Why was Ada Lovelace’s Work Ignored for so Long?

Ada Lovelace is well known to us as the creator of the modern algorithm, but that hasn’t always been true. Her work almost died with her.

This new book, published in Uraguay on Ada Lovelace Day (13 October) charts the perilous journey of her calculations and ideas from an obscure and defunct academic journal, to the major libraries of Europe. That’s where Douglas Hartree discovered it nearly 100 years later, in 1949. He and his team were researching a new invention: the modern computer. Hartree immediately recognised the relevance of Ada’s groundbreaking work and it became the foundation of the emerging science of computing.

In this book, you can find out how Ada came to write her amazing theories, how they were preserved, and how they eventually came out of the shadows when their time was right.

Now her name is so celebrated that we have a worldwide Ada Lovelace day every October, promoting the work of women in science, so that no woman will ever again have to wait 100 years for her work to be recognised.

ADA LOVELACE: The Origins of Algorithmic Thought and Poetical Science by Alvaro Moure Clouzet is published by Templo Oceanico and you can buy copies in English or Portuguese here: Amazon.co.uk

Published 12 October, 2026 by Katy Loffman