Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. If you
Speaker 1: are a seasoned listener of this podcast, you might remember
Speaker 1: our episode on Villa Diodati and its inhabitants, One Fateful Summer,
Speaker 1: Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron. If you're an
Speaker 1: even more seasoned listener of this podcast, you might remember
Speaker 1: our very early episode on Lady Caroline Lamb and the
Speaker 1: quite literally fiery vengeance she orchestrated against her ex lover,
Speaker 1: Lord Byron. This is another episode that is not actually
Speaker 1: about Lord Byron himself, but I'm sure he would be
Speaker 1: pleased to know we're going to begin by talking about
Speaker 1: him yet again. Bye. In eighteen fifteen, the sixth Baron
Speaker 1: Byron had made quite the name for himself. Outside of
Speaker 1: his inherited title, he was famous in England and across
Speaker 1: the continent for both his literary and romantic exploits. It
Speaker 1: was Byromania, as dubbed by Caroline Lamb's cousin, Annabella Millbank.
Speaker 1: Annabella was the daughter of a baronet and a poet herself.
Speaker 1: She asked her cousin to pass along some of her
Speaker 1: work to Caroline's famous Fling, and when she did, Caroline
Speaker 1: suggested to Byron that Annabella might actually make a good
Speaker 1: wife for him. Despite Byron's passion and reputation for sleeping
Speaker 1: his way through the men and women of London society,
Speaker 1: Byron needed to settle down ideally with an heiress to
Speaker 1: remedy his growing debt, and so he courted Annabella. Annabella
Speaker 1: had a reputation for being strict, chilly, and moral, which
Speaker 1: made her a very odd match for the loose, sociable,
Speaker 1: and decidedly less moral poet. He is a very bad,
Speaker 1: very good man, Annabella once allegedly told her mother. When
Speaker 1: Byron proposed, she first said no, writing him a summary
Speaker 1: of his character to dictate exactly why. But eventually Annabella's
Speaker 1: mind was changed and she said yes. Unfortunately, her first
Speaker 1: instinct was the correct one. The marriage was doomed from
Speaker 1: the start. In Annabella's twelve months married to Byron, she
Speaker 1: endured abuse from her husband, constant harassment from his creditors,
Speaker 1: and to top it all off, she would suffer the
Speaker 1: human aliation of hearing that Byron was cheating on her
Speaker 1: with his own half sister, Augusta Lee. Despite their problems,
Speaker 1: the couple managed to have one child together. Byron had
Speaker 1: expected a quote glorious boy and was initially disappointed when
Speaker 1: Annabella gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Aida, named after yes,
Speaker 1: exactly the half sister you might be thinking of. Ada
Speaker 1: was born on December tenth, eighteen fifteen, and about a
Speaker 1: month later, in the early hours of January sixteenth, Annabella
Speaker 1: took her infant daughter from the home she shared with
Speaker 1: Byron and left the marriage. Byron would never see his
Speaker 1: wife or his daughter again. As Annabella raised her daughter
Speaker 1: on her own, she was worried that Aida would inherit
Speaker 1: her father's poetic madness, and so she did discouraged imaginative
Speaker 1: and literary pursuits, instead fostering a discipline for arithmetic and logic.
Speaker 1: Ada would grow up to work with the mathematician Charles
Speaker 1: Babbage on his proposed automatic computer, the Analytical Engine, and
Speaker 1: she understood the potential of the project in ways even
Speaker 1: her mentor did not. Ada wrote, quote, A new, a
Speaker 1: vast and a powerful language is developed for the future
Speaker 1: use of analysis in which to wield its truths, so
Speaker 1: that these may become of more speedy and accurate practical
Speaker 1: application for the purposes of mankind than the means throw
Speaker 1: in our possession have rendered possible. Thus, not only the
Speaker 1: mental and the material, but the theoretical and the practical
Speaker 1: in the mathematical world, are brought into more intimate and
Speaker 1: effective connection with each other. What Ada was recognizing was
Speaker 1: the language and application of a computer beyond basic computing,
Speaker 1: and today she is recognized by the scientific community as
Speaker 1: the first computer programmer. It was, as she called it,
Speaker 1: her approach of quote poetical science that allowed her to
Speaker 1: recognize the potential of the relationship and communication between humans
Speaker 1: and machines. In the end, Ada Lovelace's father's imagination and
Speaker 1: her mother's logic would produce a pioneer. I'm Danish Schwartz
Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. Is the girl imaginative? Is
Speaker 1: she social or solitary? Taciturn or talkative? Fond of reading
Speaker 1: or otherwise? And what is her tick? I mean her foible?
Speaker 1: Is she passionate? I hope that Gods have made her
Speaker 1: anything save poetical? It is enough to have one such
Speaker 1: fool in the family. These are the words of Byron
Speaker 1: in a letter to his half sister, asking about his
Speaker 1: daughter Ada back in England while he was self exiled abroad.
Speaker 1: Before Byron departed, he signed the deed of separation that
Speaker 1: both effectively ended his marriage and gave Annabella full custody
Speaker 1: of their daughter Ada, a rarity for the time. The
Speaker 1: accusations against Byron of both sodomy and incest that were
Speaker 1: spreading through England put Byron in no position to argue
Speaker 1: for his parental rights. His only request was that Augusta,
Speaker 1: his half sister, be allowed to keep him informed of
Speaker 1: Ada's well being after he left the continent through Augusta.
Speaker 1: Annabella replied to her stranged husband, quote her prevailing characteristic
Speaker 1: is cheerfulness and good temper. Observation not devoid of imagination,
Speaker 1: but it is chiefly exercised in connection with her mechanical ingenuity,
Speaker 1: the manufacture of ships and boats, et cetera, prefers prose
Speaker 1: to verse. These letters were written between the end of
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty three and the beginning of eighteen twenty four,
Speaker 1: when Ada was seven and eight. Annabella's letter would never
Speaker 1: receive a reply because Lord Byron died in Greece in
Speaker 1: April of eighteen twenty four. He never saw his daughter or,
Speaker 1: as he once called her, the Electra of my Mycenaea.
Speaker 1: Ever again, Aida only knew of her father's passing vaguely,
Speaker 1: and she knew next to nothing about him as a
Speaker 1: man or historical figure until much later in life. Back
Speaker 1: when Annabella had separated from Byron in early eighteen te
Speaker 1: teen sixteen, she had taken Aida to her parents' home
Speaker 1: in Leicestershire, which was where she would be raised. Annabella's
Speaker 1: parents had recognized their daughter's intelligence at a young age,
Speaker 1: and they had hired a Cambridge professor to tutor her.
Speaker 1: In turn, Annabella began her own daughter's education when she
Speaker 1: was four years old. Annabella apparently possessed an Emily Gilmore
Speaker 1: like tendency to fire tutors and governesses often if they
Speaker 1: did not meet her expectations for her daughter's education, and
Speaker 1: in the interim stretches between employees, she took charge of
Speaker 1: AIDA's education herself. A system was applied to AIDA's education
Speaker 1: that is not totally dissimilar from something you might see
Speaker 1: in a children's school today. AIDA's good behavior, like paying attention,
Speaker 1: applying herself to her lessons, and sitting still, was rewarded
Speaker 1: with a ticket. Sitting still was the trickiest part for
Speaker 1: young AGNs Aida. One of her early governesses, Miss Lamont,
Speaker 1: wrote that her young charge reminded her of a reindeer
Speaker 1: dashing about tickets could be confiscated when Aida did not
Speaker 1: meet her mother's expectations. When that same governess ultimately left
Speaker 1: her posts, she reflected quote, no person can be more rational, companionable,
Speaker 1: and endearing than this rare child, before adding that Aida
Speaker 1: would do almost anything to win her mother's praise. However,
Speaker 1: AIDA's eagerness for praise didn't mean that her mother's pressure
Speaker 1: was never met with resistance. Ada's rebellions could often prove
Speaker 1: to be volatile. Once, when Aida couldn't stop fidgeting, a
Speaker 1: housemaid was ordered to confine her fingers with black cotton bags.
Speaker 1: The housemaid's attempt was met with a bite from the
Speaker 1: then five year old young lady of the house. Ada
Speaker 1: was sent to the corner to think about what she did,
Speaker 1: and she spent that time angrily biting down on the
Speaker 1: molding on the walls. At tea time, Ada was allowed
Speaker 1: to return, and Annabella comforted her daughter by reading to her,
Speaker 1: rather ironically, based on what we know some soothing poetry.
Speaker 1: Ada was becoming prone to violent bouts like that, and
Speaker 1: Annabella forebodingly sought as a sign of her separated husband's
Speaker 1: cursed temperament coming through, Ada was becoming more like her
Speaker 1: father in other ways. When she was eight, she invented
Speaker 1: the word gobble book to describe her newly developed appetite
Speaker 1: for reading. Around this time, her resistance to her schooling lessened.
Speaker 1: She became a passionate student across her subjects, from arithmetic
Speaker 1: to French to violin, the latter of which she often
Speaker 1: played while circling the billiard's table as her daily exercise.
Speaker 1: Her book about Aida and Annabella, the historian Miranda Seymour
Speaker 1: recounts that Ada thought outside the box when it came
Speaker 1: to her mother's rigid lessons. Aida quote built cities of
Speaker 1: colored bricks and turned geography lessons into flights of fancy.
Speaker 1: Could the waves in Norway really surge higher than her
Speaker 1: own tall house? End quote. AIDA's relationship with her mother
Speaker 1: continued to be a complicated one. Many historians view Annabella
Speaker 1: as both overbearing and neglectful, while a smaller portion of
Speaker 1: historians find her behavior unremarkable compared to other upperclass mothers
Speaker 1: of the era. Ada was certainly isolated and undersocialized as
Speaker 1: a child. Her mother was both obsessive about her daughter's
Speaker 1: education and anxious about any potential exposure to illness. Ada
Speaker 1: was also notably celebrity in her own right in England,
Speaker 1: thanks to her father's fame and notoriety and his very
Speaker 1: public separation from AIDA's mother, which only furthered the apparent
Speaker 1: need for Aida to stay out of public view. AIDA's
Speaker 1: dearest and arguably only friend was her beloved cat Puff,
Speaker 1: though she also held a deep affection for her young
Speaker 1: cousin George and promised him Puff's kittens. The accusations of
Speaker 1: Annabella's neglectfulness come from the fact that as Aida got older,
Speaker 1: Annabella began to spend more and more time away from
Speaker 1: her daughter, visiting friends or taking rest cures for various
Speaker 1: health complications. During these periods, Ada was left in the
Speaker 1: care of her governess's tutors. And of course Puff, I
Speaker 1: would be remiss if I didn't read you one of
Speaker 1: the letters twelve year old Ada wrote about the varied
Speaker 1: adventures of miss Puff. This one is to her mother
Speaker 1: while her mother was away. Quote, your granddaughter Puff has
Speaker 1: taken up all her kittens into a very nasty, dirty
Speaker 1: hole in the roof of the house where nobody can
Speaker 1: get at them. She stays with them all day long
Speaker 1: and only comes down for her meals. I suppose their
Speaker 1: bed is made of cobwebs, and I think that Puff
Speaker 1: cannot have very refined taste. Around this time, something interesting
Speaker 1: begins to appear in Ada's letters. Beyond Puff's living habits.
Speaker 1: We first see it show up in a diary entry
Speaker 1: from February eighteen, twenty eight quote, I am going to
Speaker 1: begin my paper wings tomorrow, and the more I think
Speaker 1: about it, the more I feel almost convinced that with
Speaker 1: a year or so's experience in practice, I shall be
Speaker 1: able to bring the art of flying to very great perfection.
Speaker 1: I think of writing a book on flyology, illustrated with plates.
Speaker 1: After giving her mother updates on Puff, AIDA's letters would
Speaker 1: provide updates on her attempts to build wings and fly.
Speaker 1: As you might imagine, progress was slow. Ada began to
Speaker 1: sign her letters your affectionate young turkey or your carrier pigeon.
Speaker 1: And it's not a stretch to wonder how much of
Speaker 1: her desire to fly was spurred on by intellectual curiosity
Speaker 1: and how much of it was connected to being isolated
Speaker 1: and alone far from her mother. In a letter from
Speaker 1: March that same year, Ada wrote, quote, since last night,
Speaker 1: I've been thinking more about the flying, and I can
Speaker 1: find no difficulty in the motion or distension of the wings.
Speaker 1: I've already thought of a way of fixing them to
Speaker 1: the shoulder, and I think that they might perhaps be
Speaker 1: made of oil silk. And if that does not answer,
Speaker 1: I must try to do what I can with feathers.
Speaker 1: I know you will laugh at what I'm going to say,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to take the exact patterns of a
Speaker 1: bird's wing in proportion to the size of its body,
Speaker 1: and then I am immediately going to set about making
Speaker 1: a pair of paperwings of exactly the same size as
Speaker 1: a bird's in proportion to my size. Aida goes on
Speaker 1: to admit that she lacks information regarding bird anatomy, but
Speaker 1: she has no interest in dissecting a bird to learn more,
Speaker 1: and so she prevails upon her mother to send a
Speaker 1: book on the subject. AIDA's dreams of flying were put
Speaker 1: on pause not by her mother's disapproval, but by a
Speaker 1: serious illness she came down with in eighteen twenty nine, Ultimately,
Speaker 1: Ada was bedridden until mid eighteen thirty two. Save for
Speaker 1: the occasional brief expedition in a wheelchair or on crutches,
Speaker 1: that was AIDA's life from ages fourteen to seventeen, an
Speaker 1: exceptionally key period in any adolescence development. During this period,
Speaker 1: Annabella and Ada relocated to a home just outside of
Speaker 1: London to be closer to the best doctors and eventually
Speaker 1: closer to society. Aida seems to have often been in
Speaker 1: great pain, even finding sitting up to be difficult at times.
Speaker 1: Her letters became less frequent during that period, and the
Speaker 1: ones that were written are difficult to read because of
Speaker 1: shaky penmanship. Quote this has been a sad irregular week,
Speaker 1: reads one note to her tutor Monday. I missed nothing,
Speaker 1: but was so desponding and despairing that I could have
Speaker 1: cried with very great pleasure. It was during this time
Speaker 1: that Annabella first introduced Ada to Lord Byron's poetry. Annabella's
Speaker 1: choice for her daughter was a poem called fare the Well,
Speaker 1: a poem in which Byron was directly addressing Annabella after
Speaker 1: their separation. The poem includes the line when our child's
Speaker 1: first accents flow, wilt thou teach her to say father.
Speaker 1: Annabella also gave Aida selections from Byron's epic The Jiaur,
Speaker 1: hopefully excluding the darker bits about being drowned in the
Speaker 1: sea for infidelity. Ada's reaction was apparently lukewarm. On a
Speaker 1: larger scale, the bedridden teen was given much more leeway
Speaker 1: than she had ever been in regards to her reading,
Speaker 1: and her imagination continued to grow. But shortly after Ada
Speaker 1: was back in good health, her mother hired a new
Speaker 1: tutor to refocus the now nearly adult AIDA's education on
Speaker 1: arithmetic and religion. I should also note that this decision
Speaker 1: was influenced by a brief stint in eighteen thirty three
Speaker 1: in which Aida unsuccessfully attempted to elope with a young
Speaker 1: man historians believe was her shorthand tutor due to a
Speaker 1: record of his swift termination, although there is no definitive
Speaker 1: proof about who the young man's identity actually was. The
Speaker 1: young couple did not get very far. When Aida showed
Speaker 1: up at her lover's family home, his parents swiftly returned
Speaker 1: her to her mother, fearing the wrath of the famous Annabella.
Speaker 1: Hence the addition of a heavy emphasis on religion in
Speaker 1: the new curriculum. Ada was a dutiful student, but tried
Speaker 1: to explain to her tutor that she was not interested
Speaker 1: in arithmetic for its own sake, but rather for its
Speaker 1: broader applications in capacities like physics. For those sorts of questions,
Speaker 1: she found a supportive mentor in her mother's friend, Mary Somerville,
Speaker 1: who just so happened to be one of nineteenth century
Speaker 1: England's most brilliant scientific minds. It was Mary who that
Speaker 1: same year would bring Ada to a party hosted by
Speaker 1: one of her closest friends, Charles Babbage. Mary Somerville and
Speaker 1: another Mary, Mary Mountgomery would prove to be great influences
Speaker 1: on AIDA's intellectual growth. Two of her mother's closest friends
Speaker 1: had taken the eighteen year old Ada under their wings
Speaker 1: and encouraged her love of science. Mary Montgomery brought Aida
Speaker 1: to lectures at intellectual hotspots like the Royal Institution, where
Speaker 1: Ada learned of the latest development in geology, chemistry, and
Speaker 1: natural philosophy, and the friendship of the Marys also allowed
Speaker 1: Ada to attend one of the famous Saturday soires hosted
Speaker 1: by Charles Babbage, for which in order to get an
Speaker 1: invitation you needed to possess quote beauty, rank, or intellect,
Speaker 1: at least as described by the wife of one science.
Speaker 1: Ada had met the mathematician before through Mary Somerville, but
Speaker 1: it was at one of his soires that the two
Speaker 1: would form the beginnings of their ultimately history making working relationship.
Speaker 1: Despite Babbage being a year older than AIDA's mother, the
Speaker 1: two had a number of things in common. They had
Speaker 1: both dealt with periods of intense illness in their youth,
Speaker 1: and where Aida had attempted to craft wings to fly,
Speaker 1: Charles had attempted to craft shoes to walk on water.
Speaker 1: Both of those are very Leonardo da Vinci in the
Speaker 1: movie Ever After, if you've seen it. When Aida and
Speaker 1: Babbage met, he attempted to delight his young guest with
Speaker 1: his Silver Lady automaton, but to his surprise, Aida was
Speaker 1: instead interested in another invention. On display a small portion
Speaker 1: of the steam powered computing machine Babbage had been ambitiously
Speaker 1: trying to build four years. Another guest remarked how miss
Speaker 1: Byron young as she was, understood its working and saw
Speaker 1: the great beauty of the invention, Ada was consumed by
Speaker 1: the idea of it. Quote, I'm afraid that when a
Speaker 1: machine or a lecture, or anything of the kind comes
Speaker 1: my way. I have no regard for time, space or
Speaker 1: any other ordinary obstacle, Ada wrote to Somerville. Some months later.
Speaker 1: Annabella saw some value in the machine, but she was
Speaker 1: weary of her daughter's intense passion for it. Around this time,
Speaker 1: Annabella had a friend provide her with a one hundred
Speaker 1: percent scientifically sound nothing to question here phrenology reading of
Speaker 1: AIDA's skull. As noted by Seymour, the reading quote confirmed
Speaker 1: Lady Byron's fears. Her daughter's intelligence was considerable, but it
Speaker 1: was of an impetuous and willful kind. Don't you hate
Speaker 1: when the bumps on your skull reveal that? While Aida
Speaker 1: continued to be under the tutelage of her mother's tutor,
Speaker 1: Somerville and Babbage took on Aida as an unofficial pupil
Speaker 1: as well. It was during this time that Babbage began
Speaker 1: to conceptualize the machine that would ultimately come to be
Speaker 1: known as Babbage's Analytical Engine. However, it was also during
Speaker 1: this time that Aida began to show signs of extreme fatigue,
Speaker 1: and she ultimately listened to Somerville's advice to take a
Speaker 1: step back from her studies. What was a woman to
Speaker 1: do with newfound free time, Why, of course, get married.
Speaker 1: The match was set up by Somerville. Lord William King,
Speaker 1: was a friend of her son from Trinity College, Cambridge,
Speaker 1: ironically Byron's alma mater, and Lord William King fancied himself
Speaker 1: something of a byronic figure. When he and Ada were
Speaker 1: introduced at a ball, he found himself not just infatuated
Speaker 1: with the legend of AIDA's late father, but with Ada herself.
Speaker 1: They danced all night, and a few months later they
Speaker 1: were engaged. The couple married in eighteen thirty five, and
Speaker 1: while I don't want to dive too deeply into their
Speaker 1: married life for the sake of time, I would once
Speaker 1: again be remiss if I didn't share a portion of
Speaker 1: AIDA's writing with you. Early in their relationship, the couple
Speaker 1: apparently referred to each other with Avian nicknames, which I
Speaker 1: find very sweet given AIDA's history with wings. William was
Speaker 1: the crow, Ada was the bird, and they often called
Speaker 1: AIDA's mother Annabella the hen. When a newly pregnant Aida
Speaker 1: spent some time visiting her mother away from her husband,
Speaker 1: she wrote to him with a new ornithological nickname, her
Speaker 1: dear cock, I want my cock at night to keep
Speaker 1: me warm. Absolutely no notes, Ada beautiful work. Your father
Speaker 1: wishes he could have written something so beautiful and so poetic.
Speaker 1: The kings were apparently a very good looking couple, and
Speaker 1: very much not afraid to show how much they thought
Speaker 1: that of each other. When Aida and William gave the
Speaker 1: hen the honor of choosing the name of their newborn son,
Speaker 1: it may surprise you to hear what Annabella answered Byron.
Speaker 1: Grace had come with the passage of time. Annabella held
Speaker 1: more affection for her late husband as she aged, and
Speaker 1: with Ada grown and married, it seems she feared less
Speaker 1: and less the risk of Byron's madness ruining her. A
Speaker 1: few years into the marriage, namely, when Princess Victoria became
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria in eighteen thirty seven, William and Ada became
Speaker 1: the Earl and Countess of Lovelace, reviving a title from
Speaker 1: Iron's side of the family that had become extinct a
Speaker 1: century prior. Ada was not particularly interested in being a countess, however,
Speaker 1: and by eighteen forty she sought to resume her intellectual pursuits,
Speaker 1: something she found her husband didn't quite share her passion for.
Speaker 1: Quote I hope you are bearing me in mind, she
Speaker 1: wrote in a letter to Charles Babbage that year, I
Speaker 1: mean my mathematical interests. You know this is the greatest
Speaker 1: favor anyone can do me. Perhaps none of us can
Speaker 1: estimate how great. Who can calculate to what it might lead?
Speaker 1: Am I too imaginative for you? I think not. AIDA's
Speaker 1: dear mentor Mary Somerville, had recently relocated to Italy with
Speaker 1: her family as her health declined, and Ada was seeking
Speaker 1: a new tutor to guide her curiosity. Babbage connected her
Speaker 1: with Augustus de Morgan, the English mathematician now remembered for
Speaker 1: his formulation known as de Morgan's Laws. It was de
Speaker 1: Morgan who refined the now twenty four year old AIDA's
Speaker 1: mathematical potential. As an older student a married mother, Ada
Speaker 1: was learning how to dedicate herself to her improvement in
Speaker 1: practical ways, grasping, in her own words, quote the importance
Speaker 1: of not being in a hurry. Despite AIDA's newfound groundedness,
Speaker 1: she still couldn't shake her fascination with the analytical engine
Speaker 1: Babbage had been working on. In January of eighteen forty one,
Speaker 1: she wrote to Babbage, quote, you have always been a
Speaker 1: kind and real and most invaluable friend to me, and
Speaker 1: I would that I could in any way repay it,
Speaker 1: though I scarcely dare to exalt myself as to hope,
Speaker 1: however humbly, that I can ever be intellectually worthy of
Speaker 1: attempting to serve you. It was around this time that
Speaker 1: AIDA's mood began to show again, back within the realms
Speaker 1: of the mad and the poetical. She told de Morgan
Speaker 1: that the mathematical forms they were studying reminded her of
Speaker 1: the fairies she had read about in fiction. She wrote
Speaker 1: a letter to her mother that sounded not unlike those
Speaker 1: about flying as a youth, Only this time the letter
Speaker 1: was detailing her belief that she had intuited that in
Speaker 1: the future she would be able to build an apparatus
Speaker 1: that would allow her to see quote anything that a
Speaker 1: being not actually dead can see and know. It's possible
Speaker 1: that this bout of slightly delusional thinking was brought on
Speaker 1: by learning that her cousin Medora Lee was in fact
Speaker 1: her half sister, likely the product of Lord Byron and
Speaker 1: his half sister Augusta, and their incestuous relationship. Quote. I
Speaker 1: am not in the least astonished, wrote to her mother
Speaker 1: after the revelation quote in fact, you merely confirm what
Speaker 1: I have for years and years felt scarcely a doubt about.
Speaker 1: But should have considered it most improper in me to
Speaker 1: hint to you that I in any way suspected. Despite
Speaker 1: that cool reaction, in other writings, we can see that
Speaker 1: for Ada, learning that she was not in fact the
Speaker 1: Great Lord Byron's only heir, spurred in her a great
Speaker 1: need to prove herself, perhaps to surpass her father's achievements.
Speaker 1: She even considered turning to poetry quote it will be
Speaker 1: poetry of a unique kind, far more philosophical and higher
Speaker 1: in its nature than aught the world has perhaps yet seen.
Speaker 1: End quote In regards to the incest of it all,
Speaker 1: Ada blamed Augusta more than her own father, imagining that
Speaker 1: she had been the instigator. Ada did find a way
Speaker 1: to publish poetry of a unique kind. In eighteen forty two,
Speaker 1: Luigi Frederico Menebrea, a professor of mechanics who ultimately became
Speaker 1: the seventh Prime Minister of Italy, published a paper on
Speaker 1: Babbage's analytical engine in French. The editor of a London
Speaker 1: based journal approached one of Babbage's friends regarding his want
Speaker 1: for a translation, and Aida was immediately referred to for
Speaker 1: the job. Despite being in bad health at the time.
Speaker 1: As she increasingly was in adulthood, Ada eagerly accepted, finally
Speaker 1: getting her chance to be involved in any capacity with
Speaker 1: the project. In addition to writing an excellent translation, Babbage
Speaker 1: himself apparently proposed that Aida had her own thoughts on
Speaker 1: the project in the paper's notes. In his conclusion, Minnebrea asked, quote,
Speaker 1: who can foresee the consequences of such an invention? Well?
Speaker 1: Aida had an answer one you heard at the top
Speaker 1: of this episode the quote vast new powerful language. Menabrea's
Speaker 1: paper was only originally around eight thousand words. AIDA's clocked
Speaker 1: in at twenty thousand. The writer James Esinger in his
Speaker 1: book AIDA's Algorithm comments on the significance of her notes quote,
Speaker 1: Aida is seeking to do nothing less than invent the
Speaker 1: science of computing and separate it from the science of mathematics.
Speaker 1: What she calls the science of operations is indeed in
Speaker 1: effect computing. Unlike Babbage, Aida saw the practical uses of
Speaker 1: the analytical engine and foresaw the digitization of music as
Speaker 1: CDs or synthesizers and their ability to generate music. End quote.
Speaker 1: That last bit of the passage about music refers to
Speaker 1: a part of AIDA's notes I consider worth reading aloud
Speaker 1: while you, the listener, recall that she was writing this
Speaker 1: in a eighteen forty two The computer, Aida argues, quote
Speaker 1: might act upon other things besides number, where objects found
Speaker 1: whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of
Speaker 1: the abstract science of operations. Supposing, for instance, that the
Speaker 1: fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony
Speaker 1: and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations,
Speaker 1: the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music
Speaker 1: of any degree of complexity or extent. End quote. Ada's
Speaker 1: understanding of computing is bettered by her understanding of and
Speaker 1: passion for music that began as a child. In the
Speaker 1: same vein. Her understanding of computing was equally bettered by
Speaker 1: her understanding of language itself. She wrote, quote, this science
Speaker 1: constitutes the language through which a line we can adequately
Speaker 1: express the great facts of the natural world and those
Speaker 1: unceasing changes of mutual relationship which visibly or invisibly, consciously
Speaker 1: or unconsciously to our immediate physical perceptions are interminably going
Speaker 1: on in the agencies of the creation we live amidst
Speaker 1: It's downright philosophical, and in a more personal sense, regarding
Speaker 1: AIDA's own experience, it contradicts the idea that one must
Speaker 1: be imaginative or logical to understand the natural world is
Speaker 1: to understand humanity, and vice versa. What ultimately led to
Speaker 1: Ada's recognition today as the first computer programmer was not
Speaker 1: her philosophical perspective on the potential of a computing device,
Speaker 1: but an algorithm called note G. I'll let essenger explain
Speaker 1: its significance far more intelligently than I would be able
Speaker 1: to quote. Note G is highly complex, juggling mathematics and technology.
Speaker 1: Most important of all, it is in effect a program
Speaker 1: containing instructions for a computer. While note G isn't a
Speaker 1: program you can execute today, it is instead an instruction
Speaker 1: for how the analytical engine would theoretically execute it. Those
Speaker 1: in the programming community thus debate whether or not it
Speaker 1: can actually be considered the first computer program, but there
Speaker 1: is no doubt it was a pioneering line of thinking.
Speaker 1: Aida initially didn't consider putting her name on her work
Speaker 1: at all, but later settled on signing as Aal at
Speaker 1: the suggestion of her husband. Notably, this pen name was genderless,
Speaker 1: which was AIDA's intention. Aal proudly presented her mother with
Speaker 1: her notes, which she called her first born. Quote. He
Speaker 1: will make an excellent head of I hope a large
Speaker 1: family of brothers and sisters, she said. Annabella was extremely
Speaker 1: proud of her daughter, boasting herself as quote mother of Aida,
Speaker 1: which she said might be quote as good a passport
Speaker 1: to posterity if I am to have one as the
Speaker 1: wife of Byron. Though Ada published the notes simply under
Speaker 1: her initials, it quickly became known among London society that
Speaker 1: Lord Byron's brilliant daughter was the author, and she soon
Speaker 1: was a well regarded name in the scientific community. Tragically,
Speaker 1: Ada's health only began to decline further, and her Notes
Speaker 1: would end up being her only published work. She would
Speaker 1: live for less than a decade after her note's publication,
Speaker 1: during which the state of her health ebbed and flowed.
Speaker 1: This is not to say that Aida didn't still live
Speaker 1: a life during those years. There was ga gambling, there
Speaker 1: was infidelity, and there was ultimately an unknown deathbed confession
Speaker 1: so juicy that her husband left in her final hours,
Speaker 1: But unfortunately we just have to speculate on what exactly
Speaker 1: that confession was. Aida died of uterine cancer on November
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, eighteen fifty two, when she was thirty six
Speaker 1: years old. Many have tried over the years to discredit
Speaker 1: AIDA's work and stick around for the epilogue to hear
Speaker 1: more about that, but today her impact as a visionary
Speaker 1: far ahead of her time is undeniable. In Miranda Seymour's
Speaker 1: book In Byron's Wake, she astutely compares AIDA's work to
Speaker 1: that of her father's friend Mary Shelley, writing quote, neither
Speaker 1: woman changed the world in which they lived uniquely. Both
Speaker 1: Lovelace and Shelley foresaw the role that technology might have
Speaker 1: to play in transforming a world they never new. Perhaps
Speaker 1: it wasn't quite delusion when Ada told her mother that
Speaker 1: one day she could be able to see quote anything
Speaker 1: that a being not actually dead can see and know.
Speaker 1: That's the story of Ada Lovelace's technological achievements. But keep
Speaker 1: listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear a little
Speaker 1: bit more about her legacy. It is no exaggeration, wrote
Speaker 1: the Babbage historian Bruce Collier to say that she was
Speaker 1: a manic, depressive with the most amazing delusions about her
Speaker 1: own talents and a rather shallow understanding of Charles Babbage
Speaker 1: and the analytical engine. There is a history of valid
Speaker 1: debate within the scientific community as to whether or not
Speaker 1: AIDA's algorithm them constitutes a computer program, or whether or
Speaker 1: not she was the first computer programmer, but comments like
Speaker 1: the one made above have also not been uncommon throughout history,
Speaker 1: comments that pretty much boil down to misogyny. Quote. As
Speaker 1: people realized how important computer programming was, there was a
Speaker 1: greater backlash and an attempt to reclaim it as a
Speaker 1: male activity, says Valerie Aurora, the executive director of the
Speaker 1: Ada Initiative, a nonprofit organization that arranges conferences and training
Speaker 1: programs to elevate women working in math and science in
Speaker 1: order to keep that wealth, she told The New Yorker
Speaker 1: and power in a man's hand, there's backlash to try
Speaker 1: to redefine it as something a woman didn't do, and
Speaker 1: shouldn't do and couldn't do. Since two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: Ada Lovelace Day has been celebrated on the second Tuesday
Speaker 1: of October, with the goal to quote raise the profile
Speaker 1: of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Let's be English
Speaker 1: here for Ada maths. In twenty thirteen, when the New
Speaker 1: Yorker piece quoted above was written, a quote Ada Lovelace
Speaker 1: edit Athon was being hosted at my alma mater, Brown University,
Speaker 1: where volunteers were invited to improve Wikipedia entries for female scientists.
Speaker 1: Universities continue to host various Ada Lovelace Day conferences and
Speaker 1: events each year, and last year the Official Ada Lovelace
Speaker 1: Day organizers hosted their annual Science Cabaret at the Royal Institution,
Speaker 1: where Mary Montgomery used to bring a teenage Ada Lovelace
Speaker 1: to broaden her mind. Noble Blood is a production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwortz, with
Speaker 1: additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward,
Speaker 1: Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and
Speaker 1: produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising
Speaker 1: producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.