Notes by the translator to L. F. Menabrea’s Sketch of the Analytical Engine
The translator’s notes, signed A. A. L. and attributed to Ada Lovelace, to L. F. Menabrea’s Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, in Scientific Memoirs, vol. III (London, 1843), pp. 666–731. The volume prints no fuller name than the initials.
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- No authorship claim recorded yet. The source record lists L. F. Menabrea (memoir) and A. A. L. (translation and notes; attributed to Ada Lovelace).
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- Exact source
- Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage Esq. By L. F. Menabrea, of Turin, Officer of the Military Engineers, with notes by the translator (Scientific Memoirs, vol. III, Article XXIX) Scientific Memoirs, Selected from the Transactions of Foreign Academies of Science and Learned Societies, and from Foreign Journals, vol. III, ed. Richard Taylor (London: Richard and John E. Taylor, 1843), pp. 666–731 · published 1843 · Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-11-02 (SHA-256 d633c2462f1a7fc282035b2b338b112a2307abc6acf22aaaca574f851d1a441a) and again at admission on 2026-11-04 (same file). Internet Archive scan of the 1843 volume (Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay Branch copy; digitised 2016, collection IndiaHistory), read in its OCR text; quotations compared with the OCR, which has scattered character errors.
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- Antecedent texts: machine intelligence before 1965 →1 record on this document
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Cited by · 3
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- Calculating Instruments and MachinesHartree’s Calculating Instruments and Machines (1949) names Lady Lovelace and quotes her statement on the Analytical Engine.1949 · publication · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗Hartree, Calculating Instruments and Machines (1949): document page →
- Computing Machinery and IntelligenceTuring’s ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’ (1950) names a memoir by Lady Lovelace as its most detailed information about Babbage’s Analytical Engine.1950-10 · publication · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950): document page →
- Can Digital Computers Think?Turing’s broadcast script of 1951 names Lady Lovelace and quotes her statement on the Analytical Engine.1951 · event · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗Turing, Can Digital Computers Think? (1951): document page →
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- A machine can only do what it is ordered to doThe translator’s Note G, signed A. A. L., to Menabrea’s memoir in Scientific Memoirs (1843) states that the Analytical Engine “has no pretensions whatever to originate any thing”, that it can do whatever we know how to order it to perform, and that it has no power of anticipating analytical relations or truths.1843 · publication · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗A machine can only do what it is ordered to do: propositions page →
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