ada the enchantress of numbers by betty alexandra toole

Concerned that Ada might inherit her father's feckless and 'dangerous' poetic tendencies, her single mother Lady Byron (Olivia Williams) made sure she was tutored thoroughly in mathematics, and regularly prescribed 'more maths' to improve her mental health.

Georgina Ferry presents part one of the correspondence of Ada Lovelace, dramatised by an all-star cast and reveals the intense inner world of a young Victorian lady who anticipated our digital age.Īda Lovelace (Sally Hawkins) was the abandoned daughter of the romantic poet Lord Byron.

She was a flawed and fragile individual: a Victorian tech visionary. She defied convention and produced a work of astonishing prescience, predicting how steam-powered calculating machines might one day change the world. Babbage gave her the attention and intellectual respect that neither of her parents offered. And grasped just how many problems - and not only mathematical ones - might one day be solved by rigorous, logical analysis.Īll her life Ada struggled to escape her controlling mother, Lady Byron (Olivia Williams) and the legacy of her notorious and absent father, the romantic poet Lord Byron. In an extraordinary leap of imagination, she suggested that this steam-powered engine could be used for much more than just adding and subtracting - 'for music and art perhaps'. She threw herself into the task of describing his Analytical Engine and writing the Notes of the engine for which she is now famous. Description: In part two of this dramatization of The Letters of Ada Lovelace, Georgina Ferry reveals the nature of the relationship between the young heiress, Ada Lovelace (Sally Hawkins) and the crusty mathematician, Charles Babbage (Anthony Head), inventor of steam-powered calculating machines.ĭespite, (or perhaps because of), constant battles with her mental and physical health, Ada pursued her interest in Babbage's innovative engines, with zeal.

Ada the enchantress of numbers by betty alexandra toole