National Geographic History - USA (2022-03 & 2022-04)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 9

unchecked imagination could bring out
the influence of Ada’s absentee father,
the poet George Gordon Byron, better
known to the world as Lord Byron. De-
scribed by one of his mistresses as “mad,
bad, and dangerous to know,” Lord Byron
was famous for his wordsmithery and
infamous for his licentious and tortured
public life. As a Romantic-era celebrity,
his addiction and mental health struggles
were visible for all to see.
Annabella and he were briefly mar-
ried, but when Ada was born, Byron was
reportedly quite angry about the sex of
the child. On a January morning in 1816,

less than five weeks after Ada’s birth,

Annabella quietly gathered the baby

and left for her parents’ country home,

moving them away from Byron and his

influence. Within a matter of months,

Lord Byron had left England for good.

Ada, Bryon’s only child born in wedlock,

never knew her father. He died when Ada

was eight years old.

Intellectual Equals

Lady Byron, fearful that Ada would in-

herit her father’s self-destructive ten-

dencies, nurtured her daughter’s ana-

lytical side, and Ada’s childhood passion

for mathematics proved enduring. By

the time Ada entered her late teens, her

mother noted (with wry pride) that she

was more interested in talking to scien-

tists and mathematicians than potential

suitors from England’s elite. In 1835 Ada

married William King, a member of the

English nobility. He soon became the Earl

of Lovelace, giving Ada the title Count-

ess of Lovelace. The two shared a love

of horses—and her husband appears to

have supported Ada’s intellect and thirst

for knowledge.

Perhaps Ada’s most fruitful relationship

was her lifelong friendship with Charles

LOVELACE COMBINED her moth-

er’s mathematical rigor with her

father’s imagination. When she

was 12 years old, she decided

(as many children do) that she

wanted to fly, but unlike other

children whose attempts may

have been limited to jump-

ing off chairs, she took a more

scientific approach. She stud-

ied birds, assessed materials

for their likelihood to enable

flight, and considered how to

construct wings. In this era be-

fore widespread electricity, she

even drew up plans for a steam-

powered flying machine. Young

Ada Lovelace wrote and illus-

trated a guide on how she may

best be able to achieve flight

and called it “Flyology.”

LEARNING

TO FLY

IAN DAGNALL COMPUTING/ALAMY

ADA LOVELACE, ABOUT AGE 20,

IN A PORTRAIT FROM 1835