ADA LOVELACE AND THE START OF COMPUTERS

A look at a historical figure who grasped the myriad possibilities of coding and algorithms two centuries ago.

Ada Lovelace is an appealing and intriguing subject: astonishingly bright, with an unabashed love of learning. Her determined, mathematically gifted mother ensured that Lovelace had access to education in the hope that Ada wouldn’t follow in the irresponsible footsteps of her absent father, Lord Byron. But it also meant that Ada was given the tools to both ground and support her imagination. The narrative is carried entirely by the dialogue and visual depictions of Ada’s experiences, and it packs in a great deal of information at an engaging pace. Bayarri’s clear, rounded illustration style and orderly frames have a friendly, welcoming feel, conveying a sense of Lovelace’s cultural and temporal context—women and men in period dress, travel by carriage, pastoral surroundings. Ada is privileged to be taken seriously and is included in gatherings with notable minds like Mary Somerville, Charles Lyell, and Lovelace’s mentor and eventual colleague Charles Babbage. Lovelace could see the way that math could help design hundreds of things: “The great phenomena of the natural world are expressed through mathematics.” Bayarri convincingly demonstrates that Lovelace’s lively creativity allowed her remarkable gift for numbers to truly flourish. The only disappointment is the paucity of the “further resources” list. Still, this is a fine introduction to Lovelace and her work.

Inspiring and informative.