018 @ 07:06:46