Ada: The Enchantress of Numbers
by Betty Alexandra Toole, Ed.D.
"Beyond stereotypes." --Wired
"Excellent and thoughtful." --Annals of the History of Computing
Toole lets Ada speak for herself through letters to colleagues, family and friends which bring Ada to life with an intimacy a biography never could.
--Alice Polesky in the San Francisco Chronicle
Ada Lovelace: The World's First Hacker. . .
Toole did research for more than eight years, burying herself in British archives and libraries to narrate and edit this extraordinary collection of letters written by Ada Lovelace. Not only do they outline Ada's ingenuity for the sciences, but they also enlighten us on all aspects of Lady Lovelace's multidimensional life: her passionate desire to flourish
in a "man's world," her battle with drug addiction and chronic sickness, and her efforts as a mother and wife. Lovelace also had a reputation as a wild gambler and a lover. What can tell us more truthfully about Ms. Lovelace's life than letters from the Lady herself?
--Carla Sinclair
Ada Lovelace has a mythic resonance for our digital age: reverent visits to Ada's grave now outnumber pilgrimages to the grave of her father, the poet Byron. Betty Alexandra Toole's revelatory book gives us the sad, evocative and all-too-human story of the woman behind the Ada myth.
--Bruce Sterling
Ada was one of the first to write programs of instructions for Babbage's Analytical Engines, the famous precursors to the modern digital computer. Beautiful, charming, temperamental, an aristocratic hostess, mathematicians of the time thought her a splendid addition to their number. Babbage warmly appreciated her worth, and the value of te felicitous account she wrote of his Analytical Engines and their potential scope of application.
The story of Ada's life and of her relationship with Babbage has been sadly distorted, and Dr Toole, who has in my view an unrivaled knowledge of Ada's life, here gives us the opportunity to set the record straight. By this Dr Toole helps clarify not only Ada's personal life, but also an important early stage of the computer revolution. I warmly welcome the publication of this critical selection of Ada's letters.
--Dr Anthony Hyman (author, Charles Babbage, Pioneer of the Computer)
Daughter of Lord Byron, companion and partner of Charles Babbage, Ada was one of the most picturesque characters in the history of technology. . .Ada's letters are some of the classic founding documents of cybernetics and computer science, written nearly a century before ENIAC.
--Howard Rheingold
Dr Toole has written a brilliant and insightful book that reveals the depth not only of Lovelace's genius but also her personal passions. It is an essential and inspiring book, one that crosses the boundaries of time and gender.
--Lynn Hershman Leeson (director, Conceiving Ada)
Forget this world and all its troubles and if possible
its multitudinous Charlatans-- everything in short but
the Enchantress of Numbers.
--Charles Babbage to Ada Lovelace
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All site contents copyright ©
1998, 2004 B. Alexandra Toole. Please attribute any quotations.
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In Celebration of Ada Lovelace Day
by Betty Alexandra Toole, Ed.D.
If you don't know Ada Lovelace let me introduce you to her,
as she is a fascinating human being. I got to know her intimately by hand
transcribing, back in the 1980s, both her letters and publications.
At that time they did not allow a computer into either the Bodleian Library at
Oxford or the British library where her letters are found. My two books,
"Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers," and many articles, from "poetical science,"
to "analyst and metaphysician" stem from that endeavor and are described on
my web site.
Why Ada Lovelace day? Ada Lovelace is addicting for once you get to know
her you want to know more. It is because she is unique; she is not a model
to be put on a pedestal. Her greatest legacy was her ability to think both
creatively and critically, which enabled her to be a prophet. She not only
predicted the impact of today's computer revolution back in 1843, but she
wrote a table of instructions for the proposed Analytical Engine to show
how it could calculate a complicated mathematical equation.
Ada, the Countess of Lovelace, was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron
and a dear friend of Charles Babbage. They both lived in the 19th century
and many smart people regard them as pioneers of the computer. Babbage's
Analytical Engine never came to pass then, but now looking around I see it
has happened, even beyond their wildest dreams, and some of those dreams
seemed pretty wild at the time. Ada saw the idea and the structure of
Babbage's Analytical Engine, not the Difference Engine, and described it
in a publication in 1843 as something new. She saw its possibility to
compose music, see and make pictures, and to be a benefit to business.
The structure of Babbage's idea and Ada suggesting a perfect example of
how the machine might calculate complicated algorithms, as well as her
predictions, turned out to be close to the truth.
Gibson and Sterling used Ada as a character in the marvelous science
fiction novel the "Difference Engine". Ada had a secret, a modus, and a
special way of seeing the world. I call it "Poetical Science" based on a
scrap of paper I found in her files. It is not poetry or science, imagination
or rationality, it is not romance (putting her on a pedestal) or the opposite
(trashing her). It is getting poetry and science as close together so that you
can see "the heart of the matter," and when you see the heart of the matter you
can predict, as she did in 1843, the potential of an idea. This ability is
needed today, by women, by all people, who want to see how technology can
benefit mankind and womankind. Ada spelled that need out in 1843, and
described how she saw her legacy. She wrote:
"Far be it from me, to disclaim the influence of ambition & fame.; ...
I certainly would not deceive myself or others by pretending that it is other
than a very important motive & ingredient in my character & nature.
"I wish to add my mite towards expounding & interpreting
the Almighty, & his laws & works, for the most effective use of mankind;
and certainly, I should feel it no small glory if I were enabled
to be one of his most noted prophets...And I should prefer...being known
as a benefactor of this description...promulgating truths from
obscurity & oblivion."
(Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers, p.230) Betty Alexandra Toole