0:00:06 > 0:00:09You might have assumed that the computer age began
0:00:09 > 0:00:11with some geeks out in California.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Or perhaps with the codebreakers of World War II.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27But the pioneer who first saw the true power of the computer
0:00:27 > 0:00:30lived way back,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34during the transformative age of the Industrial Revolution.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41As Queen Victoria takes to the throne in the early 19th century,
0:00:41 > 0:00:42Britain is on the brink
0:00:42 > 0:00:45of an even more ambitious revolution -
0:00:45 > 0:00:48the mechanisation of thought itself.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54Forged from brass and powered by steam, a Victorian computer age.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00It took extraordinary foresight and yet,
0:01:00 > 0:01:05in this patriarchal world, this visionary wasn't a man.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Passionate and intelligent, Lady Ada Lovelace.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19I'm Hannah Fry.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23As a mathematician, I want to find out how this 19th-century lady
0:01:23 > 0:01:26prophesied the information age.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31How she published the first computer program
0:01:31 > 0:01:34as long ago as 1843.
0:01:36 > 0:01:41And how she nearly brought about a Victorian computer revolution.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46I want to rediscover the story of Ada Lovelace,
0:01:46 > 0:01:50the woman who dared to dream of a world of computers,
0:01:50 > 0:01:55and to uncover her role in a remarkable vision of the future.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14To find out how this Victorian lady could have foreseen the power
0:02:14 > 0:02:16of computers, I've come here,
0:02:16 > 0:02:18Horsley Towers,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22a day's ride from London and her home for most of her adult life.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Ada had a very privileged background.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33In fact, she was almost one of Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38So it was no surprise when she was married off to Lord King,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40soon to become the Earl of Lovelace,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43a man who was ten years her senior
0:02:43 > 0:02:46and as practical as Ada was imaginative.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55Dickens, Faraday and the inventor Charles Babbage
0:02:55 > 0:02:58were just some of their close acquaintances.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05It was a magical, exciting time.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10Two opposing cultures, science and romanticism, were colliding.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16My heroine thrived at the crossroads of both.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27She wrote her dream of a computerised world in this,
0:03:27 > 0:03:29Taylor's Scientific Memoirs.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Now, this isn't just any old book.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36This is one of the most visionary documents in the history
0:03:36 > 0:03:43of science, a 65-page blueprint for a computer revolution.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45It has complex mathematics,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48it has the layout for the world's first
0:03:48 > 0:03:52general-purpose computing machine.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56It even has the world's first published computer programs
0:03:56 > 0:04:02and in it, Ada suggests that a machine made from cogs and cams
0:04:02 > 0:04:06and steam and oil could compose music.
0:04:06 > 0:04:12In effect, it's Ada's key manifesto for a computer age.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16And all of this as far back as 1843.
0:04:18 > 0:04:24This document is a fascinating mix of science and imagination.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29So how did she manage to embrace both strands -
0:04:29 > 0:04:31logic and the creative arts?
0:04:39 > 0:04:41It seems to me that there was one man
0:04:41 > 0:04:44at the epicentre of everything that Ada did.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46He had a huge influence on her upbringing
0:04:46 > 0:04:50and was the biggest celebrity in Britain at the time.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55Lord Byron, poet, philanderer, romantic and Ada's father.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Ada was his only legitimate daughter
0:05:01 > 0:05:04and he loomed large throughout her life.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08And yet he left her when she was just a five-week-old baby
0:05:08 > 0:05:11and he never saw her again.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Her mother made quite sure of that.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25Annabella Milbanke and Lord Byron married in 1815,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28yet were poles apart.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Annabella was mathematical and stiflingly conformist.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38Byron was free-spirited and cared little for numbers.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45The scandalous Lord Byron,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48as well as producing some of the most important written works
0:05:48 > 0:05:50of the 19th century,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54was famous for drinking out of a human skull,
0:05:54 > 0:05:59having a pet bear and numerous affairs with both men and women.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04Now, one spurned lover - female - famously put it that he was
0:06:04 > 0:06:07"mad, bad and dangerous to know".
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Annabella and Byron's marriage lasted for a very long year,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16before it eventually broke up acrimoniously.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20She kicked him out, covered his painting with a big curtain
0:06:20 > 0:06:23and forbade Ada from ever looking at it,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25which must have been torturous
0:06:25 > 0:06:29for someone with as inquisitive a mind as Ada had.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38Annabella loathed her estranged husband and went about purging
0:06:38 > 0:06:42the young girl of any evidence of her father's personality.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48"Volatile poetic insanity", she called it.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51So she was looking for ways to try and protect Ada.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04Annabella decided to force-feed the child on a diet of maths
0:07:04 > 0:07:09and science with a zeal bordering on fanaticism,
0:07:09 > 0:07:14even though the subjects were seen as the preserve of the male mind.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Augustus De Morgan was Ada's main tutor
0:07:23 > 0:07:26and a brilliant mathematician in his own right.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29He founded the maths department at UCL, which is
0:07:29 > 0:07:33the university that I work at. But he wasn't exactly progressive.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36In a letter that he wrote to Ada's mother,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40he explains why women are best to avoid doing hard maths.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42"The reason is obvious," he writes.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45"The very great tension of mind which they require
0:07:45 > 0:07:50"is beyond the strength of a woman's physical power of application."
0:07:50 > 0:07:52He does recognise Ada's talents,
0:07:52 > 0:07:55though, at least, in a slightly backhanded compliment.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00"Lady L has unquestionably as much power as would require
0:08:00 > 0:08:03"all the strength of a man's constitution."
0:08:10 > 0:08:12She studied voraciously.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20At just 13, she became fascinated by flight,
0:08:20 > 0:08:26and designed a mechanical bird that could flap its wings.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39She was developing skills that were coveted
0:08:39 > 0:08:41in the Victorian age of engineering -
0:08:41 > 0:08:46inventiveness and scientific rigour - and by the young age of 17,
0:08:46 > 0:08:48she was ready to show them off.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00The stage her mother chose
0:09:00 > 0:09:04was one of the most sought-after soirees of the day,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08hosted by the famous inventor Charles Babbage
0:09:08 > 0:09:11and attended by the great and the good.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20A guest wrote at the time, "One of three qualifications were necessary
0:09:20 > 0:09:22"for those who sought to be invited -
0:09:22 > 0:09:24"intellect, beauty or rank."
0:09:26 > 0:09:29The young Lady Lovelace had all three.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37At the party,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Babbage was keen to unveil a new creation to his select audience.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49He called it the difference engine,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53the most ambitious mechanical calculator ever designed.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Its mathematical elegance impressed the young Ada.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22And this is the actual machine that Ada would have seen at Babbage's.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Just a small sample of what it could have been,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30had it been built fully, but enough to understand how it worked.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34And enough to spark her imagination.
0:10:34 > 0:10:35And maybe somewhere on there still,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38there's a couple of Ada's fingerprints left over.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47The machine would do the work of a whole army of mathematicians -
0:10:47 > 0:10:51a body of men who were actually known as computers.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58This was just one-seventh of an entire difference engine.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02The full version, constructed from Babbage's plans,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05can be seen at the London Science Museum.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08There's a loose floorboard there.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13'It's lovingly tended by curator Tilly Blyth.'
0:11:14 > 0:11:18So, for the first time that I ever see it, where should I be standing?
0:11:18 > 0:11:20I think it's nice to stand in the front so that you can see
0:11:20 > 0:11:24- the whole machine working in harmony and have a real sense of it.- OK.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27- But it's also beautiful from the back as well.- OK. OK.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29I'm genuinely excited about this.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31TILLY LAUGHS
0:11:35 > 0:11:37Wow!
0:11:37 > 0:11:40So you've got the units at the bottom and then going up,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43- tens and hundreds, right? - That's right.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47So every time you go past nine, you have to carry up the column?
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Wow. Actually, that is incredible.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04It must have seemed like mechanising thought itself, right?
0:12:04 > 0:12:06They called it the thinking machine.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10So what does the machine actually do, Tilly?
0:12:10 > 0:12:15So the really incredible thing about this machine is, it works
0:12:15 > 0:12:17using purely addition. It works using something called
0:12:17 > 0:12:19the method of finite differences.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24So this allows you to take any equation and work that through
0:12:24 > 0:12:27using an approximation, but using only addition.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31So in a way, I suppose this machine takes the equation,
0:12:31 > 0:12:35breaks it down to smaller and smaller and smaller pieces,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37until...you end up with something
0:12:37 > 0:12:40so simple that it can be done by the turning of a cog?
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Each one of those cogs is just doing addition to the next cog.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46- Adding, adding, adding.- Exactly.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54The method allows simultaneous work on a multitude of simple sums.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Tricky for the human brain to keep track of,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02but perfect for the methodical workings of a machine.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06When each addition passes through ten,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10these hypnotic spirals carry the one up the column.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14And at the end, the difference engine
0:13:14 > 0:13:17automatically prints the answers into tables,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20removing the risk of human error.
0:13:20 > 0:13:21Why was it important?
0:13:21 > 0:13:24So, in the 19th century,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28people were using mathematical tables for all sorts of things.
0:13:28 > 0:13:29They were using them for engineering,
0:13:29 > 0:13:33they were using them for astronomy, but probably most importantly,
0:13:33 > 0:13:36they were using these tables for navigation.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39So sailors were referring to these mathematical tables
0:13:39 > 0:13:42and if there were errors in them, then lives could be lost.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46You know, people could be sailing to the wrong places.
0:13:46 > 0:13:52'It's an ingenious machine, but this was not a computer.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56'Rather, it was an incredibly advanced calculator.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00'Precise up to 31 decimal places.'
0:14:00 > 0:14:03- Could you do it one more time?- OK.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06I'm going to stay on this side. This side's gorgeous.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15'At the time Ada saw the difference engine,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18'it was just the small demonstration piece.'
0:14:20 > 0:14:25For many of the guests that night, it was an amusing curiosity.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30But not for her. The debutante grasped its significance.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46Wife of Ada's tutor, Mrs De Morgan, wrote of the night,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50"When most of the guests looked on with the expression that
0:14:50 > 0:14:57"savages show on seeing a looking glass, Miss Byron, young as she was,
0:14:57 > 0:15:02"understood its working and saw the great beauty of the invention."
0:15:02 > 0:15:06It was enough to ignite sparks between Babbage and Ada -
0:15:06 > 0:15:09not sexual sparks, but intellectual ones
0:15:09 > 0:15:12and the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16And Ada's excitement almost certainly gave Babbage extra vigour
0:15:16 > 0:15:19to push forward with his audacious plans.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28To build such a technologically advanced machine would need
0:15:28 > 0:15:30state-of-the-art manufacturing.
0:15:33 > 0:15:39The best engineer was hired to mill each of the 25,000 parts
0:15:39 > 0:15:41to exacting tolerances.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43It wasn't going to come cheap.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53But if there was ever an era for extraordinary projects,
0:15:53 > 0:15:54Babbage and Lovelace were in it.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02Brunel was engineering the Great Eastern steamship.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07Wheatstone had proposed the world's first telegraph system.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13Darwin was transforming our understanding of how we had evolved.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16And Faraday, Babbage's close friend,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19was revealing the secrets of electricity.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Britain celebrated inventiveness.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30But all of a sudden,
0:16:30 > 0:16:34Babbage shelved his idea of a grand mechanical calculator.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42Here at Royal Holloway, engineer Doron Swade
0:16:42 > 0:16:46thinks he knows the reason for Babbage's change of heart.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Why did Babbage drop the idea of the difference engine, then?
0:16:50 > 0:16:53The simple answer is, he had a better idea.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55But the circumstances are rather curious.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58He had a dispute which was unresolved with his engineer,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00Joseph Clement, and by law in those days,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04the engineer, or the toolmaker, owned the drawings.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06The drawings belonged to him.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08So Babbage could not recover the drawings, so there was an
0:17:08 > 0:17:12enforced gap in his progression of his difference engine designs.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14He was left without the drawings. He couldn't work on them.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Without his drawings, he then began to go back to the first principles
0:17:17 > 0:17:19and say, well, what was he trying to do here?
0:17:19 > 0:17:22And in the course of those reflections, he had the second idea
0:17:22 > 0:17:26which is an engine that would vastly supersede in aspiration
0:17:26 > 0:17:29and capability, and that was the analytical engine.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Babbage's new idea was audacious -
0:17:37 > 0:17:41the most complicated machine ever conceived.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48He called it the analytical engine, and it would define Ada's legacy.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55So I've had a little look at the plans for the analytical engine.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57And the first thing that really strikes you, especially
0:17:57 > 0:18:01in comparison to the difference engine, is just the size of it.
0:18:01 > 0:18:02I mean, this thing is vast.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05It is enormous and probably one of the plans you might have
0:18:05 > 0:18:08looked at is plan 25 from 1840.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12This is the culmination of a major piece of work,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15done from about 1834 onwards, and this is where he tried
0:18:15 > 0:18:18to present to the world the overall conception of what he was about.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20So this drawing is deeply, deeply significant.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23In it, it shows a machine that is 15 foot high,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27six foot in diameter, the main thing that did all the processing,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30and then a store, a memory as we would now call it,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32extending almost indefinitely.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34Now, his entry-level machine... HANNAH LAUGHS
0:18:34 > 0:18:36had 100 what we would call registers,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39what he called variables - 100 of those.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Now, a machine with 100 variables would be 45 foot long
0:18:43 > 0:18:46and 15 foot high, but he spoke of machines ten times bigger.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49He spoke of machines with 1,000 variables.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51Now, a machine with 1,000 variables
0:18:51 > 0:18:54would be five times the complete length of this.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57- That's 90 feet, roughly, from the end to here...- Vast.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59Five times that would be...
0:18:59 > 0:19:03The entry-level machine would be 45 foot long, which is from
0:19:03 > 0:19:07more or less where that stand is to the beginning of the red steps.
0:19:07 > 0:19:08Absolutely extraordinary.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11- So you are talking about a monster.- Yes.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15The analytical engine was so huge,
0:19:15 > 0:19:19Babbage designed it to be driven by steam.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23But what made it superior to the difference engine
0:19:23 > 0:19:27wasn't its size, but a small, ingenious detail.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30The other thing I noticed when looking at the plans -
0:19:30 > 0:19:33and you have to correct me if I'm wrong here -
0:19:33 > 0:19:36but something I thought was kind of extraordinary about these plans was,
0:19:36 > 0:19:41in all of the vastness of this machine,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44there's one thing that really stands out
0:19:44 > 0:19:46that makes it a computer, really.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50So I had my colleagues print up a sort of mock-up version of this
0:19:50 > 0:19:52and I was wondering if you could explain it for us.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54- The conditional arm.- Yes.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57But this illustrates the principle of conditional branching.
0:19:57 > 0:19:58It sounds a complex thing - if/then.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01If this is true, do this. If it's not true, do something else.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04So there's a branch. You can take one or another course of action.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07- It's making a decision, it is a decision.- Absolutely.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10So it can root its way through, if you like, a decision space.
0:20:10 > 0:20:16So the idea is that this stud or dowel moves forward
0:20:16 > 0:20:19and interrogates the space, says, "Is there anything in that space?"
0:20:19 > 0:20:20So it moves forward.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24- If this stud, the slug, is absent, nothing happens.- Mm-hm.
0:20:24 > 0:20:25It stops short and nothing happens.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27If this dowel is present,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30then that dowel moving forward will activate this lever.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32So whether or not this is present,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34it will or will not activate that lever.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36Now, this is terribly important for,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39one is a general principle of computing that it can do branching.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42- That still exists today. - Absolutely, absolutely.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45So if you did, for example, ten divided by three.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47It would go ten, seven,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50- four, one, minus two.- Absolutely.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53And then the next time that thing said, "Have you gone negative?",
0:20:53 > 0:20:56it would say, "Oops" and activate something that would multiply by ten
0:20:56 > 0:20:59- and do the whole thing.- Amazing. - This is a revolutionary machine
0:20:59 > 0:21:03in so far as it embodies almost all the logical principles
0:21:03 > 0:21:06of a modern, digital, electronic computer which is completely...
0:21:06 > 0:21:08Something in 1840, it's astonishing.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16Babbage's plans for a steam-driven computer
0:21:16 > 0:21:20went far beyond the comprehension of his contemporaries.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31He dreamt that one day, banks of such engines would industrialise
0:21:31 > 0:21:35the production of faultless mathematical tables,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39calculated from any number of different equations.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54It fired the imagination of his young prodigy - Ada Lovelace.
0:21:55 > 0:22:00She threw herself into understanding the complexities of the machine
0:22:00 > 0:22:05and eventually began to realise even more than Babbage himself
0:22:05 > 0:22:08the full extent of what the analytical engine
0:22:08 > 0:22:10could actually think about.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18The mechanics - the hardware - were only half the story.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23The computer needed software
0:22:23 > 0:22:28if it were to be versatile enough to calculate any type of equation.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34And it was here that Lovelace would reveal her genius.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52Graphic novelist Sydney Padua is somewhat of an accidental expert
0:22:52 > 0:22:54when it comes to Babbage and Lovelace.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01What got you into Ada Lovelace in the first place?
0:23:01 > 0:23:03It was a complete accident.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05I did a very short biographical comic
0:23:05 > 0:23:09and just doing that little bio of, you know,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12four pages or three pages or whatever, I became completely
0:23:12 > 0:23:16mesmerised by this person and the machinery and the period.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20The contrast was so violent and exciting,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22and also they were just wonderful personalities.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26I mean, I just really liked them as people.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29Her character, did it complement Babbage?
0:23:29 > 0:23:32I mean, in a sense they were very similar people, you know,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35- they were quite literal-minded, they were very...- Headstrong.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Headstrong, stubborn, independent, they knew what they wanted.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42She liked to pursue her obsessions.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44When she really wanted to find something out,
0:23:44 > 0:23:47she wouldn't rest until she got to the bottom of it.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49- Let me see your drawing. - There you go.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51HANNAH LAUGHS
0:23:51 > 0:23:54I love it. She's not exactly ladylike in that one.
0:23:54 > 0:23:55Why is she wearing trousers?
0:23:55 > 0:23:57You can't wear skirts in the engines.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59- I mean...- That'll be completely impractical.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02It's a very serious hazard there.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Not one for hanging around,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Ada went on a tour of the cotton mills of the north of England
0:24:13 > 0:24:16immediately after Babbage showed her the plans.
0:24:19 > 0:24:20She came to see this...
0:24:22 > 0:24:24..the Jacquard loom.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30A state-of-the-art device that automated the weaving
0:24:30 > 0:24:31of patterned silk.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37Babbage had an idea to repurpose the technology
0:24:37 > 0:24:39to instruct his new analytical engine.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48I'll show you how it works. If you come through this way.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51May like to stand over there, get a good view.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54Now, very simply, the Jacquard is up the top
0:24:54 > 0:24:58and it's selecting which strings to lift up.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02So when you press the treadle, you'll hear a clunk up the top
0:25:02 > 0:25:04but you'll see these strings lift up.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06OK.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30So you can see the design building up and we've now got a leaf there.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34- Actually relatively quick.- Yeah. - Quicker than I was expecting.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40The Jacquard mechanism meant complicated patterns
0:25:40 > 0:25:44could be manufactured by unskilled workers,
0:25:44 > 0:25:49the loom being controlled by a series of punch cards.
0:25:49 > 0:25:55The punch card goes on top and each of these lines up with a little pin.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57A hole, the pin just goes right through.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00- No hole, the pin is pushed.- OK.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03So if you push it down then you'll see,
0:26:03 > 0:26:05according to the pattern on the cards,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08some of the little levers will go in, some won't.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12So now suddenly, whatever was on the card
0:26:12 > 0:26:15- has been translated into these hooks moving up and down.- Yeah.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18So that difference then - hole, no hole -
0:26:18 > 0:26:21is the thing that causes something to happen back here.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Yeah. It's a kind of binary.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31This was the height of technology in a fast modernising world.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36What do you think people were making of these machines at that time?
0:26:36 > 0:26:38- How do they feel about them?- Erm...
0:26:38 > 0:26:40I think a lot of people found them quite unsettling,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44if you kind of read period descriptions of it, you know,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46they sound a bit nervous about it.
0:26:46 > 0:26:47Where might this lead?
0:26:47 > 0:26:50You know, this is where you start seeing people comparing humans
0:26:50 > 0:26:52to automata.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54It does everything automatically, it turns automatically,
0:26:54 > 0:26:56it selects all the threads automatically.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59- Almost like it's making decisions. - Yeah, exactly.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02I mean, the machine is literally selecting the threads.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09The automation of skilled labour was controversial.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13A group of textile workers known as Luddites
0:27:13 > 0:27:17protested that the technology would steal their jobs.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Ironically, Ada's father, Lord Byron,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23was a vocal supporter of their movement.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27She had no such worries,
0:27:27 > 0:27:30but saw how the punch cards could work
0:27:30 > 0:27:34with Babbage's new analytical engine.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38The punch cards bring in this element of choice, actually.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43The power is in whoever programmed the card.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51Ada was fascinated by the men making the cards.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55They were translating complicated patterns, such as a flower petal,
0:27:55 > 0:28:01into a simple language the loom could understand.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Hole, no hole.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06The world's first binary machine code.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13She later wrote,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17"We may say most aptly that the analytical engine
0:28:17 > 0:28:19"weaves algebraic patterns
0:28:19 > 0:28:23"just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves."
0:28:29 > 0:28:33Her enforced scientific upbringing was paying dividends.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39If Ada's early education was driven, sometimes cruelly,
0:28:39 > 0:28:44by her mother's wishes to purge her of her father's poetical madness,
0:28:44 > 0:28:49then Ada's twenties were fired by mathematical ambition.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52She once told her mother that she wanted to compensate
0:28:52 > 0:28:55for Byron's misguided genius.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57In fact, she said,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01"If he has transmitted to me any portion of his genius,
0:29:01 > 0:29:05"then I will use it to bring out great truths and principles."
0:29:08 > 0:29:11So over the next ten years,
0:29:11 > 0:29:14as well as getting married and having three children,
0:29:14 > 0:29:19she used her intellect to absorb and uncover the maths needed
0:29:19 > 0:29:23to demonstrate the abilities of the analytical engine.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28She also started to grasp what Babbage's engine
0:29:28 > 0:29:30might be truly capable of.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36The problem was, her relationship with Babbage was not equal.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39He was the lecturer and she the student.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45Then, in 1842, she got a chance to turn the tables.
0:29:46 > 0:29:51Babbage was woefully inadequate at promoting his machine,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54and, in fact, much of what we know about the analytical engine
0:29:54 > 0:29:56comes from this key book.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00It started with Ada's translations of the writings
0:30:00 > 0:30:02of an Italian military engineer
0:30:02 > 0:30:06after he attended one of Babbage's rare lectures
0:30:06 > 0:30:10and it's entitled Article XXIX.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14"Sketch of the analytical engine invented by Charles Babbage Esquire,
0:30:14 > 0:30:19"by L F Menabrea of Turin, Officer of the Military Engineers."
0:30:22 > 0:30:27Luigi Menabrea's notes were impressively detailed,
0:30:27 > 0:30:31but, like Babbage, he limited the capabilities of the engine
0:30:31 > 0:30:35only to mathematics, making for a tough read.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39It must have driven her mad.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43She knew the engine way better than this Luigi guy
0:30:43 > 0:30:46and yet here she was, having to churn it out like a secretary.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49"Now, to conceive how these operations may be
0:30:49 > 0:30:50"reproduced by a machine,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53"suppose the latter to have three dials designated as A, B, C
0:30:53 > 0:30:55"on each of which are traced, say a thousand divisions,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58"by way of example, over which a needle shall pass."
0:30:58 > 0:31:02Babbage suggested to Ada that this might be a wasted opportunity
0:31:02 > 0:31:04and that she should add some of her own thoughts
0:31:04 > 0:31:07to accompany the translation.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11She went at it, in her words, "like a devil possessed."
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Day and night, Ada toiled.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21For nine months, she formulated her thoughts
0:31:21 > 0:31:25on not so much how the analytical engine worked,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28but rather the computational possibilities
0:31:28 > 0:31:30of such a powerful machine.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Ada's notes ended up being twice the length of the original
0:31:40 > 0:31:42and there are even some moments
0:31:42 > 0:31:45where she seems to be addressing Babbage directly.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49She talks about the use of the punch cards and even gives some examples
0:31:49 > 0:31:54of configurations. And here, she even writes a program
0:31:54 > 0:31:57for how to create Bernoulli numbers.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59Now, Bernoulli numbers are a sequence of numbers
0:31:59 > 0:32:03that are important in mathematics, but what Ada's done is written
0:32:03 > 0:32:07almost a recipe for how to make these numbers.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10A series of step-by-step instructions
0:32:10 > 0:32:11that can be read by the engine.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19At the age of 27, Lovelace had articulated the language
0:32:19 > 0:32:23that could construct the machine to weave her algebraic patterns.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31I suppose it's a bit controversial to say exactly where
0:32:31 > 0:32:35the balance of credit lies between Ada and Babbage for this program.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37Ultimately, it was Babbage's machine,
0:32:37 > 0:32:41so he must have known how the program worked.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45But what you can't argue with is that this book makes Ada
0:32:45 > 0:32:52the world's first published computer programmer in 1843.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56But, for me, it's not where her real contribution lies.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Her notes show Ada was understanding
0:33:08 > 0:33:13how to unlock the full potential of a computing machine.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20Mathematicians see the world in a very particular way.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23As much as you can appreciate a day like this,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27you also see the mathematical patterns everywhere around you.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Everything from the movement of the sun in the sky
0:33:30 > 0:33:33to the surface tension in the ripples on the water
0:33:33 > 0:33:36and the fractal nature of the trees.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40And Ada, as a mathematician, would have been exactly the same.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42But it's not just in the natural world.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46If she was listening to music, she would have heard the harmonics
0:33:46 > 0:33:49and thought about the mathematical patterns that underpin
0:33:49 > 0:33:51the way that the notes are created.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58She realised because Babbage's machine could manipulate numbers
0:33:58 > 0:34:01and the world is made of numbers,
0:34:01 > 0:34:04the analytical engine could manipulate anything.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Ada had this leap of imagination that saw the machine
0:34:15 > 0:34:18as way beyond just a calculator.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22In her notes she writes, "The engine might compose elaborate
0:34:22 > 0:34:28"and scientific music of any degree of complexity or extent."
0:34:28 > 0:34:34She envisages the analytical engine as way more than Babbage,
0:34:34 > 0:34:39who essentially just saw it as an enormous mechanical number-cruncher.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Where Babbage just saw numbers...
0:34:52 > 0:34:54..she also saw music.
0:35:02 > 0:35:08For her, the analytical engine was a tool to investigate unseen worlds.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13The mathematics that underpin us all.
0:35:15 > 0:35:21She knew it had the potential to change the world.
0:35:25 > 0:35:30She wrote, "A new and powerful language is developed
0:35:30 > 0:35:33"for the future use of analysis."
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Ada had voiced the aspirations and possibilities of computing.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43Babbage was astounded by her vision.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47"The more I read your notes, the more surprised I am
0:35:47 > 0:35:50"and regret not having earlier explored
0:35:50 > 0:35:53"so rich a vein of the noblest metal."
0:35:56 > 0:36:01Babbage wrote a letter to Michael Faraday in which he describes her
0:36:01 > 0:36:05as "that enchantress who's thrown her magical spell
0:36:05 > 0:36:08"over the most abstract of sciences
0:36:08 > 0:36:12"and has grasped it with a force few masculine intellects
0:36:12 > 0:36:15"could have exerted over it."
0:36:15 > 0:36:19To understand how she was able to make this leap of thought,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22it's important to remember the inventiveness of the time
0:36:22 > 0:36:24that she lived in
0:36:24 > 0:36:26and also who her father was.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33Ada had creativity in her blood and was educated in science.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37She understood that the numbers on the engine could be replaced
0:36:37 > 0:36:42with symbols and represent something other than just quantities.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45She was on the brink of a new age of discovery.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51But that's not how it turned out.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53So what went wrong?
0:36:53 > 0:36:57VOICES CLAMOUR
0:36:58 > 0:37:02To really prove the concept of a computerised world,
0:37:02 > 0:37:06money needed to be raised to build the analytical engine,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10but that wasn't going to be easy with Babbage in control.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13He'd already been given a considerable sum
0:37:13 > 0:37:17of government money to build his previous machine
0:37:17 > 0:37:19and yet he delivered no engine,
0:37:19 > 0:37:23nor any change from the £17,000 that they'd given him,
0:37:23 > 0:37:28roughly the cost of two Royal Navy warships at the time.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32VOICES CLAMOUR
0:37:32 > 0:37:34There was much disquiet in parliament
0:37:34 > 0:37:37over the apparent waste of government money.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45None of this was helped by Babbage's irascible personality.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49He could be a really difficult man and was constantly getting
0:37:49 > 0:37:52into arguments with politicians over money.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56After one particularly ferocious row with the Prime Minister at the time,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00Robert Peel, Peel made his thoughts known in a letter.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05"What shall we do to get rid of Mr Babbage and his calculating machine?
0:38:05 > 0:38:09"It would be worthless as far as science is concerned."
0:38:09 > 0:38:11With Babbage at the helm,
0:38:11 > 0:38:15it looked like the analytical engine was dead in the water.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19VOICES CLAMOUR
0:38:21 > 0:38:24And then up stepped Lady Lovelace.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27BELLS CHIME
0:38:38 > 0:38:42Ada had a plan to get the analytical engine funded.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47She knew that she was famous, eloquent,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51frighteningly bright and the only person in the world
0:38:51 > 0:38:55that had recognised the full potential of the engine,
0:38:55 > 0:38:57not just for science but for the Empire.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04Her proposal to Babbage was going to be a sensitive subject.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08In a letter dated 14th August, 1843,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11after a few platitudes, she broached it.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16"I must now come to a practical question in respecting the future.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19"Would there be any chance of you allowing myself
0:39:19 > 0:39:21"to conduct the business for you,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24"your own undivided energies being devoted to
0:39:24 > 0:39:26"the execution of the work?"
0:39:26 > 0:39:30Basically, you stick to building the thing
0:39:30 > 0:39:33because you're a liability when it comes to getting it made.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36"You will wonder over this last query,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39"but I strongly advise you not to reject it."
0:39:44 > 0:39:48Her somewhat presumptuous tone reflects the passion
0:39:48 > 0:39:49she felt for the engine.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54Writing her notes had revealed the possibilities
0:39:54 > 0:39:57of a wondrous future,
0:39:57 > 0:39:59one she was desperate to bring to life.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07But it appears that Ada had crossed a line with Babbage.
0:40:07 > 0:40:13He refused all of her conditions and any relinquishment of control.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15He said no.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26It's not clear why her friend and mentor turned his back on her.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29But I suspect she understood.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34She'd chosen to make her name in science...
0:40:35 > 0:40:37..traditionally an all-male domain.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Even her tutor, Augustus De Morgan,
0:40:42 > 0:40:46impressed as he was by Ada's ability, thought that she would
0:40:46 > 0:40:50fatigue herself with a struggle of mind and body.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16It's likely that Babbage assumed that if he couldn't raise the money,
0:41:16 > 0:41:18then Lovelace certainly couldn't.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25Women in Victorian society were not seen as equals.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33With her scientific ambitions in jeopardy,
0:41:33 > 0:41:36she came here and started gambling.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45It raises the intriguing possibility that she was trying to raise money
0:41:45 > 0:41:47for her beloved analytical engine.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54I don't think that Ada had gone completely bonkers just yet anyway.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57Instead, she was thinking about the gambling
0:41:57 > 0:42:01from a mathematical perspective in the way that she always did.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Now, if you look at gambling mathematically,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06suddenly you don't really care about the reality of the situation,
0:42:06 > 0:42:10the noise of the hooves or the emotion of placing a bet itself.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13Instead, it's as though you're just thinking about numbers
0:42:13 > 0:42:17on a page in a kind of dispassionate way, almost.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20- TANNOY:- So, nine runners.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24And the latest betting, Secret Missile gets 4/1.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28Logic over emotion.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31Exactly how Ada had been trained.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38She knew even the smallest miscalculations
0:42:38 > 0:42:41by the bookmakers could be exploited.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51She was gambling that her maths was better than theirs.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01Biographer Ben Woolley has researched
0:43:01 > 0:43:04this particularly shady part of Lovelace's life.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09- What are your odds?- 8/11.- 8/11. - Yeah.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12So that means if you put, well,
0:43:12 > 0:43:16if you put a fiver on, you're going to be getting...
0:43:16 > 0:43:18£8.64.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23- Christophermarlowe, Christophermarlowe, I think.- Hello.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Can I have a fiver...? Ooh, no, fiver on Christophermarlowe.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28£5 win, number one, Christophermarlowe.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31There's your ticket, darling. Thank you very much.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35What does he even look like?
0:43:35 > 0:43:37This is exactly what you shouldn't do
0:43:37 > 0:43:40if you're a mathematician, is just pick a horse based on its name.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42Yeah, I know. Well, that's the element of risk.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44Well, it's good fun anyway.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58So, why was she gambling in the first place?
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Why did she become so attracted to the horse races at all?
0:44:01 > 0:44:04Well, one speculation, one possibility is the reason
0:44:04 > 0:44:07that she got into gambling in this big way was because
0:44:07 > 0:44:10she wanted to raise the money for the analytical engine.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14Since Babbage had come up with this amazing machine,
0:44:14 > 0:44:16this sort of precursor of the modern computer,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19this mechanical computer, and she'd written these notes about it,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22she'd become very personally involved in the whole thing
0:44:22 > 0:44:26and perhaps she saw this as an opportunity of raising
0:44:26 > 0:44:29the enormous amount of money needed to, you know, bring it in
0:44:29 > 0:44:32to fruition, to actually build the thing.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46Was she doing this gambling alone?
0:44:46 > 0:44:49Er, no, she had a little coterie of men surrounding her
0:44:49 > 0:44:52which effectively acted as a gambling syndicate.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55People like, erm... Well, there was a chap named Nightingale,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58almost certainly Florence Nightingale's father.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01Although it's all fairly secretive, the names,
0:45:01 > 0:45:03it's not entirely clear who they are.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06There's another one called John Crosse.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Is that the one who became her lover?
0:45:08 > 0:45:10Yes, John Crosse was the son of Andrew Crosse,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13who was this famous electrical scientist,
0:45:13 > 0:45:18some speculate inspiring the figure of Frankenstein.
0:45:18 > 0:45:19They provided the money
0:45:19 > 0:45:22because she didn't have access to the money herself.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24But she was quite a wealthy woman, though, wasn't she?
0:45:24 > 0:45:26She wasn't a wealthy woman in the sense
0:45:26 > 0:45:28that she didn't have control over her own money.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32Her mother had arranged that she didn't get her hands
0:45:32 > 0:45:34basically on the family fortune.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38The success of the analytical engine might have been resting
0:45:38 > 0:45:40on the results of these horse races.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45- Go on, Christophermarlowe! - He's so chilled out.
0:45:50 > 0:45:51Yes!
0:45:51 > 0:45:56- You can have my £8.64.- £8.64.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Made a profit of £3.64.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01That was a risk worth taking.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15OK, go and pick up the winnings. The vast winnings.
0:46:15 > 0:46:17All £3.64 of it.
0:46:20 > 0:46:22Can I have my winnings, please?
0:46:22 > 0:46:25- Five...- Thank you.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28- It's the big bucks. - It's the big bucks. What a win.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31There's a bonus there, look, because I haven't got any silver.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33- Aw, you're too kind to me. - Well done. Thank you very much.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35Thank you very much. We got a bit lucky there.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38- Yeah, we've even got some extra. - £9.
0:46:38 > 0:46:39But how did Ada do?
0:46:39 > 0:46:41Ada did very badly indeed.
0:46:41 > 0:46:47She had this series of bets that she put on in the spring season of 1851
0:46:47 > 0:46:51right here on that turf and it went very, very wrong.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54It resulted in her owing £3,200.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Which in the 1850s is a lot of money, isn't it?
0:46:57 > 0:46:58Yeah, a lot of money.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00It's probably around half a million pounds.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03Especially to someone who only had pocket money, really, to go on.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Yeah, she ended up owing thousands of pounds
0:47:06 > 0:47:09to some pretty dodgy characters, some of whom were, you know,
0:47:09 > 0:47:13trying to extort money out of her by suggesting that they were
0:47:13 > 0:47:16revealing what she'd done with her gambling and so on,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19who had to be paid off. It got very sticky for her by that stage,
0:47:19 > 0:47:23but she seemed to raise some of her own contributions to this
0:47:23 > 0:47:26by pawning the family's jewels for up to 800 quid.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30So then, do you think that Ada had just lost the system?
0:47:30 > 0:47:33Do you think that she'd allowed herself to be carried away
0:47:33 > 0:47:36- with the emotion of the event? - Well, I think, yes,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39it was that sort of perilous combination of mathematics
0:47:39 > 0:47:42and recklessness, of risk and maths,
0:47:42 > 0:47:45the hope that she could use sort of the rational methods
0:47:45 > 0:47:48that she'd learned through her mathematics
0:47:48 > 0:47:53in this kind of risky environment and it came off very badly for her.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01Ada's syndicate had trusted in her mathematical prowess
0:48:01 > 0:48:02but they hadn't counted on
0:48:02 > 0:48:06the emergence of an old Byron family vice...
0:48:07 > 0:48:10..a love of taking risks.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22Her demise was swift.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25She'd worked hard all her life,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27a woman in a man's world.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31Now, just ten years after writing her manifesto
0:48:31 > 0:48:36for a computer revolution, her dream was slipping away.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49"My kingdom is not to be a temporal one, thank heavens!
0:48:49 > 0:48:52"Labour is its own reward.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56"And it is perhaps well for the world that my line and ambition
0:48:56 > 0:48:58"is over the spiritual
0:48:58 > 0:49:02"and not that I've taken it into my head or lived in times
0:49:02 > 0:49:06"and circumstances calculated to put it into my head
0:49:06 > 0:49:09"to deal with the sword, poison and intrigue
0:49:09 > 0:49:11"in the place of X, Y and Z.
0:49:13 > 0:49:18"That brain of mine is something more than mortal, as time will show.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20"The devil's in it if I've not sucked out
0:49:20 > 0:49:23"some of the lifeblood from the mysteries of this universe.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27"No-one knows what almost awful energy lies yet undeveloped
0:49:27 > 0:49:30"in that wiry little system of mine.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34"I say awful because you can imagine what it might be
0:49:34 > 0:49:37"under different circumstances.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40"Your fairy forever, AAL."
0:49:45 > 0:49:50Ada remained supremely confident of her ability.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54However, the one thing Lady Lovelace lacked was time.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05In 1852, Ada fell gravely ill.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11She took to her bed in this very room.
0:50:14 > 0:50:19As she lay dying, painfully and slowly,
0:50:19 > 0:50:23from what we now know was almost certainly a cancer of the womb,
0:50:23 > 0:50:27she confessed to her mother about her gambling debts.
0:50:27 > 0:50:33Now, when she finally did die, Ada was just 36 years old,
0:50:33 > 0:50:37exactly the same age her father had been at his death.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47Her life had been full of regret.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Her determination to rise from the shadows of her father
0:50:51 > 0:50:53had seemingly come to little.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59Her extraordinary manifesto was largely forgotten.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03Even Babbage rarely talked about it.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06History was shutting her out.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14There's one final twist in Ada's story
0:51:14 > 0:51:16which I think is particularly telling,
0:51:16 > 0:51:19her last wish before she died.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30Against her mother's will, she insisted on being taken
0:51:30 > 0:51:32miles away from her home.
0:51:41 > 0:51:46Her wish was to be buried in this tomb alongside the man
0:51:46 > 0:51:50she hadn't seen since she was a baby, her father, Lord Byron.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54Cheating husband, poetical genius
0:51:54 > 0:51:57and supporter of the Luddites.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Now, no-one really knows why she made this decision.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03Perhaps she was trying to exert some control in death
0:52:03 > 0:52:05that she lacked in life.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09Perhaps it was a final attempt at a lasting legacy.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14But to my mind at least, Ada, the daughter of art and science,
0:52:14 > 0:52:18who struggled so much with the coldness of her mother in life,
0:52:18 > 0:52:21longed for the warmth of her father.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28"Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child
0:52:28 > 0:52:31"Ada! Sole daughter of my house and heart?
0:52:31 > 0:52:36"When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled
0:52:36 > 0:52:40"And then we parted - not as now we part
0:52:40 > 0:52:42"But with a hope."
0:52:44 > 0:52:50Her coffin, adorned with a crown, was laid beside Lord Byron.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55Ada Lovelace returned to the shadow of her more famous father,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58her contribution to science buried.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10It took over a century for her genius to be resurrected.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15It was the height of World War II,
0:53:15 > 0:53:17a time of national peril.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22Here at Bletchley Park, amidst great secrecy,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25a team of scientists were experimenting
0:53:25 > 0:53:27with thinking machines.
0:53:31 > 0:53:37One key pioneer took a keen interest in Ada's ideas of computer science -
0:53:37 > 0:53:40Alan Turing, the brains behind this machine.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43Now, it had taken over a century,
0:53:43 > 0:53:47but this was finally an example of mechanised thought in action.
0:53:49 > 0:53:54Turing was fascinated by how a machine could be made to understand
0:53:54 > 0:53:57and act upon instructions,
0:53:57 > 0:54:01just as Ada had been 100 years earlier.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03MECHANICAL WHIRRING
0:54:07 > 0:54:09He designed this particular machine,
0:54:09 > 0:54:11codenamed the Bombe,
0:54:11 > 0:54:14and instructed it to run through combinations
0:54:14 > 0:54:16and look for patterns in data.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22It would prove vital in cracking encrypted messages
0:54:22 > 0:54:24of Hitler's armed forces.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Turing had had the same idea as Ada,
0:54:32 > 0:54:37the ability to interchange numbers and symbols in a computerised world.
0:54:40 > 0:54:45In many ways, Alan Turing and Ada Lovelace were kindred spirits.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Both saw further than any of their peers
0:54:51 > 0:54:55as to the true versatility of computers.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05Turing did his early work without having seen Ada's notes,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08but he came across them in the 1940s.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Now, that must have been an amazing moment,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17almost like a dialogue between two like-minded people across history.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21Now, Turing wrote about Ada's work and her far-reaching ideas
0:55:21 > 0:55:23and it's thanks to him
0:55:23 > 0:55:27that she's become known as a pioneer of computers.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38So how should we remember Lady Ada Lovelace?
0:55:41 > 0:55:43This was somebody with enormous talent,
0:55:43 > 0:55:45in an extraordinary environment,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48hugely privileged, with a background that made her
0:55:48 > 0:55:50a celebrity from birth, struggling for balance.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54How could she make meaning of her life? And the meaning she sought
0:55:54 > 0:55:57was to be a savant, to be somebody who could interpret the world.
0:55:57 > 0:55:58And I suppose in that sense
0:55:58 > 0:56:02- her accomplishments are undeniable, right?- Yes, yes.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05She wrote about the engine, what it signified
0:56:05 > 0:56:07and what it meant in ways that Babbage never did.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09In all of his 11 volumes of published writings,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12nowhere does he write about the aspirations
0:56:12 > 0:56:15and potential of computing in the way that Lovelace does.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17And this is not a suggestive hint,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20this isn't a backwards projection from our own age
0:56:20 > 0:56:22onto the blank canvas of the past,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25this is Lovelace thumping the table, saying,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28"This is what is significant about this machine."
0:56:31 > 0:56:36The modern world now teems with computers. They're everywhere,
0:56:36 > 0:56:39often hidden as miniaturised microchips.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44If we don't take them totally for granted,
0:56:44 > 0:56:47we certainly aren't surprised that they can do so much more
0:56:47 > 0:56:49than simple number-crunching.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55Ada had seen this, the extraordinary flexibility of computers,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57nearly 200 years ago.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01It would have been quite something,
0:57:01 > 0:57:07a Victorian information age with hardware driven by steam
0:57:07 > 0:57:12and software with the power to unpick the fabric of reality,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14dreamt up by Ada Lovelace.