Some consider this to be the first algorithm to be carried out by a machine – The first computer program. Lovelace wrote of how the machine could be programmed with code to calculate Bernoulli numbers. Baggage created plans for a device known as the analytical engine, designed to handle complex calculations. Baggage was a mathematician and inventor and later would become known as “the father of the computer”. Annabella believed that by engaging Ada in rigorous studies she would be prevented from developing her father’s moody and unpredictable temperament.Īt age 12, Ada conceptualized the invention of a flying machine and by age 17, Charles Babbage had become her mentor. This degree of education was unusual for an aristocratic girl in 19th century England. Lady Byron, herself a mathematical wiz, saw to it that Ada, from the age of four, was tutored in mathematics and science. In 1824, Byron died at the age of thirty-six.Īda was brought up by a mother who became one of the most progressive reformers in Victorian England. During Ada’s first year of life, Byron left England and never saw his daughter again. Byron spoke of his newly born daughter, “Oh! What an implement of torture I have acquired in you!” The marriage between the erratic, abusive and womanizing poet and Annabella was brief and unhappy.

If you find 19th century Victorian England interesting or perhaps you are a digital enthusiast with a capacity for the mathematical, either way, you will find this dual biography of Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace surprisingly full of complex characters, not the least of which is Lord Byron.Īnnabella Milbanke and Lord George Gordon Byron married in 1815 and their daughter Ada was born in the same year. In Byrons Wake: The Turbulent Lives of Lord Bryons Wife and Daughter, Annabella Milbanke & Ada Lovelace. The turbulent lives of Lord Byron’s wife and daughter.

In Byron's Wake by Miranda Seymour