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"The Calculus of Passion": Review of The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter, by Benjamin Woolley. Reviewed by Thomas A. Trainor. American Scientist, July-August 2001.
The reviewer endorses this biography as a revealing and non-sensational treatment of Augusta Ada Bryon King, a multi-dimensional woman of the nineteenth century and daughter of Lord Byron. The biography includes Ada's "bizarre family background", and covers her close relationships with Mary Somerville ("arguably the greatest woman scientist of the age" and Ada's role model) and Charles Babbage (professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge and inventor of the "Difference Engine" and "Analytical Engine" calculating machines). "Debate continues over Ada's real contribution to the Analytical Engine and its subsequent popularization, and to modern computer design and programming. Woolley leaves the question open, providing instead a wealth of historical detail to inform our opinion."
--- Annette Emerson
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