Programmer Buys Original Ada Lovelace Painting On eBay

An anonymous reader sends the story of the rediscovery of an original painting of Ada Byron at about age 4, the girl who was to become Countess Lovelace and the world's first computer programmer. A US Army sergeant in Tajikistan caught wind of an eBay auction of a 180-year-old painting of Ada Byron, with provenance; he notified a programmer buddy in Texas, who won the auction.

Comments

Sorry

[$RANDOMLUSER]

I can't give "world's first computer programmer" to Ada Lovelace - I have to give it to Joseph Marie Jacquard, inventor of the Jacquard Loom. Babbage's Analytical Engine was to use cards - based on Jacquard's idea.

Re:Sorry

[RodgerDodger]

Got to back that up. Babbage always gave credit to Jacquard for the idea (of using cards), but his personal spin on it was to make it general purpose - to solve any problem that could be expressed in the form of an algorithm.

That's the power of the computer - the fact that it is general purpose, not single purpose.

FWIW Jacquard got the idea of using cards to control looms from earlier mechanised looms that used cylinders with raised dots - which in turn came from mechanical music organs.

Re:Sorry

[lamona]

The difference between the Jacquard Loom and Babbage's Analytical engine is explained by Ada Lovelace in her Notes on the Analytical Engine:

The Analytical Engine, on the contrary, is not merely adapted for tabulating the results of one particular function and of no other, but for developing and tabulating any function whatever. In fact the engine may be described as being the material expression of any indefinite function of any degree of generality and complexity, such as for instance, F(x, y, z, log x, sin y, x p, &c.), which is, it will be observed, a function of all other possible functions of any number of quantities.

In other words, the jacquard loom could follow a set sequence, but the analytical engine could be programmed to tabulate any mathematical function. That is the brilliance of Babbage's work.

In his Sketch, Babbage lays out the workings of the Analytical Engine, but only Ada's notes point out, in clear language, the true impact of his discovery.

Let's not neglect Percy

[symbolset]

Shelly "is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language."

That's a strong endorsement. Lord Byron had an interesting group of characters about him. Between them they make Generation X look like a bunch of prudes.

Since he died before Mickey Mouse was born, you can find all of his works here at project Gutenberg.

Oh - support Project Gutenberg. When works in the public domain are forgotten we all lose something precious.

Re:suspicious?

[TapeCutter]

Two words - "with provenance".

Paintings of nobility from the 1800's are not in short supply, they are usually valued by the reputation of the artist not the subject of the painting. It's much more likely that the dealer had no idea why geeks would be more interested than art collectors.

The Cogwheel Brain

[91degrees]

In Doran Swade's book - The Cogwheel Brain - it's suggested that Ada Lovelace's influence on computer software was somewhat exaggerated. Letters from her certainly suggest she had a severely inflated ego.

As far as major role models for female software developers go I pick Grace Hopper, who is on record as having had considerable involvement in computer development, and may, or may not have coined the term "computer bug".

Re:suspicious?

[DerekLyons]

And I can confirm this is real as far as he is concerned, and he's done his best to confirm its veractiy.

Who cares what he believes or what he's 'confirmed'. 'Provenance' in the art and antiques world means something - it means an expert has performed the research and certifies the item is real. For an item this important, it's a quasi legal document, signed and notarized - with a full description of the item, a full description of the research, and a full description of why the expert believes the item in question to be real. It's not a handwritten biography of the supposed subject of the provenance on a sheet of letterhead.
 
Mandatory disclaimer: I have been a used and rare bookseller and have dealt with provenances on a minor basis.

And such accusations without proof are libelous (being in written form), no doubt based on jealousy, not to mention is basically irrational.

Wrong on all three counts.