BKBRDSCI.RVW   20020608

"The Bride of Science", Benjamin Woolley, 1999, 0-07-138860-5,
U$16.95/C$26.95
%A   Benjamin Woolley
%C   300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario   L1N 9B6
%D   1999
%G   0-07-138860-5
%I   McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne
%O   U$16.95/C$26.95 905-430-5000 +1-800-565-5758 fax: 905-430-5020
%P   416 p.
%T   "The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter"

Augusta Ada (known as Ada, after a falling out between her mother and
aunt) King (nee Byron), Countess Lovelace, daughter of the scandalous
poet, George Gordon Byron, would have been somewhat notable simply for
all of the foregoing.  However, to the modern computer scientist, she
is more frequently known as the patron of Charles Babbage, father (or
perhaps grandfather) of modern computing.  Actually, there seems to
have been very little in the way of patronage.  Ada was, in fact, more
of a colleague, and, if she did not see herself as a scientist in her
own right, did make remarkable and significant contributions.  It is
not for nothing that she holds the title of the world's first
(published) programmer.

Chapter one is interesting and detailed, although slow in starting
with the early "courtship" of Annabella Milbanke and Byron (Ada's
parents), but portentous and heavy on foreshadowing.  There is an
inconsistency of presentation in chapter two.  Annabella is stated to
be intelligent, virtuous, and a rational forerunner of feminism, but
is also implied to be a silly, flighty adolescent.  This gives the
text an overall feeling of sarcasm.  Ada's childhood and adolescence,
in chapter three, is remarkably uncompelling given the attempted
picture of a life under the thumb of a merciless control freak. 
Chapter four looks at London and Charles Babbage's initial
demonstrations of the Difference Engine and the point that Babbage was
trying to make in saying that miracles could be part of a mechanistic
universe.  (Robert Peel's reaction to a proposal that the government
fund research is intriguing in view of modern security jargon.  He
used a quote from the Aeneid: "It is an engine designed against our
walls or some other mischief hides in it."  This was, of course, the
original description of the Trojan Horse.)

Chapter five examines developments in many areas of science, art, and
technology, some, for example Babbage, related to Ada and others, such
as Coleridge's infamous "person from Porlock," only tenuously so. 
Chapter six initially seems to be looking into Ada's own research but
ultimately has no point, although it does provide some interesting
tidbits.  Ada's notes and program for the Analytical Engine are
discussed in chapter seven.  The material, unfortunately, glosses over
much controversy around Babbage's work.  One example is that the issue
of Clement's work is reduced to a matter of price disagreements
instead of questions of design.  There is a similarity to the disputes
between Howard Aiken and IBM over the design and work on the Mark I
computer.  Perhaps "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" would be a better
title for chapter eight than "Death of Romance."  Ada is researching
topics related to re-programming her faulty brain after her experience
of programming the Analytical Engine.  Chapter nine is difficult to
understand: it is cryptic, coy, and seems to be hinting at
extramarital affairs for Ada in 1850 and 1851.  Ada's death scene, in
chapter ten, is obviously written by someone without any experience of
either death or persons with brain injuries.  The mysterious "playing
with a handkerchief" is a very characteristic indicator.

Somehow, this biography feels unconvincing and untrustworthy.  Even
so, the look at the namesake of the Ada programming language helps to
clarify a contribution too often lightly passed over.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2002   BKBRDSCI.RVW   20020608