When Computers Were Human (60 page)

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Authors: David Alan Grier

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American committee for coordinating research, founded in First World War

N
ATIONAL
Y
OUTH
A
DMINISTRATION

New Deal agency for employing high school and college youth, sponsored many small computing organizations

N
AUTICAL
A
LMANAC
, A
MERICAN

American equivalent of British Nautical Almanac, founded in Cambridge, Mass., and moved to Washington, D.C.

N
AUTICAL
A
LMANAC
, B
RITISH

Officially called Royal Nautical Almanac, prepared annual volume of navigation and astronomical tables

N
AVAL
O
BSERVATORY

American National Observatory in Washington, D.C.

N
EUMANN
, J
OHN VON
(1903–1957)

American mathematician and key influence in development of modern electronic computer

N
EW
D
EAL

Popular name for President Franklin Roosevelt's economic relief programs

N
EWCOMB
, S
IMON
(1835–1909)

Director of American Nautical Almanac and, for his time, America's most famous scientist

N
EWTON
, I
SAAC
(1642–1727)

An inventor of calculus and a friend of Edmund Halley

N
EWTON
, I
SAAC
(1837–1884)

Not to be confused with the above, first director of U.S. Department of Agriculture

N
EYMAN
, J
ERZY
(1896–1981)

American statistician, worked on bombing problems in Second World War

P
EARSON
, K
ARL
(1857–1934)

English statistician, founded computing organization and worked on bombing problems in First World War

P
EIRCE
, B
ENJAMIN
(1809–1880)

American mathematician, friend of Charles Henry Davis, staff member of Nautical Almanac, director of Coast Survey

P
ICKERING
, E
DWARD
(1846–1919)

Director, Harvard Observatory, hired large numbers of female computers

P
ONTÉCOULANT
, P
HILIPPE
G
USTAVE
L
E
D
OULCET, COMTE DE
(1795–1874)

Computed 1835 and 1910 returns of Halley's comet

P
RINCIPIA

Isaac Newton's book on planetary motion

R
ICHARDSON
, L
EWIS
F
RY
(1881–1953)

English meteorologist, envisioned truly massive computing laobratory

R
OCKEFELLER
F
OUNDATION

Philanthropic organization of Rockefeller family, supported mathematical research

R
OYAL
A
STRONOMICAL
S
OCIETY

English scientific society organized in 1821 as an alternative to Royal
Society (
see below
); Babbage a member; supported computational work

R
OYAL
S
OCIETY

England's first scientific society

S
AUNDERS
, R
HODA
(
DATES UNKNOWN
)

Computer at Harvard Observatory

S
CHEUTZ
, E
DVARD
(1821–1888)
AND
G
EORGE
(1785–1873)

Inventors of a difference engine following Babbage's ideas

S
MITH
, A
DAM
(1723–1790)

Scottish philosopher and economist

S
NEDECOR
, G
EORGE
(1881–1974)

Iowa statistician, student of George Glover

S
TIBITZ
, G
EORGE
(1904–1995)

Staff member of Bell Telephone Laboratories, inventor of machine to do complex arithmetic with telephone relays

T
AUSSKY
-T
ODD
, O
LGA
(1906–1995)

English mathematician and member of National Bureau of Standards staff

T
HOMAS
J. W
ATSON
A
STRONOMICAL
C
OMPUTING
B
UREAU

Early punched card computing bureau at Columbia University

T
OLLEY
, H
OWARD
(1889–1958)

Mathematician and computer at U.S. Department of Agriculture

T
RACTS FOR
C
OMPUTERS

Computing pamphlets published by Karl Pearson

T
RIPOS

Mathematical exams at Cambridge University in England; top students are known as First Wrangler, Second Wrangler, and so on

V
EBLEN
, O
SWALD
(1880–1960)

American mathematician, nephew of economist Thorstein Veblen, leader of American computing effort in First World War, and member of Applied Mathematics Panel during Second World War

W
ALLACE
, H
ENRY
A. (1888–1965)

American secretary of agriculture, vice president, and amateur mathematician, associated with computing groups at Iowa State College and U.S. Department of Agriculture

W
ATSON
, T
HOMAS
J., S
R
. (1874–1956)

First president of IBM

W
EAVER
, W
ARREN
(1898–1978)

University of Wisconsin mathematician, chair of Applied Mathematics Panel in Second World War, scientific program director for Rockefeller Foundation

W
IENER
, N
ORBERT
(1894–1964)

MIT mathematician, member of First World War ballistics computing effort

W
ILKS
, S
AMUEL
(1906–1964)

Statistician at Institute for Advanced Study, member of Applied Mathematics Panel

W
ILSON
, E
LIZABETH
W
EBB
(1896–1980)

Ballistics computer, First World War

W
ORK
P
ROJECTS
A
DMINISTRATION
(WPA) (1935–1943)

American economic relief program during Great Depression, organized and financed Mathematical Tables Project

Y
OWELL
, E
VERETT

Name of two computers, one for the U.S. Naval Observatory and the second with the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau

Notes

I
NTRODUCTION

A G
RANDMOTHER
'
S
S
ECRET
L
IFE

1
. Record Books for Mathematics 49 (1918), Mathematics 53 (1918), Mathematics 4B (1920), BENTLEY.

2
. Class Records, 1917–21, MICHIGAN; Annual Reports, BENTLEY.

3
. Karpinsky, “James W. Glover.”

4
. Glover, “Courses in Actuarial Mathematics.”

5
. Letters for Baillo, deVries, Hall, and McDonald, Alumni Directories, 1937, 1953, ALUM.

6
. Barlow,
Barlow's Tables
, preface.

7
. Babbage,
Economy of Machinery and Manufactures
, p. 191.

8
. Croarken and Campbell-Kelly,
Table Making from Sumer to Spreadsheets
, preface; McLeish,
Number
, pp. 26, 65–66.

9
. Galison and Hevly,
Big Science
.

10
. See, for example, Galison and Hevly,
Big Science
.

11
. Cardwell,
Norton History of Technology
, pp. 105, 106.

12
. Ibid., p. 107.

C
HAPTER
O
NE

T
HE
F
IRST
A
NTICIPATED
R
ETURN

1
. Newton,
Principia
, preface.

2
. Cook,
Edmund Halley
, p. 209.

3
. Quoted in ibid., p. 210.

4
. Ibid., p. 211.

5
. Ibid., p. 212.

6
. Edmund Halley to Isaac Newton, September 28, 1695, in MacPike,
Correspondence of Edmund Halley
, p. 92.

7
. Edmond Halley to Isaac Newton, October 7, 1695, ibid., pp. 92–93.

8
. Isaac Newton to Edmund Halley, October 17, 1695, ibid., pp. 93–94.

9
. Cook,
Edmund Halley
, p. 211.

10
. Halley,
Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis
(1705).

11
. Rigaud,
Some Account of Halley's Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis
, pp. 3–23; Broughton, “The First Predicted Return of Comet Halley.”

12
. Halley,
Astronomical Tables
(1752); Broughton, “The First Predicted Return of Comet Halley,” has noted that if Halley used the old-style calendar, in which the year changes at the March equinox, then Halley's prediction was very close to the actual date of March 13.

13
. Halley,
Astronomical Tables
(1752).

14
.
Smith, A., “The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries” (1757), p. 48.

15
. Messier and Maty, “A Memoir, Containing the History of the Return of the Famous Comet of 1682. …”

16
. Gillispie,
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
.

17
. Barker to Bradley, in
Philosophical Transactions (1683–1775)
.

18
. Alder,
The Measure of All Things
(2002), p. 78.

19
. She is sometimes identified in the literature as Hortense Lepaute.

20
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676–81.

21
. Alder,
The Measure of All Things
(2002), p. 78.

22
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676–81.

23
. Wilson, “Clairaut's Calculation of Halley's Comet” (1993).

24
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676–81.

25
. Ibid.

26
. Swift,
Gulliver's Travels
, Section 3.

27
. Ibid.

28
. Wilson, “Appendix: Clairaut's Calculation of the Comet's Return” (1995).

29
. Wilson, “Clairaut's Calculation of Halley's Comet” (1993).

30
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676–81.

31
. Wilson, “Clairaut's Calculation of Halley's Comet” (1993).

32
. Yeomans, “Comet Halley—The Orbital Motion” (1977).

33
. Quoted in Gillispie,
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
, p. 283; Wilson, “Appendix: Clairaut's Calculation of the Comet's Return” (1995).

34
. Wilson, “Appendix: Clairaut's Calculation of the Comet's Return” (1995).

35
. Hobart and Schiffman,
Information Ages
, p. 166.

36
. Jean d'Alembert quoted in Wilson (1993); Wilson (1995) gives a fairly complete account and assessment of the controversy.

37
. Wilson, “Clairaut's Calculation of Halley's Comet” (1993).

38
. Ibid.

39
. Alexis Clairaut quoted in Wilson, “Appendix: Clairaut's Calculation of the Comet's Return” (1995).

40
. Messier and Maty, “A Memoir, Containing the History of the Return of the Famous Comet of 1682. …”

41
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676–81.

42
. Ibid.

43
. Stigler, “Stigler's Law of Eponymy” (1999), p. 277.

C
HAPTER
T
WO

T
HE
C
HILDREN OF
A
DAM
S
MITH

1
. Smith, A., “The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries” (1757).

2
. Foley,
Social Physics of Adam Smith
, p. 34.

3
. Smith, A.,
Wealth of Nations
(1776), book 1, chapter 1.

4
. Ibid.

5
. Ibid.

6
.
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Car. II, 1675–76, p. 173, June 22, 1675, British Library, MS Birch 4393 f 104 r, v; Public Record Office, Kew, State Papers Domestic Entry Book 44, p. 10.

7
. See Betts,
Harrison
, and Andrews,
The Quest for Longitude
.

8
. Mayer,
Tabulae Motuum Solis et Lunae Novae et Correctae
(1770); Mayer,
Theoria Lunae Juxta Systema Newtonianum
(1767).

9
. Leonhard Euler to Tobias Mayer, February 26, 1754, in Forbes (1971),
Connaissance des Temps pour l'Année 1761
, Paris, De l'Imprimerie Royale, 1761.

10
. Sobel,
Longitude
.

11
. Maskelyne, Nevil, “Memorial Presented to the Commissioners of the Longitude,” February 9, 1765, in Mayer,
Tabulae Motuum Solis et Lunae Novae et Correctae
(1770), pp. cxvii–cxx; see also Betts,
Harrison
(1993), and Andrews,
The Quest for Longitude
(1996).

12
. Croarken, “Tabulating the Heavens.”

13
. Ibid.

14
. Maskelyne,
The British Mariner's Guide
(1763), pp. iv–v.

15
. Howse,
Nevil Maskelyne
, p. 60.

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