Ada Lovelace Learning Leaflet: Women in ScienceLynx Open Ed First Computer Programmer History of Science Collections University of Oklahoma Libraries Ada Lovelace, !Notes" to a !Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage, by L.F. Menabrea," in Scientific Memoirs (London, 1843), vol. 3. Exhibit: Galileo’s World | Gallery: Galileo, Engineer | No. 16 lynx-open-ed.org What is the difference between a calculating machine and a computer? Ada Lovelace: First Computer Programmer Charles Babbage designed two kinds of mechanical computational machines: a !difference engine,# or calculating machine; and an !analytical engine,# which was far more. In 1840, Babbage presented his design for the !analytical engine# to a group of mathematical engineers in Turin, Italy. One of them, Luigi Menabrea, who would later become Prime Minister of Italy, published an account of Babbage$s design in Geneva. With Babbage$s encouragement, the daughter of Lord Byron, Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, translated Menabrea$s article into English and added her own substantive commentary. Lovelace$s notes went considerably beyond what Babbage and Menabrea had written. Her lengthy appended notes amount to 40 pages of very dense text compared with only 24 pages, lightly spaced, for Menabrea$s article. Lovelace explained how Babbage$s !analytical engine,# if constructed, would amount to a programmable computer rather than merely a calculator. It would take input from punch cards, and store variables for use in diverse sequential operations. These 19th century mechanical operations are functionally equivalent to the conditional branching, looping, and parallel processing operations of early electronic computers. Although she specified how Babbage$s engine could generate a Bernoulli series of numbers, Lovelace argued for the wider potential of the engine to produce analytical results beyond the realm of mathematics. Kerry Magruder and Brent Purkaple lynx-open-ed.org @lynx_open_ed #galileosworld @ouhoscollection