The Countess and The Computer: Destroying Legend

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The Countess and the Computer: Destroying Legend

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In 1975 the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced its plans to develop a single computer language meant to replace the 1,500 or so languages – many of them mutually incompatible – in use at the time. A new, custom-made language would streamline all operations of dollars every year.

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By 1979, designs for the new language were complete, and the DOD was seeking a name for its latest creation. It decided on ADA. To computer buffs, it seemed a logical choice.

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A Place in History

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In the story of computing, Augusta Ada King, the countess of Lovelace, for whom the new language was named, was a well-known name. Born in 1815, she was the only legitimate daughter of the poet Lord Byron, whom one former admirer had described as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”

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Ada Lovelace did not, in fact, know her father; but she was a friend of Professor Charles Babbage’s and, significantly for those working on the DOD project, an admirer of his analytical engine, a forerunner of today’s computer.

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A complex arrangement of more than 1,000 wheels and gears, Babbage’s engine was designed wheels and gears, Babbage’s engine was designed to add, divide, multiply, and subtract with perfect accuracy to 20 decimal places. Like an early computer, it received initial data on punched cards. The system incorporated mechanical devices that, supposedly, enabled it to make the same kinds of complex mathematical calculations as are made by digital computers today.

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According to popular belief, Ada Lovelace wrote the first program for this invention, which was far ahead of its time. Even the historian of the ADA project claimed that Ada Lovelace suggested the idea of programming Babbage’s engine with punched cards, had recognized the potential power of the machine, and had explained its workings in a lengthy paper published in 1843.

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Unfortunately the truth is different. Enthusiastic as she was, Ada Lovelace seems to have had a poor understanding of mathematics and an even weaker grasp of the feats that Babbage’s innovative engine could accomplish.

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Mechanical Thought: In 1834 the English scientist Charles Babbage drew up plans for an analytical engine – the world’s first computer. His assistant, Ada Lovelace, was an enthusiastic proponent of the machine; to honor her, a present-day computer language has been named ADA. However, Babbage failed to complete the project before his death. The complex machine above is only a model of part of the mechanism.

Extravagant Claims

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Ada maintained, for example, that the engine could perform algebraic calculations and could even compose music. It could do neither. The commentary that she wrote was attached to her translation of a paper written in French by an Italian military engineer, extolling the virtues of the engine. On occasion, for example, were converted into meaningless mathematical terms. And the program credited to Ada Lovelace was supervised, if not actually set out, by Babbage himself.

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Although Ada Lovelace had her difficulties in working out mathematical problems, her belief in Babbage and his invention is not in doubt. Part of Babbage and his invention is not in doubt.

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Part of the basis for her extravagant claims may lie in the fact that the engine itself was never completed; for years Babbage had campaigned for funds from the government to allow him to continue to develop it. Much of Ada Lovelace’s spurious information was undoubtedly approved by Babbage in the hope that it would impress authorities.

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Historical inaccuracies aside, however, reportedly the Department of Defense is pleased with the way its computer language performs.