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<div><b>THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>My father was Lord Byron, the famous poet. I never knew him - he left me and my mother when I was a baby.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Mother wanted me to have a sound education. She insisted a girl should study and believe that she can achieve. She was not in favour of imagination or <b>flights of fancy</b>.</div><div><br></div><div>At that time, there was no public education system in England and most children did not go to school, especially girls. Girls were expected to marry and have children.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>When I was 12, I had the idea that I could fly like birds in the sky. I labelled my idea ‘flyology’ and focused on how to create wings of different sizes. You could say that I thought ‘outside of the box’.</div><div><br></div><div><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2Fceb21076c2964bce8e385b12cd8a4504" alt="" style="width: 25%;"><br><br></div><div>I caught measles at age 13 and as a result lost the ability to walk properly. Whilst I recovered in bed, I kept my studies up so that I wouldn’t get bored. I studied maths, music and languages.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><b>LIFE-CHANGING INTRODUCTIONS</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>Mother always searched for the best tutors. Mary Somerville was one of the first women to be elected to the Royal <b>Astronomical</b> Society. We developed a strong friendship, and she introduced me to new ways of looking at the stars. Through her, I met my future husband, William Lord King.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>William and I got married in 1835, and three years later he was awarded the title of Earl of Lovelace. I became Countess of Lovelace. Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale and Michael Faraday were good friends and regular visitors to our home.</div><div><br></div><div>My tutor Mary also introduced me to the scientist Charles Babbage, and we became lifelong friends. We also worked together. Babbage had begun working on a new invention - an <b>Analytical</b> Engine. This engine could add, subtract, multiply and divide. There had never been anything like it.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2F6b35a4adf0b9444b9a8c6811a631e1cb" alt="" style="width: 411px; height: 321.559px;"><br><br></div><div>Babbage’s invention began to interest scientists everywhere. An invitation to talk about the engine came from The University of Turin, Italy, in 1840.</div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>WORLD-CHANGING WORK</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>In 1842, I read a paper in French from an engineer who had heard Babbage’s talk about the Analytical Engine. I translated it and added lots of my own thoughts and ideas to it. I believed Babbage’s machine could achieve so much more than basic calculations. After nine months, I finished my work. The piece was three times longer than the original paper.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2F13f6b5eec9734553b2faacadded275a2" alt="" style="width: 430.617px; height: 301.422px;"><br><br></div><div>Babbage was impressed. He called me the ‘<b>Enchantress</b> of Numbers’.&nbsp; He was right. I loved numbers, calculations and logic. I felt we could make further progress and I wrote to Babbage suggesting we look for funding to build the Analytical Engine. Babbage, however, had other new theories to busy his mind.</div><div><br></div><div>Learning through testing and playing and imagining new ways of doing things is so important. So is not giving up! Persevere, maintain self-discipline, keep a curious mindset, and, most of all, learn from others. It is from friendship and teamwork that amazing achievements can be realised.</div><div><br></div><div><div style="text-align: center; "><b>GLOSSARY</b></div><div><b>Flights of fancy</b> – ideas or stories that are unlikely to be true, real or practical.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><b>Astronomical</b> – having to do with the study of the Universe and everything in it, including planets, stars, galaxies, comets and black holes.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Analytical </b>– having or showing skill in thinking or reasoning.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Enchantress</b> – a woman who casts spells or creates magic.</div><div><br></div><div style="text-align: center; "><b>LEGACY AND RECOGNITION</b></div><div><ul><li>Ada Lovelace began algorithm development back in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, search engines, social media and online platforms, such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, rely on algorithms to send information that is chosen for each user.</li><li>Ada Lovelace’s development of calculating sequences made her the first computer programmer.</li><li>She predicted that a machine would be able to encode music about 150 years before the first MP3 player was introduced.</li><li>Ada Lovelace was called ‘the Enchantress of Numbers’ due to her brilliant intellect and amazing skill in mathematics.</li><li>The US Department of Defense named a programming language after Ada Lovelace in the 1970s, called ADA. It was designed to replace the hundreds of languages used by the department.</li><li>The second Tuesday of October marks ‘Ada Lovelace Day’. It was established in 2009, to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).</li></ul></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><div><b>IMAGE CAPTIONS AND CREDITS</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Ada Byron (aged 17)</i></b>,<b><i>&nbsp;</i></b>Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Babbage’s Analytical Engine</i></b>,<b><i>&nbsp;</i></b>Science Museum London, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>An algorithm for the Analytical Engine</i></b>,<b><i>&nbsp;</i></b>Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons</p></div></div></div>

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