Ada Lovelace, 3rd edition
This is a lino block print of Countess, Lady Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), who published the first computer program. She worked together with Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine (the first - analogue! - computers), correcting his notes on how to calculate Bernoulli Numbers with the Analytical Engine. More importantly, she (a great communicator, daughter of mad, bad and dangerous to know poet Lord Byron) was able to understand and explain the workings of the analytical engine and the potential of computing machines. Her comments seem visionary to the modern reader. Babbage called her the Enchantress of Numbers and the Princess of Parallelograms.
The print is in purples, burgundies and gold water-based block printing ink on cream coloured Japanese kozo paper 12.5 inches x 10.5 inches (31.8 cm x 26.7 cm). There are 10 prints in this third edition. The first edition was printed on plum coloured paper.
The print shows Lady Ada, based on engravings made during her lifetime, before gears of the Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, based on one of his blueprints. Depicted around the gears are equations relating how to calculate Bernoulli Numbers. This is not only because Ada published how to do this MECHANICALLY, but because she foresaw that machines would one day be able to work with SYMBOLS (like those used, for instance) and not just numbers!
(carving three equations is a new level of insanity for me)
Ada Lovelace, 3rd edition
This is a lino block print of Countess, Lady Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), who published the first computer program. She worked together with Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine (the first - analogue! - computers), correcting his notes on how to calculate Bernoulli Numbers with the Analytical Engine. More importantly, she (a great communicator, daughter of mad, bad and dangerous to know poet Lord Byron) was able to understand and explain the workings of the analytical engine and the potential of computing machines. Her comments seem visionary to the modern reader. Babbage called her the Enchantress of Numbers and the Princess of Parallelograms.
The print is in purples, burgundies and gold water-based block printing ink on cream coloured Japanese kozo paper 12.5 inches x 10.5 inches (31.8 cm x 26.7 cm). There are 10 prints in this third edition. The first edition was printed on plum coloured paper.
The print shows Lady Ada, based on engravings made during her lifetime, before gears of the Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, based on one of his blueprints. Depicted around the gears are equations relating how to calculate Bernoulli Numbers. This is not only because Ada published how to do this MECHANICALLY, but because she foresaw that machines would one day be able to work with SYMBOLS (like those used, for instance) and not just numbers!
(carving three equations is a new level of insanity for me)