In 1837 she was pleased to receive Babbage’s book, The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, published by John Murray, who also published her father’s poetry. The treatise explored the connection between science and religion. Babbage had expressed some of these ideas to Ada in 1833 and 1834, and Ada questioned some of his views.
To Mary Somerville
22 June [1837]
Ashley Combe
I am longing to see Mr B [Babbage]’s book. . . I have gathered it is a pity it was written in much haste & is so fragmentary and underdevelopped in its’ character. It seems to resemble one of the curious (multum in parvo) algebraical expressions of which you know infinitely more than I do, which under a few simple symbols involve & indicate to the initiated quantities endless in their complication & variety of mutual relations. But what a pity that such a mind has not in some degree filled up the crude outlines, for the benefit of those who could not! – I fear the work will be underrated, and the circumstances you mention of the extreme haste fully accounts for this, though it in fact enhances its merit & indicates the more what might be. – However, I am criticizing what I have not read. I think when I have read it, after our return to Surrey . . . I shall probably give my opinion about it to Mr B himself.
Would this be presumptuous do you think?
I am doing a little here at a very snail’s pace, in Mathematics. I should be devoting some hours to it now, but that I am at present a condemned slave to my harp, no easy Task master either. I sent it down here, determining during our stay to devote as many hours as I had strength for, to practise every day, & to make great progress. I play 4 or 5 hours generally, & never less than 3. I am not tired at the end of it, & from habit the position is quite natural to me & perfectly agrees with the young master. In fact I think the exercise rather beneficial. . . My love to the two M’s.
Yours ever affectionately
A.A. King.
All of these activities and interests marked the beginning of an era. In 1837 Princess Victoria became Queen, and Ada wondered what her reign would be like. William became the archetype of the perfect Victorian: doing his duty, outwardly unemotional, industrious, a conscientious landlord taking a patriarchal interest in his tenants. He was parsimonious, except when it came to building, which was his passion. He was constantly enlarging his estates and would later become even more ambitious architecturally.
Ada’s letter of 21 July might be of special interest to readers of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time since it discusses the controversy between Flamsteed and Newton. Newton wanted data Flamsteed collected and was going to have it printed, attributing it to Edmond Halley. Flamsteed went to court and got an injunction to stop Newton from using his data. In this letter Ada mentioned Sir David Brewster, a Scottish scientist who was reviewing the correspondence. He was a pioneer in the field of optics, a science writer, and the developer of the kaleidoscope. Ada speculated about Newton’s religious belief, and whether or not he believed in “Trinity.”
After the birth of Annabella (named after her grandmother) on 22 September 1837, Ada developed cholera. According to a report at the time, it was very unusual for a member of the aristocracy to contract cholera, which was rampant in London that year because of unpurified drinking water from the Thames. Ada experimented with various cures and as a result became very thin, much to Lady Byron’s dislike and William’s delight. He detested anyone who was fat.
Lady Byron was a faithful believer in the latest rage, Mesmerism. Ada questioned that belief and whether or not it could be considered scientific. She replicated an experiment her mother had performed: the mystery of the oscillating shilling.
Her duties as a wife continued to occupy her time. William set up an agricultural school similar to the one Lady Byron had established at Ealing, and Ada designed the curriculum. She suggested various people who could help: Frederick Knight, a Somerset neighbor and publisher; Sophia De Morgan, Dr Frend’s daughter; and Harriet Martineau, a popular writer at the time. Ada suggested using Cobbett or his work. Cobbett was a radical, and his paper Rural Rides chronicled the daily life of ordinary people.
Still ill in 1838, she went to London to get the house at St James’ Square in order. While she was there, she was criticized for not “going out into society” and performing the social commitments of an English “lady.” Ada voiced her own views on the matter. She also expressed her own views on interior decoration, which was William’s expertise, and they started to argue. Just at this time they received important news.
Queen Victoria
In June 1838 Victoria became Queen and William was made the Earl of Lovelace. Ada became a countess. As much as Ada wanted to keep out of the social whirl, she could not. She left vivid accounts of that exciting period: dressing for the many balls, meeting Queen Victoria, attending concerts, and seeing the opera Norma, by Bellini, performed with Giulia Grisi playing the part of the high priestess (Ada later uses this term, high priestess, to describe her relationship to Babbage’s plans for the Analytical Engine). She also went to see exhibitions of the latest developments in technology such as Charles Wheatstone’s telegraph, and most likely attended Michael Faraday’s (the discoverer of electric magnetism) popular lectures at the Royal Institution.
Ada’s portrait by Châlon
Byron’s portrait by Phillips
Ada’s portrait by Châlon, on the cover of this book, and above was done at this time; no doubt sittings occurred amidst a hectic schedule, discussing the latest findings of Andrew Combe, a famous phrenologist (who was quite the rage at the time), as well as helping William with his school and participating in a very active London social life. Ada spent time reading Babbage’s book, the second edition of The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise.
Once the social season of 1838 was over, Ada settled down into domesticity and became pregnant once again. William’s sisters, Hester and Charlotte, went off to Holland for a vacation, and Mrs Somerville moved to Italy. Lady Byron, now living at Acton, took the children for short periods of time; however, Ada and her mother had different views about how to discipline children. Given the strains of motherhood, Ada wondered about the intellectual contributions that women could make to the history of civilization.
To Charles Babbage
2 March [1838]
Ockham
Dear Mr Babbage. I have just received amongst a number of packages from Town, the new edition of your work which you have so kindly sent me; & I will not delay another day thanking you for it, as I am much gratified by the kind recollection it shows.–
You may possibly have heard of the very tedious & suffering illness which has occupied so many months, since a Miss King has been added to our family. Though I am now to all appearance perfectly well again, & am in fact most wonderfully improved, yet I am still far from being really strong. – But for these untoward circumstances, Lord King or I myself should probably have written to you long ago, & have strongly urged a visit or visits to Ockham. –
With Lord K’s very kind remembrances, & hoping soon to renew my acquaintance with you. Believe me,
Yours sincerely
Augusta Ada King
In July Ada took part in many of the festivities honoring Queen Victoria. She went to a ball and was so shy that William had to prompt her to “go up to the Queen.” The queen graciously put out her hand, and Ada thought it was a very good-natured thing to do. From this time forward she signed her correspondence A.A.Lovelace.
The following letter was one of the most difficult to transcribe: the ink was muddy, the paper was thin, and Ada cross–hatched a good deal of the letter. It took me a week to transcribe it. It is James Gleick’s, Bruce Sterling’s and my favorite letter. It was written to her mother trying to show that she was adjusting well to her new role as countess.
Ada’s selection of a corn headdress had political significance since the Corn Laws were being discussed in Parliament. According to the Times, Ada attended a performance of Lucia at the Majesty Theater, with an all-s
tar cast. Lucia was sung by Madame Persiani, who had sung the premier performance in London on 5 April 1838. The first act of Norma was performed with Madame Giulia Grisi as Norma. Despite all this activity, Ada still had energy to visit the exhibit of Wheatstone’s electric telegraph, and that turned out to be an unusual event.
The last letter in this series was written about the time that Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist was being serialized in the newspapers. Charterhouse was one of the “public schools” that was the basis of this satirization.
To Lady Byron
Thursday Evening [26 July 1838]
St James’ Square
Dearest Mama. This is the night of the ball, where I am to appear as a pale yellow avis, of the maize tint, decorated with a silver fringe, & corn flowers (I am sure you know not what that means) mixed with silver corn. The attempt above at a diagram may give you an idea of the style of hair I think I mentioned to you, brought down plain even with the chin, & a wreath round the head with a little branch from it coming down on each side over the front hair. In the back hair there are to be marabou feathers mixed with silver corn. The wreath is of corn flowers and silver corn. . .
30th July Monday . . . The ball did very well on the whole. I was discomposed a little on observing that many persons looked at me, & then spoke to their companions, who upon that also looked. I did not notice that there was any peculiar expression of ridicule on their faces, otherwise I was inclined to calculate that there must be some very remarkable deformity to account for this since I really could not suppose that people (many of whom I am sure did not know who I was), should notice me one way or another when there were so many real beauties, Lady Seymour & others, to look at. –
On Satdy evg we went to the Opera, & were extremely pleased. We took two stalls which we found very tolerably comfortable & excellent for seeing & hearing. We had the whole of Lucia di Lammermoor, a beautiful new opera by Donizetti & in which the Persiani was the heroine Lucia. The first act of Bellini’s Norma & Grisi was Norma & a most stately and magnificent high priestess does she make. We did not stay for the Ballet. . .
Last week I went to see a model of the Electrical Telegraph at Exeter Hall. It was one morning & the only other person was a middle-aged gentleman who chose to behave as if I were the show which of course I thought was the most impudent & unpardonable. – I am sure he took me for a very young (& I suppose he thought rather handsome) governess, as the room being one of the inner halls he could not know I came in a carriage, & being in the morning my dress happened to be very plain though nice. I took care not to appear the least curious of his impetuousness, but at the same time to behave so that it should be impossible for him to speak or take any real liberty. He seemed to have been there some time, but he stopped as long as I did, & then followed me out. – I took care to look as aristocratic & as like a Countess as possible. Lady Athleton is an admirable model on such an occasion. I am not in the habit of meeting with such impertinence anywhere, though I have of late been about a good deal alone, so I think he must be a very blackguard kind of man. W – thought he certainly supposed me unmarried & I must try & add a little age to my appearance, – but I think I get younger looking every month of my life. I was pleased with the Telegraph so I did not care for the impertinence of the other spectator. . .
I have been also to the Coliseum & to the Exhibition & to the Surrey Zoological Garden. I wish I had to make my stay in town over again, with my present strength which is sufficient. I would go & see something everyday & I am sure London would never be exhausted.
Tomorrow we go to Ockham. I shall be delighted to have Byron again. He cut his thumb when W [William] was last there with a razor. I hope after this lesson he will never touch anything sharp again. Annabella stands very well alone & I believe walks alone a little. How forward! B goes & knocks her down like a minniken when she stands up. –
Wheatstone Telegraph
Ada went off to Cambridge and was joined by a group of men friends, Frederick Knight and Reverend Gamlen. They prompted Ada to consider her destiny, a subject Ada spent much time thinking about. She wrote: “Surely to sow a single seed of truth in the mind of another is the noblest of deeds. We may never know its’ results here, but how inestimable they may be! This is my idea of the real use & object of all graces & all accomplishments in woman.”
She continued if “perfection & grace in musical performance, – the harp for example, – were the only good & delightful results . . . I should have little interest in working so hard at my harp as I do…the power of expressing oneself with force, clearness, & persuasion, is to be desired.” She concluded that even though she had great admiration and fondness for Babbage, at this time she thought Mr Gamlen far superior.
Poetical Science
Ada was interested in music throughout her life. In the next few chapters Ada’s interest in music soars. It is this interest that enabled her to visualize the connection between music and technology when she wrote her description of Babbage’s Analytical Engine.
Today this inspired César Alvarez’s musical Futurity where he uses Ada as a character to explain the connection between technology and imagination. The musical premiered in New York in May 2009 to sell-out crowds. Check out the web site http://futuritythemusical.com/about.html for more information. I saw the production, loved it, and also loved the visual.
8
A Peculiar Way of Learning, Immeasurable Vista, Solitaire, The Great Unknown
[1839-1841]
When Ada was not quite twenty-four years old, after four years of marriage and only four months after the birth of her third child, Ralph, she decided to return to the study of mathematics. She turned to her old friend Charles Babbage for help in finding a mathematics tutor, whom she dubbed “the great Unknown.” Ada described her way of learning as “peculiar.”
Even before she found a proper teacher, she suggested that the language of mathematics might be extended to games. This idea was not surprising since Ada and Babbage delighted in all sorts of mathematical games, from backgammon to chess. She started a process for writing a winning strategy for a game in mathematical terms that predates Boole’s first published work in 1847, a pamphlet entitled The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, which, with his other works, is the foundation of our ability to program games on our modern computers.
Ada’s mother, William, and certain ladies continued their criticism of Ada’s performance of her social duties, but Ada stood by her own views. As for her relationship with Charles Babbage, it was certainly not based on social obligation. We have very few letters from Ada to Babbage before this time, but from this period on, Ada’s letters to him are a marvelous mixture of determination and teasing. The reason I love these letters so much is that they are delightful and show how that relationship inspired Ada. It brought out the best in her including her power to stand up for her own point of view. So many of the letters contain wonderful banter.
She mentions Babbage’s friend, Fortunato Prandi, a radical Italian politician living in England. Ada refers to the Eglintoun Tournament, a fascinating event that occurred in 1839. The Earl of Eglintoun held a tournament at Eglintoun Castle that was carried out in ancient and grand style. All the participants dressed as knights. Lady Seymour, later the Duchess of Somerset, and a friend of Babbage’s, was selected the Queen of Beauty. The cost of the occasion, which was not expected to exceed £2000, amounted to £40,000. It rained, and the event turned out to be a wet and messy disaster.
To Charles Babbage
[November 1839]
[Dear Mr. Babbage] [I have] quite made up my mind to have some instruction next year in Town, but the difficulty is to find the man. I have a peculiar way of learning, & I think it must be a peculiar man to teach me successfully. –
Do not reckon me conceited, for I am sure I am the very last person to think over-highly of myself; but I believe I have the power of going just as far as I like in such pursuits, & where there is so very decided a taste, I should almost sa
y a passion, as I have for them, I question if there is not always some portion of natural genius even. – At any rate the taste is such that it must be gratified. – I mention all this to you because I think you are or may be in the way of meeting with the right sort of person, & I am sure you have at any rate the will to give me any assistance in your power. –
Lord L [Lovelace] desires all sorts of reminiscences, & that I am to take care & remind you about coming to Ockham. –
Yours most sincerely
Augusta Ada Lovelace
Solitaire board, England, 1833
To Charles Babbage
16 February 1840
My Dear Mr Babbage. Have you ever seen a game, or rather puzzle, called Solitaire? – There is an Octagonal Board, like the enclosed drawing, with 37 little holes upon it in the position I have drawn them, & 37 little pegs to fill the little holes. One peg is abstracted to begin with, and then the remaining ones hop over & take each other. For instance if peg No 19, the center one is taken out to begin, then peg 6 may hop over peg 12 into the empty hole 19, & peg 12 is taken off the board; or, peg 21 might hop over peg 20 into 19, & then peg 20 goes off the board. The pegs are only allowed to hop over each other at right angles, not diagonally. – The puzzle is to leave only one on the board. People may try thousands of times, and not succeed in this, leaving three, four, five, or many more even which have no neighbours to give them a lift off the board. I have done it by trying & observation & can now do it at any time, but I want to know if the problem admits of being put into a mathematical Formula, & solved in this manner. I am convinced myself that it does, though I cannot do it. There must be a definite principle, a compound I imagine of numerical & geometrical properties, on which the solution depends, & which can be put into symbolic language. – I believe that much depends, to begin with, on the particular peg first abstracted, & am inclined to think there is but one which will admit of subsequent success. – I will not name which – I believe these boards are to be had at every toy-shop. –
Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers:Poetical Science Page 6