Search

This article presents an encounter of mathematician Ada, Countess of Lovelace with Charles Babbage, David Brewster and Charles Dickens in the 1800s. In February, Ada have gone to Babbage's house to show him her translation of Signor Menabrea's paper on the book, Analytical Engine, where she mentioned ideas about the generation of Bernoulli sequences. From his desk drawer, he produced a cylinder fashioned of brass that is about ten inches in length and two inches in diameter, with a graspable collar. A hole was drilled at one end; the other was covered with several translucent material. It is Sir David Brewster's instrument, and it produces symmetrical patterns when one claps the device to one's eye. In March, Ada had planned to tell Babbage about an extended system of instructing or programming that she had devised for the Analytical Engine.