Analytical Engine & the First Algorithm

Editorial record

Plain-language summary

The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical calculator with a separate store and processing 'mill', able to follow instructions and branch conditionally rather than compute one fixed formula. In her annotations to a paper describing it, Lovelace wrote out a step-by-step procedure for computing Bernoulli numbers, often cited as the first published algorithm intended for a machine. She also argued the engine could operate on symbols beyond numbers, anticipating general-purpose computation, though the machine was never built.