1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

2
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:13,920
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:16,919
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And you probably

4
00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:18,760
Speaker 1: know by this point how much Sarah and I love

5
00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:22,960
Speaker 1: talking about interesting women in history, and our subject today

6
00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:25,400
Speaker 1: is one of those. A bunch of people had suggested

7
00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,200
Speaker 1: her when we were talking about doing a podcast on innovators,

8
00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:31,800
Speaker 1: and that's because she was the world's very first computer programmer,

9
00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:35,120
Speaker 1: Ada Lovely. That sounds like it might be a little dull,

10
00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:38,479
Speaker 1: but we promised she's a really interesting character and maybe

11
00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,199
Speaker 1: her nickname of sorts will help convince you of that,

12
00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:46,440
Speaker 1: and that is the Enchantress of Numbers. So let's get

13
00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:49,240
Speaker 1: a little bit into who she is. She started off

14
00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:53,120
Speaker 1: with rather auspicious beginnings if you're thinking just in terms

15
00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:56,800
Speaker 1: of fame. She's the daughter of Annabella Millbank Byron and

16
00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:01,400
Speaker 1: Lord Byron, the world famous poet. Her parents, if you

17
00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,120
Speaker 1: know anything about it, if you've listened to our podcast,

18
00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:08,520
Speaker 1: and Byron they have a very unfortunate marriage, and they

19
00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:10,959
Speaker 1: actually split up only a few months after her birth,

20
00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,600
Speaker 1: and it was an awful, scandalous separation. She made all

21
00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:17,720
Speaker 1: sorts of accusations after he left, and he put himself

22
00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:20,399
Speaker 1: self imposed exile for the rest of his life. He

23
00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:23,600
Speaker 1: never met his daughter, so it was just Aida and

24
00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:27,360
Speaker 1: Lady Byron for her formative years, and Lady Byron was

25
00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:31,240
Speaker 1: a tough customer. She was Annabella styles herself as an

26
00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:36,959
Speaker 1: intellectual and immoral person and an amateur mathematician, and this

27
00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:40,120
Speaker 1: just doesn't go with Lord Byron's personality at all. He

28
00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,679
Speaker 1: calls her the Princess of parallelograms, which, as cool as

29
00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:46,880
Speaker 1: it sounds, is not a compliment coming from him. Oh no,

30
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,400
Speaker 1: he was very condescending about that kind of thing, despite

31
00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:53,720
Speaker 1: the alliteration. Yeah. So her personality plus his really bad

32
00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:58,360
Speaker 1: habits and a kind of crazy behavior during their marriage

33
00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:02,960
Speaker 1: lead to their separation. So Lady Byron is absolutely terrified

34
00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:05,840
Speaker 1: that her daughter, little Aida, is going to turn out

35
00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:08,960
Speaker 1: to be like her father, the very scandalous Laura Byron.

36
00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:11,520
Speaker 1: So she makes up her mind that may be the

37
00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:13,720
Speaker 1: best way to get around this is to make sure

38
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:18,760
Speaker 1: that Aida doesn't do anything with poetry, which might seem strange,

39
00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:21,200
Speaker 1: but she settled out in that as the trait of

40
00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:23,880
Speaker 1: Byron's that was most likely to lead his daughter into

41
00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:27,600
Speaker 1: I don't know her fidy and she's thrilled the byronic

42
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:31,720
Speaker 1: hero out of Aida starting with poetry. So instead Aida

43
00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:34,720
Speaker 1: is going to learn math and music. And when Lady

44
00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,320
Speaker 1: Byron finds out that Ada likes her geography lessons more

45
00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,399
Speaker 1: than math, she not only gets rid of the geography lesson,

46
00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:44,040
Speaker 1: she gets rid of the tutor. She's really serious about this,

47
00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,880
Speaker 1: and she's a very strict lady. She punished her in

48
00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:50,840
Speaker 1: ways that some of us are probably familiar with but

49
00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:54,560
Speaker 1: aren't particularly nice, like solitary confinement. She made her lie

50
00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,600
Speaker 1: motionless and demanded that she read apologies like I, Aida

51
00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:00,840
Speaker 1: have not done the notes for very well, but I'll

52
00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:04,480
Speaker 1: try to do it better tomorrow. So sad, isn't it

53
00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:08,040
Speaker 1: It is? Then it actually shows an aptitude from math.

54
00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:10,440
Speaker 1: She's very good at it. And she gets sick for

55
00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,760
Speaker 1: a long time in her childhood and measle she's partially paralyzed.

56
00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:16,280
Speaker 1: She ends up recovering, but during this time she does

57
00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,000
Speaker 1: not let her study laps, and you have to put

58
00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:21,760
Speaker 1: her in context. At the time, no one was particularly

59
00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:26,440
Speaker 1: excited about women getting engaged in higher intellectual pursuits because

60
00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:28,840
Speaker 1: you know their poor frail brains. What would happen. They

61
00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:32,720
Speaker 1: might just overheat. But at the time she is introduced

62
00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,440
Speaker 1: to Mary Somerville, who was interested in the same things

63
00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,600
Speaker 1: she is, and she's later called the Queen of nineteenth

64
00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:42,360
Speaker 1: century science, so that puts little context around how important

65
00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:46,560
Speaker 1: Mary Somerville was to the age. She really encouraged Ada's

66
00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:50,760
Speaker 1: mathematical studies, but also kind of helped her humanized technology,

67
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:55,320
Speaker 1: which ends up being what Ada is so known for

68
00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:59,080
Speaker 1: for understanding technology and all of its potential. And I

69
00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:02,080
Speaker 1: love a quote a let from a letter that Ada

70
00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:03,800
Speaker 1: wrote to Mary Somerville. I got a bunch of great

71
00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:06,720
Speaker 1: quotes from an article by Paul at Walker Campbell where

72
00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:09,160
Speaker 1: she says, my dear Mrs Somerville, I'm afraid that when

73
00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,440
Speaker 1: a machine, or a lecture or anything of the kind

74
00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:13,760
Speaker 1: comes in my way, I have no regard for time,

75
00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,279
Speaker 1: space or any other ordinary obstacles. I think you must

76
00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:19,279
Speaker 1: be fond enough of these things to sympathize with my

77
00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:23,080
Speaker 1: eagerness about them. She was really excited about learning, which

78
00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,159
Speaker 1: is always refreshing at anyone else. In eighteen thirty four,

79
00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:31,520
Speaker 1: at one of Mrs Somerville's dinners, Ada hears about one

80
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:35,680
Speaker 1: Charles Babbage's ideas for a new calculating engine called the

81
00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:39,400
Speaker 1: analytical engine, and she's so interested in this, and she

82
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:41,800
Speaker 1: writes him a b jillion letters. As I put in

83
00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,880
Speaker 1: my notes, they start up a very voluminous correspondence, and

84
00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,120
Speaker 1: we'll talk about them a little more later, because this

85
00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,640
Speaker 1: is how Ada makes her name for herself. But first,

86
00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:56,600
Speaker 1: like a year after getting this intellectual passion of her life,

87
00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:00,320
Speaker 1: she meets and marys William King, the eighth Baron King,

88
00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,159
Speaker 1: who has made an earl a few years later, making

89
00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:07,920
Speaker 1: Ada the Countess of Lovelace, and they have three children, Byron, Annabella,

90
00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:10,960
Speaker 1: and Ralph Gordon. But it is Lady Byron running this show,

91
00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:13,920
Speaker 1: and she runs a tight ship. And this is kind

92
00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,200
Speaker 1: of sad too. It seems like Aida married in part

93
00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:21,919
Speaker 1: to escape her domineering mother, but her husband makes like

94
00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:26,680
Speaker 1: best friends with her, so then she's got two people

95
00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:30,320
Speaker 1: to deal with. But even with a husband and three

96
00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:33,599
Speaker 1: children under the age of eight, Aida is still really

97
00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:36,839
Speaker 1: interested in her education. She starts studying math with Augustus

98
00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:40,560
Speaker 1: de Morgan, who is later a highly regarded logician, and

99
00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:43,960
Speaker 1: she makes some friends in the scientific field, Sir David Brewster,

100
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:48,560
Speaker 1: who invented the kaleidoscope, Charles Wheatstone, who invented an early telegraph,

101
00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,919
Speaker 1: Michael Faraday who discovered the electro magnetic field, and someone

102
00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:55,160
Speaker 1: Sarah and I are acquainted with through our English major,

103
00:05:55,320 --> 00:06:00,520
Speaker 1: Charles Dickens. So she's got this illustrious group of of

104
00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:05,160
Speaker 1: friends much like her her father had. Interestingly enough, um,

105
00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,359
Speaker 1: but at this point we need to go back in

106
00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:10,760
Speaker 1: time a little bit and tell you it's more about

107
00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:14,599
Speaker 1: Babbage and the history of computing before we can fully

108
00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,520
Speaker 1: appreciate what Aida did. And since we're not Jonathan and

109
00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,279
Speaker 1: Chris on tech stuff, we can't give you the real

110
00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:24,159
Speaker 1: techy version of this. We'll give you the historical the

111
00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:27,920
Speaker 1: historical side. You might think of computing as just part

112
00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:30,880
Speaker 1: of the modern era, but the history goes back further

113
00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:34,080
Speaker 1: than World War Two a lot further. UM. I read

114
00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:39,280
Speaker 1: a really good Scientific American article on computing that suggested, uh,

115
00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:44,640
Speaker 1: the age of computing sprang from when people abandoned working

116
00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:50,120
Speaker 1: numbers UM as a human pursuit. So basically decided that

117
00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:53,000
Speaker 1: there could be something more than arithmetic in your head

118
00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:56,080
Speaker 1: or scrawled on the paper, UM, something you could do

119
00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:58,720
Speaker 1: with the machine and it could take less time and

120
00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:04,360
Speaker 1: fewer people, and um, calculations that would be impossible or

121
00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:07,360
Speaker 1: would take forever would be easy to do. So now

122
00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:09,560
Speaker 1: we're gonna throw you a curveball and give you a name.

123
00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:13,760
Speaker 1: You probably weren't expecting the history of computing. Napoleon Bonaparte. Yeah,

124
00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:17,720
Speaker 1: way back in sev ninety Napoleon decided to switch the

125
00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:23,120
Speaker 1: Republic to the metrics system. And we still haven't done. Yeah, yeah,

126
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:27,480
Speaker 1: we need Napoleon's hairdressers here. So he commissions a set

127
00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:32,160
Speaker 1: of mathematical tables, dozens and dozens of workers. They are

128
00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:36,000
Speaker 1: the hairdressers I just mentioned out of work because when

129
00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:38,880
Speaker 1: you don't have big aristocratic hair does anymore, you don't

130
00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:42,560
Speaker 1: need lots of hair dressers. So all of these people

131
00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:47,120
Speaker 1: are slaving away over setting up these mathematical tables and

132
00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:51,280
Speaker 1: filling in what is called the tablea do cadestra. It

133
00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:56,840
Speaker 1: takes ten years of just straight arithmetic. It's not particularly hard,

134
00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:01,960
Speaker 1: but it's time comes, time consuming grunt work. Um. And

135
00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,800
Speaker 1: by the time the table is ready to be published,

136
00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,880
Speaker 1: there's no money, and so it sits in the Academy

137
00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:13,640
Speaker 1: of Sciences for decades until eighteen nineteen, when a young

138
00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:17,560
Speaker 1: Charles Babbage comes along and finds it. And Babbage is

139
00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:21,840
Speaker 1: an accomplished mathematician. He's founded the Analytical Society to introduce

140
00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:25,520
Speaker 1: European mathematical developments to England, and he's helped create the

141
00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:29,480
Speaker 1: first reliable actuarial tables along with some other stuff. Yeah.

142
00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:32,120
Speaker 1: He later goes on to invent a type of spedometer

143
00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:36,320
Speaker 1: and helps establish the modern postal system in England. So

144
00:08:36,559 --> 00:08:40,840
Speaker 1: this is a real renaissance man. And he's fascinated by

145
00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:44,960
Speaker 1: these tables and decides that he's going to replicate Napoleon's

146
00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:49,320
Speaker 1: project but with machinery and proposes the construction of the

147
00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:53,680
Speaker 1: calculating engine in eighteen twenty two, and he secures government

148
00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:58,160
Speaker 1: funding for it. And by eighteen thirty two still sounds

149
00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:01,120
Speaker 1: like a long time, doesn't it. By eighteen thirty two,

150
00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:05,079
Speaker 1: he's made a functioning model, which he's calling the difference Engine,

151
00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,600
Speaker 1: and uh, on a side note, kind of, he publishes

152
00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:12,640
Speaker 1: a book that makes him the world's leading industrial economist.

153
00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:15,200
Speaker 1: For a time, he's a busy man. I remember learning

154
00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:19,960
Speaker 1: about this and Dr Richard Minky's class on Victorian information systems.

155
00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:22,560
Speaker 1: The difference engine is really cool. But a year later,

156
00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,079
Speaker 1: he abandons the difference engine and comes up with this

157
00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:29,040
Speaker 1: proposal for the analytical engine, because the difference engine could

158
00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:31,640
Speaker 1: only do one task, and that was making these tables.

159
00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:35,280
Speaker 1: But instead the analytical engine could do any kind of

160
00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:39,240
Speaker 1: math calculations. So we're broadening our dreams here. Yeah, and

161
00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:43,440
Speaker 1: it would have a processor in memory, user operated input ability.

162
00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:47,520
Speaker 1: I liked the list that you had for for its functions. Yeah,

163
00:09:47,559 --> 00:09:50,320
Speaker 1: it's this is pretty much a not a direct quote,

164
00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:52,640
Speaker 1: but there were five parts, the input, the output, to control,

165
00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:56,080
Speaker 1: the mill, on the store. So the control was a

166
00:09:56,160 --> 00:10:00,160
Speaker 1: system of punch cards which each had programs and was

167
00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:04,040
Speaker 1: technology that was actually already available with the Jacard Loom,

168
00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:08,480
Speaker 1: something you don't really think about connected to a computing

169
00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:11,320
Speaker 1: but there you go. And then there was the mill,

170
00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:13,840
Speaker 1: which was kind of like a CPU, and that's the

171
00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,440
Speaker 1: place where the functions that you program on these cards

172
00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:19,400
Speaker 1: would be done. And then the store was a lot

173
00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:22,040
Speaker 1: like what we would think of as the memory, and

174
00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:25,120
Speaker 1: that's where you would keep the results of the functions

175
00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:29,880
Speaker 1: of the programs that you had done. So abandoning the

176
00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:34,080
Speaker 1: difference engine, though that the table making machine was kind

177
00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:39,160
Speaker 1: of an unpopular idea because he had gotten a working model,

178
00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:41,079
Speaker 1: but he still had a lot to do on it,

179
00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:43,960
Speaker 1: and the government wouldn't give him additional funding to make

180
00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:48,960
Speaker 1: this new analytical engine idea which he holds a grudge about,

181
00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:53,000
Speaker 1: but he still works on it. He writes a lot,

182
00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,520
Speaker 1: he draws it, draws a lot of plans, and he

183
00:10:56,720 --> 00:10:59,880
Speaker 1: ends up reporting on his new plan and the new

184
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,640
Speaker 1: engine in autumn of eighteen forty one. And when he

185
00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:09,600
Speaker 1: gives this presentation in Turinn, an Italian scientist named Louis

186
00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:13,200
Speaker 1: Menabria sees it, and then in eighteen forty two writes

187
00:11:13,679 --> 00:11:16,040
Speaker 1: a summary of what he's seen, and then also writes

188
00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:18,960
Speaker 1: a paper about the ideas that Babbage had put forth.

189
00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:22,120
Speaker 1: But he writes his paper on Francais. And this is

190
00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:25,600
Speaker 1: when Ada Lovelace comes back into the picture. Yeah, so

191
00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:29,800
Speaker 1: Ada gets ahold of this paper and decides to translate it,

192
00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:33,959
Speaker 1: and she shows it to Babbage, who suggests that she

193
00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:37,520
Speaker 1: add her own gloss to it. Basically, she writes some

194
00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:40,839
Speaker 1: notes and what she thinks of it, And her notes

195
00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:45,559
Speaker 1: end up being three times longer than the original paper, right,

196
00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:49,040
Speaker 1: And they were published in a very prestigious journal. Taylor's

197
00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:52,600
Speaker 1: Scientific Memoirs under the initials a a l for Augusta

198
00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:56,440
Speaker 1: Ada Lovelace. But what she did was see all of

199
00:11:56,440 --> 00:12:00,480
Speaker 1: the possibilities in this machine that Babbage didn't. He kept

200
00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:03,079
Speaker 1: thinking of it it's just something that would do calculations.

201
00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:06,040
Speaker 1: He was the engineer, and he saw the machine and

202
00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:09,160
Speaker 1: what he needed to do to make it happen, and

203
00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:13,520
Speaker 1: he didn't see the future and all the potential that

204
00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:17,200
Speaker 1: this function would have. And she conceived of it as

205
00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:19,319
Speaker 1: what we think of as a computer and was saying

206
00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:21,320
Speaker 1: things like, you could make music with us, you could

207
00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:25,120
Speaker 1: make graphics with us. She had she had the big picture,

208
00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:27,120
Speaker 1: not that it would come about for a long time,

209
00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:29,719
Speaker 1: but she saw things there that he couldn't. And it's

210
00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:31,560
Speaker 1: funny because a lot of the articles I was reading

211
00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:34,760
Speaker 1: about it, how some sexist language in there about how

212
00:12:34,800 --> 00:12:37,400
Speaker 1: it was ada Is intuition that led her to see

213
00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:39,160
Speaker 1: these things. And I'm going to go ahead and say

214
00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:42,640
Speaker 1: it was not her intertrain. Perhaps it was her amazing

215
00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:46,880
Speaker 1: intelligence and stuff. She also suggested writing a plan for

216
00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,880
Speaker 1: how the engine could calculate Bernoulli numbers um And this

217
00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:54,360
Speaker 1: is why she's regarded by some people as the first

218
00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:58,520
Speaker 1: computer programmer. And she this is sort of the most

219
00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:02,040
Speaker 1: famous quote from her notes, but she wrote, the analytical

220
00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,960
Speaker 1: engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jackard loom weaves

221
00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:10,920
Speaker 1: flowers and leaves and uh ada. Even though forced by

222
00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:15,400
Speaker 1: her mother to never study poetry and focus on math,

223
00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:22,160
Speaker 1: she does use these very metaphorical descriptions for numbers and

224
00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:26,720
Speaker 1: math and scientific concepts. She's definitely got the poet in her.

225
00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:31,559
Speaker 1: She just applies it to to something different. But Aida

226
00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:34,240
Speaker 1: and Babbage have a bit of a falling out before

227
00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:36,800
Speaker 1: these notes are even published. It's right before she's supposed

228
00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:38,840
Speaker 1: to publish them, and he wants her to add a

229
00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:42,800
Speaker 1: preface about the grudge we earlier mentioned about criticizing the

230
00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:45,480
Speaker 1: British government for not giving him the money he wanted

231
00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:48,520
Speaker 1: to finish this project, and she refuses, this isn't the

232
00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:51,400
Speaker 1: sort of thing she wants, and well, no, and not

233
00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:53,440
Speaker 1: the kind of thing she wants, you know. On what

234
00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:56,400
Speaker 1: will be the greatest achievement of her life forever, this

235
00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:00,439
Speaker 1: grudge of Babbage is and he's really ticked off, threatens

236
00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:03,600
Speaker 1: to make sure her notes aren't published, and then later,

237
00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:05,600
Speaker 1: I think, trying to make up for it, she offers

238
00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:07,680
Speaker 1: to raise money for him to help build the engine,

239
00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:10,040
Speaker 1: and he wouldn't even let her so going to go

240
00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:12,960
Speaker 1: ahead and say someone didn't play well with others well

241
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:17,880
Speaker 1: in Kitty and I were talking earlier about how he

242
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,280
Speaker 1: might have started to get uncomfortable with this close working

243
00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:25,280
Speaker 1: relationship with a very famous woman who's the daughter of

244
00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:30,080
Speaker 1: a very famous and very notorious man. Nearly everything I

245
00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:33,440
Speaker 1: read about the two was clear to note right from

246
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:36,360
Speaker 1: the start that their relationship was not romantic. It was

247
00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:38,760
Speaker 1: strictly professional. And I just thought that was a little

248
00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:41,200
Speaker 1: odd that that even had to be mentioned. And I

249
00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:44,320
Speaker 1: wondered how much of that has to do with Byron's

250
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,800
Speaker 1: reputation right and who she is and what she comes from.

251
00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,120
Speaker 1: And I wonder also if he was a bit jealous

252
00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:53,440
Speaker 1: because this was a triumph for her, and Babbage never

253
00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,440
Speaker 1: ends up getting these engines built in his lifetime things

254
00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:58,560
Speaker 1: he still doesn't get the money that he needs to

255
00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:03,000
Speaker 1: do this. But after this, Aida is even more committed

256
00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:06,400
Speaker 1: to her cause. She describes herself as more than ever

257
00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,760
Speaker 1: now the bride of science, and she wants to go

258
00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:13,200
Speaker 1: on and do even greater things. But this seems to

259
00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:16,520
Speaker 1: be where she peeked, and after that her life goes

260
00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:19,640
Speaker 1: a little bit into decline, and some of the sources

261
00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:22,440
Speaker 1: I read one seemed to suggest that maybe it was

262
00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:25,440
Speaker 1: because of her falling out with Babbage and she didn't

263
00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,560
Speaker 1: have anyone to talk to about her exciting math and

264
00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:33,120
Speaker 1: scientific pursuits. Her other friends weren't all that interested, or

265
00:15:33,160 --> 00:15:35,760
Speaker 1: she didn't have anyone she could really collaborate but it

266
00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:39,120
Speaker 1: in and collaborate with, and he her husband, is not

267
00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,800
Speaker 1: much of a presence in her life at this point.

268
00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:46,240
Speaker 1: He's away a lot on business and um, yeah, she

269
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:49,560
Speaker 1: seems rather alone, but she has some ideas. She wants

270
00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:53,480
Speaker 1: to get into medical science, but nothing seems to come

271
00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,200
Speaker 1: to fruition. And she also starts to get ill and

272
00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,720
Speaker 1: says that's making it harder for her to concentrate on

273
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:03,080
Speaker 1: her studies, and she gets flirty and a little bit scandalous,

274
00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,520
Speaker 1: much like her father, Lord Byron. Her husband ends up

275
00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,320
Speaker 1: burning I think at least a hundred of her letters,

276
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:12,760
Speaker 1: and they aren't getting along, so she's in trouble for something,

277
00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:17,760
Speaker 1: and much like the byronic hero who her mother so

278
00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:22,880
Speaker 1: desperately tried to prevent her from becoming um, she just

279
00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:28,120
Speaker 1: goes downhill in her health and starts drinking and doing

280
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:33,480
Speaker 1: opium which was fairly common in the Victorian age. Um

281
00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:37,680
Speaker 1: she even starts gambling, trying to apply her math ability

282
00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:42,800
Speaker 1: to race horses, and it didn't completely backfired. She ends

283
00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:46,360
Speaker 1: up in so much debt again like her father Lord Byron,

284
00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:51,080
Speaker 1: were coming full circle here, and she also realizes how

285
00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:53,040
Speaker 1: much her mother has lied to her over the years

286
00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:56,000
Speaker 1: and manipulated her when it comes to her father and

287
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,440
Speaker 1: they have a big fight, and that's pretty much the

288
00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:01,600
Speaker 1: end of their relationship, or to the end of their

289
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,760
Speaker 1: good relationship. Her mother will find her way back in

290
00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:09,760
Speaker 1: as you'll see in a minute. She develops cancer and Annabella,

291
00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:13,560
Speaker 1: her mother, really dominates the sick room. She chooses who

292
00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:18,280
Speaker 1: can come and visit and hides the opium, which um

293
00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:20,639
Speaker 1: Ada is using by this point as a pain killer,

294
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,760
Speaker 1: hoping that Ada will suffer so much that she'll repent,

295
00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:28,960
Speaker 1: But instead she just suffers a lot and keeps hemorrhaging.

296
00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:32,800
Speaker 1: She's in terrible pain, and I'm sure the bizarre medical

297
00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:35,440
Speaker 1: quackery of the time didn't help her condition at all.

298
00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:39,600
Speaker 1: Blood letting not so great for cancer. So she dies

299
00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:43,320
Speaker 1: at thirty seven and is buried next to her father,

300
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:47,480
Speaker 1: and Ada is a little bit obscure after her death. Um,

301
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:50,520
Speaker 1: but Alan Turing, who developed a method to break the

302
00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:53,600
Speaker 1: Enigma code during World War Two, used a bunch of

303
00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:56,360
Speaker 1: her notes in his work after the war on computing

304
00:17:56,359 --> 00:17:59,480
Speaker 1: and artificial intelligence. Yeah, and the U. S. Department of

305
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,080
Speaker 1: Defense ends up naming a software language ADA after her

306
00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:07,320
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine. Um, And I like this note

307
00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:11,560
Speaker 1: to in A machine was built to Babbage's specifications, the

308
00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:14,840
Speaker 1: analytical engine, and it was accurate to thirty one digits.

309
00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:18,600
Speaker 1: And this machine that Babbage thought of and that Ada

310
00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:24,760
Speaker 1: so cleverly described, is the beginning of early digital computing,

311
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:29,040
Speaker 1: something that just sort of goes into what a lot

312
00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:32,560
Speaker 1: of computer scientists call a dark age for years, and

313
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:36,520
Speaker 1: it's eclipse by mechanical analog devices until World War Two,

314
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,640
Speaker 1: when um, the power of digital sort of front comes

315
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:44,280
Speaker 1: back to the forefront. So these two were were progressive.

316
00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:46,120
Speaker 1: I'd love to see a picture of that machine, because

317
00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:48,520
Speaker 1: I hope it looks all steampunk cool. I'm gonna look

318
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:50,480
Speaker 1: that up when we got there's there's a picture of

319
00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:55,000
Speaker 1: his earlier engine, and it does not look like anything special.

320
00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:57,680
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a big box with still be

321
00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:00,600
Speaker 1: racing to the Googles to see. But Sarah and I

322
00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:04,680
Speaker 1: were talking earlier about celebrity kids and how they either

323
00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:07,560
Speaker 1: tend to follow in their parents footsteps or go in

324
00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:09,920
Speaker 1: the complete I think it's we think it's a good

325
00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:12,200
Speaker 1: idea to go in a different direction because if your

326
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,560
Speaker 1: parents are are famous musicians or something, and then maybe

327
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,320
Speaker 1: you it's a natural choice to want to be a

328
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:19,919
Speaker 1: musician too. But a lot of times they have a

329
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:23,960
Speaker 1: hard time living up to to the standard that they're

330
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,639
Speaker 1: famous parents has set. Uh. So Ada really makes the

331
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:31,600
Speaker 1: name for herself by doing something completely different, or so

332
00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:35,600
Speaker 1: it seems. But the funny thing is that Byron was

333
00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,720
Speaker 1: really interested in science when he was at Cambridge, especially

334
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,920
Speaker 1: in telescopes. He was a man of varied interests anyways,

335
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:44,480
Speaker 1: and Ada had written a letter to her mother and

336
00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:47,040
Speaker 1: her thirties where she said, if you can't give me poetry,

337
00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,920
Speaker 1: can't you give me poetical science, which again you got

338
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:53,800
Speaker 1: the poetry and the science coming together, just like her father.

339
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:56,320
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about where computers go

340
00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:59,600
Speaker 1: from the Victorian age, check out our tech channel at

341
00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:04,200
Speaker 1: w ww dot how stuff works dot com. For more

342
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,879
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how Stuff

343
00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:10,160
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Let us know what you think, Send

344
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,400
Speaker 1: an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com,

345
00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:15,160
Speaker 1: and be sure to check out this stuff you Missed

346
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:17,480
Speaker 1: in History Class blog on the how stuff works dot

347
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:21,680
Speaker 1: com home page