Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Bogabam Here. If you're surprised that the first computer
Speaker 1: programmer in the world was a woman, just wait. Her
Speaker 1: story gets even more interesting. Ada Lovelace was also the
Speaker 1: daughter a famous poet, Lord Byron, and accomplished her work
Speaker 1: during a time when women were rarely allowed to study
Speaker 1: mathematics and science. Lovelace was born Augusta Ada Byron in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifteen, the daughter of Lord Byron and the wealthy
Speaker 1: Isabella Millbank. The two had a stormy marriage, and her
Speaker 1: father left the family almost immediately after her birth, never
Speaker 1: to see her again. Millbank was furious with her ex
Speaker 1: and insisted her daughter's steer clear of poetry, which she
Speaker 1: blamed for Byron's wanton and unstable behavior. Instead, Lovelace was
Speaker 1: highly encouraged to study science and mathematics, the latter being
Speaker 1: Millbank's own area of expertise. This was usual for wealthy
Speaker 1: young ladies at the time, who typically only pursued artistic
Speaker 1: subjects such as music and painting. Unfortunately for Lovelace, she
Speaker 1: had an aptitude for math. When she was in her
Speaker 1: late teens, she met Charles Babbage, an accomplished mathematician and inventor. Babbage,
Speaker 1: known today is the father of the computer, had invented
Speaker 1: the difference engine, a machine that performed simple mathematical calculations.
Speaker 1: Now he was working on an analytical engine that would
Speaker 1: be able to perform more complex computations. He showed Lovelace
Speaker 1: a small working section during their initial meeting, and she
Speaker 1: was fascinated. Soon Lovelace became Babbage's protege. Babbage would eventually
Speaker 1: give her the nickname the Enchantress of Numbers. But in
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five, shortly after the two began working together,
Speaker 1: Lovelace met and married a baron named William King, and
Speaker 1: the couple had three children in quick succession, causing Lovelace
Speaker 1: to temporarily halt her studies, and during this time her
Speaker 1: husband became the Earl of Lovelace and she the Countess,
Speaker 1: hence her surname. Not too long after their third child
Speaker 1: was born, Lovelace returned to work with Babbage. One of
Speaker 1: the first things she did was translate an article on
Speaker 1: his analytical engine from French into English. The translation was
Speaker 1: published in an English science journal in eighteen forty three,
Speaker 1: but the work also included Lovelace's own extensive thoughts and
Speaker 1: ideas on the machine, a material that was three times
Speaker 1: longer than the original article. Because her notes discussed how
Speaker 1: the machine could be programmed to calculate Bernoulli numbers, considered
Speaker 1: by some to be the first algorithm carried out by machine, a,
Speaker 1: Lovelace is viewed as the world's first programmer. More impressively,
Speaker 1: her notes contained visionary references to the concept that similar
Speaker 1: machines might also be used to create music, text, pictures,
Speaker 1: and sounds, essentially today's modern computer, while Babbage thought they
Speaker 1: could only perform numerical calculations. Sadly, Lovelace out of cancer
Speaker 1: at the age of thirty six. Charles Babbage was the
Speaker 1: executor of Lovelace's will. She requested to be interred next
Speaker 1: to her father, Lord Byron, who also died at age
Speaker 1: thirty six, even though he hadn't seen her since she
Speaker 1: was an infant. Her computing ideas were so advanced that
Speaker 1: they weren't recognized until the nineteen forties. Nearly a century later,
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine, the U. S. Department of Defense
Speaker 1: named its new computer programming language ADA in her honor.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Melanie rad Z Pie McManus
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this months
Speaker 1: of other math magical topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
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