Ada Lovelace, c. 1840. Public-domain portrait via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
Free levelled English reading practice. Read for meaning first, then use the full Speed Reading tool to time yourself and track your progress.
Ada Lovelace, born in 1815, worked with mathematician Charles Babbage on ideas for his proposed Analytical Engine. In notes published in 1843, she described a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers using the machine. Because the Engine was never completed in her lifetime, the method could not be run then, but it is often described as the first published computer program. Lovelace also saw a broader possibility: a machine that manipulated symbols might one day work with things beyond numbers, including music. Her insight seems remarkably modern.
