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Ada Byron Lovelace was one of the most charming personalities in computer history. She is known as a British mathematician, musician, and forerunner of computer programming.
Ada Byron Lovelace was born on December 10, 1815 to the famous poet, Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke. Lord Byron was a strikingly handsome man who traveled widely and wrote his poetry with a biting criticism of British society. While he fell in love with Annabella, their marriage lasted only a year. Five weeks after Ada was born, Lady Bryon asked for a separation from her husband, and was given sole custody of the child. Lord Byron left for Italy and never returned to his home. He never saw his daughter again. He died in Greece when Ada was eight years old.
Ada was an active athletic child, loving gymnastics, dancing, and horseback riding. She became an accomplished musician, playing the piano, violin, and harp. As a teenager, Ada had all the advantages of the elite in London. She attended concerts, theaters, and elegant parties. She met many famous people, including the queen.
Even though she loved the arts, Ada was more interested in how things worked. She was fascinated by mechanical things and loved to figure out what make machines work. Lady Byron, being afraid that Ada would end up being a poet like her father, encouraged her daughter in her studies of mathematics and the sciences.
When she was seventeen years old, Ada met Mrs. Somerville, a remarkable woman who had just published a book on mathematical astronomy, “The Mechanism of the Heavens”. This woman became a mentor to Ada and while she encouraged the young lady in her mathematical studies, she also tried to put mathematics and technology in a human context. It was Mrs. Somerville who arranged for Ada to meet Lord William King, Earl of Lovelace, who was to later become her husband.
Throughout her career as a mathematician, Ada was often drawn by her love of poetry and music. Her understanding of mathematics was laced with imagination, and described in metaphors.
Lady Lovelace died of Cancer in 1852 at the age of 36, leaving behind her husband and three children.
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