Two clunk The woman grasped the door handle and pulled Cre-e-e-a-a-a-k Heart pounding she stepped out into the night The streets were cold dark and misty but the city was already stirring getting ready for the next day It was very unusual for an upper-class lady to be out alone at this hour If she wasn’t careful she would attract attention M-i-i-l-k Muffins all hot Excuse me what’s going on Fresh flowers There was a carriage and a driver waiting for her The woman hurried over and the driver helped her up Once the door closed she felt safer He flicked the reins and the carriage lurched off 2
The woman didn't relax until she reached her destination a hundred miles away from London But at least her plan worked She had successfully stolen her daughter from her own home The servants in the house would have obeyed her husband the baby's father father and prevented her escape A man's word was law after all and she knew they weren't completely safe In 1816 machines still ran on wind steam clockworks clockworks or muscle power Only a few scientists vaguely knew about electricity and a computer was a person paid to do complicated sums or computations on paper Wind power Steam power 14550 Scratch Scritch Psssht Tick Tock A computer Clockwork 3
This was the world the baby in the carriage was born into Back then machines were designed by men Women in the nineteenth century had hardly any education and even less power None of those male inventors would ever have imagined that one day one small machine might let you count and write watch a movie talk to friends and more But when the baby grew up she wouldn’t have been surprised at all One day she would have a computer software language named after her as well as a medal for people who have made great advances in the world of computers There’s even a day named in her honor to celebrate women’s achievements in science technology engineering and math All in good time though At that moment she was still only a month old Excuse me Ada here I’m the baby being stolen The thief is my mother Lady Annabella Byron and she is not a common criminal Well this was how your mother liked to tell the story Yes but she believed she was saving me from my dreadful father who gave an altogether different account of the event
Hmm your mom and dad were quite erm interesting weren’t they Maybe we should start by talking about them Oh my wretched family Very well Start a new chapter and tell everyone about them But brace yourselves It won’t be pretty 5
