Ada often met and worked with Charles Babbage in relation to Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine. Babbage had created the concept of a programmable computer; The Analytical Engine. Ada met him through a mutual friend, Mary Somerville. Ada was attracted by the idea of Charles' Difference Engine, so she used her relationship with Mary so that she could meet him as often as possible.



      Ada and Babbage had a falling out when their papers were being published, because Babbage had tried to leave a statement about the government's opinion on his Engine. Putting that statement in the preface would have implied that Ada had written it too, so she refused. Eventually their friendship recovered, and on August 12, 1851, Ada was suffering from cancer. She asked Babbage to be her executor, but that letter did not give him the legal authority to do so.