Betty Alexandra Toole - Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: Poetical Science

Reviews of Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers

Ada Lovelace: The Worlds First Hacker...

Toole did research for more than eight years, burying herself in British archives and libraries to narrate and edit this extraordinary collection of letters written by Ada Lovelace. Not only do they outline Adas ingenuity for the sciences, but they also enlighten us on all aspects of Lady Lovelaces multidimensional life: her passionate desire to flourish in a mans world, her battle with drug addiction and chronic sickness, and her efforts as a mother and wife. Lovelace also had a reputation as a wild gambler and a lover. What can tell us more truthfully about Ms Lovelaces life than letters from the Lady herself?

Carla Sinclair, Net Chick

Toole lets Ada speak for herself through letters to colleagues, family and friends which bring Ada to life with an intimacy a biography never could.

Alice Polesky, San Francisco Chronicle.

Betty Alexandra Tooles revelatory book gives us the sad, evocative and alltoohuman story of the woman behind the Ada myth.

Bruce Sterling co-author of the Difference Engine, and author of Hacker Crackdown

Beyond stereotypes
Wired

The story of Adas life and of her relationship with Babbage has been sadly distorted, and Dr Toole, who has in my view an unrivaled knowledge of Adas life, here gives us the opportunity to set the record straight. By this Dr Toole helps clarify not only Adas personal life, but also an important early stage of the computer revolution.

Dr Anthony Hyman, author of Charles Babbage, Pioneer of the Computer (Oxford/Princeton)

Excellent and thoughtful
Annals of the History of Computing

Daughter of Lord Byron, companion and partner of Charles Babbage, Ada was one of the most picturesque characters in the history of technology... Adas letters are some of the classic founding documents of cybernetics and computer science, written nearly a century before ENIAC...
Howard Rheingold, author of Virtual Reality and Virtual Communities

Dr Toole has written a brilliant and insightful book that reveals the depth not only of Lovelaces genius but also her personal passions. It is an essential and inspiring book, one that crosses the boundaries of time and gender.

Lynn Hershman Leeson, producer of the virtual reality movie Conceiving Ada

Dr. Betty Toole has dedicated almost a lifetime of effort to elucidating the character and personality of Ada Lovelace, and has brought forth the real evidence, in Adas own words, that tells us who Ada really was. Instead of an enigmatic caricature, we find a real person and a passionate thinker who was truly the visionary who foresaw what was to come, with ideas about future computers, even before the word was coined, that went far beyond the mere calculating machines of her day. Carlos McEvilly, developer of Secret Ada.

THE ENCHANTRESS OF NUMBERS
POETICAL SCIENCE

BY
BETTY ALEXANDRA TOOLE Ed.D.

E-book revised and abridged
Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: Poetical Science
Copyright2010 Betty Alexandra Toole
ISBN 9780615397269

First published 1992
Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers: A Selection from the Letters of Lord Byrons Daughter and Her Description of the First Computer
Copyright 1992 Betty Alexandra Toole, Ed.D.
Copyright1992 Lovelace-Byron Collection

Paperback edition, revised and abridged
Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers: Prophet of the Computer
Copyright1998 Betty Alexandra Toole, Ed.D.
Copyright1998 Lovelace-Byron Collection

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners. Quotations must cite this book, and if for purposes other than review or journal articles, permission must be received from the copyright owner in writing. Part of the proceeds of this book will go to the University of California at Berkeley and Expanding Your Horizons.

For information about foreign and other rights, contact publisher.

Published by Critical Connection
P.O. Box 452
Sausalito, CA 94966
http://www.well.com/user/adatoole

Cover designed by Jeffrey Burnham
Book designed by Jeffrey Burnham

Cover: Portrait of Augusta Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, by A. E. Chaln, circa 1838, courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, and image source from Matthias Kulka/Corbis Images.

To Jordan, Rachel, Alec and Jeni

To Judy Rodich, my excellent editor, who once again provided superb support. Jeff Burnham deserves credit for the cover, book design, and patience. I am thankful to my two readers, Barbara Morris, a calculus teacher par excellence, and Diane Toole, who provided great suggestions. Of course all mistakes are my responsibility.

Appendix I and the list of illustrations cite specific acknowledgments for the material in this book. The Earl of Lytton, Somerville College, the University of Oxford and the British Library deserve special appreciation for the use of the material. Colin Harris of the Bodleian Library, at the University of Oxford, has been a major support through all three editions of Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers.

I also thank my family, friends and neighbors who have put up with my detestably persevering passion for the story of Ada Lovelace. Computers and computer software change at such a rapid rate, but I hope her humanity will be the light that endures.

Adas Parents, Their Family and Friends

Her mothers family, the Noels and the Milbankes. Her mothers aunt, Lady Melbourne, and first-cousin, Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister. Her mothers spinster friends, the Three Furies, Mary Montgomery, Selina Doyle, Francis Carr.

Her fathers family, his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and one of her seven children, Elizabeth Medora Leigh.

Adas Family

William, the Lord King, later the Earl of Lovelace: Adas husband

Hester, Charlotte and Locke King: Williams sisters and brother

Byron, the Lord Ockham, Annabella, and Ralph: Ada and William s children

Greene, Miss Cooper and Dr William Carpenter: childrens attendants and tutors

Robert, Charles and Edward Noel: Adas Noel cousins

Adas Friends

Olivia (Livy) and Annabella Acheson: Lady Gosfords daughters

Joanna Baillie: popular novelist

Charles Babbage: mathematician, scientist and inventor of Calculating Engines

Herschel Babbage: his son

Sir David Brewster: pioneer in optics, inventor of the kaleidoscope

Andrew Crosse: an experimenter in electricity

John and Robert Crosse: Andrews sons

Sophia Frend De Morgan: Dr Frends daughter who married Augustus De Morgan

Charles Dickens: novelist

Michael Faraday: pioneer of electricity

Reverend Samuel Gamlen: Adas minister, who married Ada and William

Woronzow Greig: Mrs Somervilles son from her first marriage, went to Cambridge University with Adas husband and became Adas friend, confidant and attorney