Collaborators
T.V. PADMA
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Ada's involvement in the analytical engine was vital and inventive.
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Ada married William, Count Lovelace, in 1835. The Lovelaces were friends of the Babbage family, and Ada worked with Charles on his Analytical Engine.
Recent research shows clearly, that Ada's involvement was not only vital, but incredibly inventive. She had a level of foresight that Charles did not.
Ada set to work translating an article about the engine that had been written by an Italian scientist. Encouraged by Charles in this endeavour, she didn't merely translate the work; she ended up adding twice as much original information. After Ada completed the project, she was in a quandary. Should she publish under her name? At the time, women of her station did not consider writing scientific papers a very noble occupation. She finally decided to sign her work using her initials.
Disastrous project
Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace then began a second collaboration. Unfortunately, this one was destructive. Together, Charles and Ada devised a plan that they thought was infallible: a theory that took into account probability, and one that they could apply, they thought, to betting on horses. Charles had run into financial difficulties because his projects were so expensive and he hoped that gambling using this approach would allow him to recover his losses.
The project was a disaster. Ada grew addicted to it. She fell into such deep debt that she was forced to pawn her jewels. Ada's health began to decline. After months of suffering, at the age of 36, Ada died. She asked to be buried in the Byron family vault. Centuries after her death, a computer language was named Ada, in her honour.
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