Calculating Ada-The Countess Of Computing

Episode
Calculating Ada - The Countess Of Computing
Broadcast Info
2016 (59 mins)
Description
In August 1843 a brilliant young countess, Ada Lovelace, approached an irascible inventor to offer her help to secure funding for the world’s first mechanical computer. She alone had grasped the full implications of such a machine and had even written the first computer program for it. But the inventor, Charles Babbage, refused. Had Ada succeeded, the information technology revolution could have begun in Victorian Britain. She’d have ushered in the computer age a whole century earlier.
This is her remarkable story ...
This documentary reveals the extraordinary life of Lady Ada Lovelace. Daughter of notorious poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was a countess of the realm, a scandalous socialite and a Countess of Computing. We explore her eccentric upbringing, her engrossing relationship with Charles Babbage, and her legacy as the world’s first computer programmer. We will uncover how Ada’s unique inheritance - visionary imagination and rational logic - made her the prophet for our digital age.
Using a rich archive of original manuscripts, a working version of the machine, and interviews with expert contributors we will discover how Lady Ada Lovelace was an unsung genius of British science. Visually the film will draw upon the extraordinary animations of artist Sven Werner. He is a follower of "steam punk", an artistic and literary movement that has been inspired by Ada Lovelace and the idea of Victorian computers.
Genre
History; Science; Technology; Computing

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Calculating Ada-The Countess Of Computing". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/219510 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)