When Computers Were Human

[Dave Monroe]

Grier, David Alan.  When Computers Were Human.
   Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005.

Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the
term "computer" referred to the people who did
scientific calculations by hand. These workers were
neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but
knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances,
might have become scientists in their own right. When
Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth
account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the
history of science and technology.

Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who
was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier
provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of
women and men who did the hard computational labor of
science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd
used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an
education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like
many highly educated women of her generation, she
studied to become a human computer because nothing
else would offer her a place in the scientific world.

The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in
1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to
compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a
UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit.
In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the
French Revolution, describes the calculating machines
of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the
Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room
of the Works Progress Administration.

When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story
of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research
calculation in the hope that they might be part of the
scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded
by a new electronic machine that took the place and
the name of those who were, once, the computers.

http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7999.html

Not to be confused with (?) ...

http://imdb.com/name/nm0004979/


		
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