Letters: June 2017
The Welsh scientist who belongs on a tea towel, the origins of soda and 1980s microscopy
Gordon Woods invited suggestions for a woman to be included in his tea towel collection of scientific pioneers (Chemistry World, April 2017, p4). I suggest Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace (better known as Ada Lovelace). The daughter of Lord Byron, Lovelace was born in London in 1815 and died in 1852 aged 36. She was the first person to write an algorithm for machine operation and may be regarded as the first computer programmer. A computer language is, of course, named in her honour.