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and astronomer. Margaret was a polymath; the Rev William Whewell, another

polymath, reviewing a book she had written, coined a new word to describe her-
“scientist”. Somerville College, Oxford, the first higher education institution for
women, was named after her. She was an inspiring role-model for Ada.

But the turning-point in Ada’s career was meeting Charles Babbage in 1833. She was
17 and a minor celebrity as Byron’s daughter and well educated. She had just been
presented at court by her mother, had curtsied to King William and Queen Adelaide
and seen the Duke of Wellington.

But exciting as this was, Ada was far more excited a month later, to go to a party
attended by eminent scientists. Here, she first met Charles Babbage. He was 42, a
gruff, morose widower, obsessed with maths, and using his considerable inherited
wealth to design and hopefully build his famous Difference Engine. Thus began their
association, which lasted until Ada’s death in 1852. It is recorded in the many letters
they exchanged of which over 100 survive, 85 from her, 25 from him, dating from

1835 to 1852. Many more than this are believed to have been written. The greatest
number relate to 1843, the year when Ada did her most productive work with
Charles, which is possibly why her mother preserved them.

Charles Babbage 1791-1871
The Babbages were a prominent Totnes family (today, Babbage’s computers figure in
the town museum). Charles’ father made a considerable fortune from banking and
trading and transferred the business and the Babbages to London where he

continued to prosper. Charles’ family indulged his interests; he was always
wondering how everything worked, and although his passion was maths, there is a
suggestion that having the freedom to set his own goals made him a bit of a
dilettante. The fortune he inherited meant he never had to work and could continue
follow his own interests. He designed and part-built two proto-computers, the
Difference Engine (the one Ada saw) and the Analytical Engine (the one she helped

him with) and although he loved playing the showman demonstrating them to
appreciative audiences, he never actually built a complete version of either of them.
Nor did he have the pressure of having to turn them into actual money-making
ventures.

Babbage was widowed at 36, was later made a maths professor at Cambridge. and
lectured on astronomy to the Royal Society. He travelled to Europe and it was when
he met engineers with the French Ordinance Survey that he learned of their reliance
on having accurate log tables, calculated to many decimal places, to survey terrain

for the army. Basically, log tables enable you to multiply really big numbers really