Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Industrial Age

First algorithm for a calculating machine — Ada Lovelace

1843 AD · Transmission: Disputed

ComputingMethodBritish

Ada Lovelace (Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace; London, 1815 – 1852), mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, translates in 1843 Luigi Federico Menabrea's article on Babbage's Analytical Engine and adds her own notes, which triple the length of the original text. Note G contains an algorithm to calculate Bernoulli numbers using the Analytical Engine: it is the first published algorithm conceived for execution by a machine. Lovelace also describes concepts of instruction reuse (loops) and the possibility that the machine could operate on any symbolically representable object — anticipating universal computation. Exclusive attribution is debated: some historians argue that Babbage contributed substantially to the notes; others (Dorothy Stein, Bruce Collier) question the algorithm's originality.

Historical regionUnited Kingdom (London)

Primary sourceLovelace, A. — "Sketch of the Analytical Engine... with notes by the translator" (Taylor's Scientific Memoirs, vol. 3, 1843, pp. 666-731)

Secondary sourceToole, B.A. — Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers (Strawberry Press, 1992); Hollings, C., Martin, U., Rice, A. — "The Lovelace-De Morgan Mathematical Correspondence" (Historia Mathematica, 2017); Stein, D. — Ada: A Life and a Legacy (MIT Press, 1985); digitized text of the Notes: fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html

Original languageEnglish / French (Menabrea original)

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