How did the slide rule evolve?
In 1620 English astronomer Edmund Gunter (1581–1626) was responsible for construct-
ing a scale rule that could be used to multiply. He divided his scale according to Napier’s
principle of logarithms, meaning that multiplication could be done by measuring and
adding lengths on the scale. (It is also often considered the first analog computer.)
But there is disagreement as to the true inventor of the slide rule. Many historians
give the credit to English reverend William Oughtred (c. 1574–1660), who improved
upon Gunter’s idea. About 1630 (although that date is highly debated), Oughtred
placed two of Gunter’s scales directly opposite each other and demonstrated that one
could do calculations by simply sliding them back and forth. 357
MATH IN COMPUTING
Who is sometimes called the “first programmer”?
O
ne of the first “programmers”—in this case, of a calculating machine—was
Ada Augusta Byron (1815–1852; also known as Ada King, Countess of
Lovelace), the daughter of Lord George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824), the
famous English poet. Inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage met Ada
Byron around 1833, while still working on his difference engine. Her interest
was reportedly more in his mathematical genius, not his machines.
Besides her admiration for him, Ada Byron also put Babbage’s name on the
computing map, writing up most of the information about his work, which was
something Babbage supposedly could not do as well. For example, she translated
an 1842 account of his Analytical Engine (written by French-born Italian engineer
and mathematician Luigi Federico Menabrea [1809–1896]) from French into Eng-
lish. Babbage was so impressed that he suggested she add her own notes and inter-
pretations of the machine. With his encouragement, she added copious notes,
describing how the Analytical Engine could be programmed, and wrote what many
consider to be the first-ever computer program. Her account was published in- She was also responsible for the term “do loop” in computer language (a
part of a program she called “a snake biting its tail”) and for developing the
“MNEMONIC” technique that eventually helped simplify assembler commands.
Ada Byron’s life deteriorated after writing her notes because of family difficul-
ties, gambling debts (though not her own), the lack of a scientific project to work
on, and probably the fact that none of her friends were as deeply—and intuitively—
involved in mathematics or the sciences as she was. Babbage was no help, either,
having his own difficulties, including his ongoing attempts to obtain governmen-
tal funding for his Analytical Engine. In 1852, at only 37 years of age, Ada Byron
died of cancer, but she was not forgotten. She was remembered and honored in
1980 when the ADA programming language was named after her.