When Computers Were Human
Page 45
17. Chicago Tribune, August 8, 1890, quoted in Austrian, Herman Hollerith, p. 62; ibid., pp. 61–62.
18. Handy, Official Directory of the World’s Columbian Exposition, p. 157.
19. T. Talcott to H. Talcott, May 22, 1893, quoted in Austrian, Herman Hollerith, ibid., pp. 100–101.
20. U.S. Coast Survey Annual Report for 1892, p. 145.
21. Adams, Education of Henry Adams, chapter 12, “Chicago.”
22. Ibid.
23. Handy, Official Directory of the World’s Columbian Exposition, p. 199.
24. The World’s Congress Auxiliary of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, WCE.
25. Veysey, The Emergence of the American University, p. 128.
26. “Program of the Congress on Mathematics and Astronomy,” 1893, WCE.
27. Account Books of Artemas Martin, MARTIN.
28. Finkel, “Biography: Artemas Martin.”
29. “Program of the Congress on Mathematics and Astronomy,” WCE.
30. Kline, R., Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist, p. 71.
31. Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893).
32. Porter, T., The Rise of Statistical Thinking, p. 23.
33. Fitzpatrick, “Leading American Statisticians in the Nineteenth Century”; “Membership List, 1840” (American Statistical Association Membership).
34. “The International Statistical Institute at Chicago.”
35. Ralph, “Chicago’s Gentle Side”; The World’s Congress Auxiliary of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, WCE.
36. Adams, Education of Henry Adams, chapter 4.
37. Ibid., chapter 12, “Chicago.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
DARWIN’S COUSINS
1. Hamilton, Newnham, p. 136.
2. Pearl, “Karl Pearson.”
3. Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, act 1.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Rossiter, Women Scientists in America, pp. 52, 72.
7. “Maxims for Revolutionaries,” in Shaw, Man and Superman.
8. Stigler, History of Statistics, p. 266; see also Porter, The Rise of Statistical Thinking, p. 271.
9. Quoted in Kelves, In the Name of Eugenics, p. 5.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., p. 6.
12. Francis Galton to Darwin Galton, February 23, 1851, in Pearson, The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton, pp. 231–32.
13. Francis Galton to Darwin Galton, February 23, 1851, ibid.
14. Kelves, In the Name of Eugenics, p. 7.
15. Gillham, A Life of Sir Francis Galton, p. 148.
16. Stigler, History of Statistics, p. 268.
17. Galton, “Kinship and Correlation,” pp. 419–31.
18. Stigler, History of Statistics, pp. 283–90. For an elementary modern treatment that shows the relationship between correlation coefficient and regression slope, see Freedman et al., Statistics.
19. Galton, “Regression towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature,” p. 255.
20. Galton, “Kinship and Correlation.”
21. Pearson, “Walter Frank Raphael Weldon,” pp. 14, 24, 25.
22. Ibid., p. 18.
23. Ibid.
24. Porter, Karl Pearson, p. 3.
25. Haldane, “Karl Pearson”; Pearl, “Karl Pearson.”
26. Porter, Karl Pearson, p. 12.
27. Walkowitz, “Science, Feminism, and Romance.”
28. Pearson, “Walter Frank Raphael Weldon,” p. 18.
29. Pearson, “Mathematical Contributions to the Theory of Evolution.”
30. Pearson to Foster, “Draper’s Company Grant,” November 26, 1904, in Pearson, E., “Karl Pearson.”
31. Pearson, “Cooperative Investigations on Plants.”
32. Magnello, “The Non-correlation of Biometrics and Eugenics.”
33. Pearson, “Cooperative Investigations on Plants.” (1902).
34. Love, “Alice in Eugenics-Land.”
35. Alice Lee to Pearson, December 1, 1895, and June 14, 1897, PEARSON, 01135, quoted ibid.
36. Love, “Alice in Eugenics-Land.”
37. Pearson, Life, Letters and Labour of Francis Galton, vol. 3, p. 359.
38. Love, “Alice in Eugenics-Land.”
39. Karl Pearson to Simon Newcomb, June 26, 1903, NEWCOMB.
40. Pearson, E., “An Appreciation of Some Aspects” (1938).
41. Pearson, K., “The Scope of Biometrika” (1901).
42. Karl Pearson to Beatrice Cave, November 25, 1907, 01137/1, PEARSON, University College London, quoted in Love, “Alice in Eugenics-Land.”
43. Frances Cave-Browne-Cave, unsigned obituary, CBC.
44. Soper et al., “On the Distribution of the Correlation Coefficient”; Cave and Pearson, “Numerical Illustrations of the Variate Difference Correlation Method.”
45. Frances Cave-Browne-Cave, unsigned obituary, CBC; Biographical Information forms for Frances and Beatrice Cave-Browne-Cave, GIRTON.
46. Cole, Growing Up into Revolution.
47. Cave-Brown-Cave and Pearson, “On the Correlation between the Barometric Height.”
48. Cave-Brown-Cave, F., “On the Influence of the Time Factor on the Correlation.”
49. Pearson, K., “On the Laws of Inheritance in Man,” p. 136.
50. Pearson, E., “Karl Pearson,” p. 199.
51. Journal of Wilhamina Paton Fleming, entry of March 4, 1900.
52. The bombing occurred on February 15, 1894; Taylor, “Propaganda by Deed—The Greenwich Observatory Bomb of 1894.”
53. Quoted in Meadows, Greenwich Observatory, p. 14.
54. Taylor, “Propaganda by Deed—The Greenwich Observatory Bomb of 1894.”
55. Conrad, The Secret Agent, chapter 2.
56. “Computers” (an announcement of the computing exam for 1906), December 19, 1905, OBSERVATORY-NARA; for vacancies, see Almanac and Observatory rosters for 1890–1905, OBSERVATORY-NARA.
57. “From the Unpopular Side.”
58. Newcomb, The Reminiscences of an Astronomer, p. 223.
59. Henry Meier to Simon Newcomb, August 9, 1884, ALMANAC.
60. Newcomb, The Reminiscences of an Astronomer, pp. 223–24.
61. “Nautical Almanac Investigation.”
62. See “Scientists at Sword’s Points.”
63. “Nautical Almanac Office Moved.”
64. Karl Pearson to Simon Newcomb, May 26, 1899, NEWCOMB.
65. Karl Pearson to Simon Newcomb, June 26, 1903, NEWCOMB.
66. Newcomb, “Abstract Science in America” (1876), p. 88; Simon Newcomb to Secretary of Carnegie Institution of Washington, May 12, 1906, 653/2, PEARSON.
67. Simon Newcomb to Secretary of Carnegie Institution of Washington, May 12, 1906, 653/2, PEARSON.
68. Newcomb, “The work of the Carnegie Institution,” NEWCOMB.
69. Memo of Simon Newcomb, 1904, NEWCOMB.
70. H. H. Turner to Simon Newcomb, November 25, 1903, 653/2, PEARSON.
71. Simon Newcomb to Karl Pearson, November 21, 1904, 773/7, PEARSON.
72. Memo to Simon Newcomb, January 2, 1905, NEWCOMB.
73. Pearson, E., “An Appreciation of Some Aspects.”
74. Ibid.
75. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics, p. 34.
76. Pearson, E., “An Appreciation of Some Aspects.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
BREAKING FROM THE ELLIPSE
1. Crommelin, “Note on the Approaching Return of Halley’s Comet” (1906).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Report of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of Visitors of the Royal Observatory for 1906.
5. Employee Roster for 1910, box 10, ALMANAC.
6. Cowell and Crommelin, The Return of Halley’s Comet in 1910, p. 11.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Twain, Works.
11. “Comet’s Poisonous Tail,” New York Times, February 8, 1910, p. 1.
12. Cowell and Crommelin, The Return of Halley’s Comet in 1910, p. 11.
13. Whittaker and Robinson, The Calculus of Observations, p. v.
14. Erdélyi, “Edmund T. Whittaker.”
15. Gibbs, A Course in Interpolation, pp. 1–2.
16. Whittaker and Robinson, The Calculus of Observations, p. v.
17. Kline, Mathematical Thought, p. 710.
18. Croarken, Early Scientific Computing in Britain, p. 25; Davis, Tables of Higher Mathematical Functions, vol. 1, p. 3.
CHAPTER NINE
CAPTAINS OF ACADEME
1. Karl Pearson to L. Gregory, February 23, 1916, 600, PEARSON.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Adelaide Davin to Karl Pearson, September 9, 1915, 674/9, PEARSON.
6. Karl Pearson, manuscript dated July 6, 1920, PEARSON.
7. Karl Pearson to L. Gregory, February 23, 1916, 600, PEARSON.
8. See correspondence between A. H. Webb and Karl Pearson, June–July 1916, 602, PEARSON.
9. McShane et al., Exterior Ballistics, p. 758.
10. Ibid., p. 778.
11. Di Scala, Italy: From Revolution to Republic, p. 121.
12. Siacci, “Rational and Practical Ballistics.”
13. Bliss, Mathematics for Exterior Ballistics, p. 28; U.S. Army, Ballisticians in War and Peace, p. 3; Zabecki, Steel Wind, p. 13.
14. McShane et al., Exterior Ballistics, p. 783.
15. Bliss, Mathematics for Exterior Ballistics, p. 28.
16. Littlewood, Collected Papers of J. E. Littlewood, p. xxx.
17. Beatrice Cave-Browne-Cave to Karl Pearson, August 20, 1916, 606, PEARSON.
18. Beatrice Cave-Browne-Cave to Karl Pearson, July 21, 1916, 606, PEARSON.
19. Adelaide Davin to Karl Pearson, August 20, 1915, 674, PEARSON.
20. See correspondence between Kristina Smith and Karl Pearson, 1917, 857/6, PEARSON; Smith did research computation for Pearson during this period.
21. Karl Pearson to A. V. Hill, February 15, 1917, 606, PEARSON.
22. Karl Pearson to B. M. Cave, September 29, 1916, 909/8, PEARSON.
23. A. V. Hill to Karl Pearson, December 12, 1916, 606, PEARSON.
24. Mrs. Cain to Karl Pearson, March 30, 1917, 606, PEARSON.
25. Wimperis to Karl Pearson, August 23, 1916, 606; Huie to Karl Pearson, March 7, 1917, 603; Douglas to Karl Pearson, July 7, 1917, 606; Hill to Karl Pearson, March 15, 1918, 606, PEARSON.
26. A. E. Moore to Pearson, September 25, 1917, 606, PEARSON.
27. Herbert W. Richmond to Karl Pearson, October 4, 1917, 606, PEARSON.
28. Herbert W. Richmond to Karl Pearson, October 7, 1917, 606, PEARSON.
29. A. V. Hill to Karl Pearson, October 1917, 606, PEARSON.
30. Herbert W. Richmond to Karl Pearson, October 7, 1917, 606, PEARSON.
31. Fowler to Karl Pearson, November 17, 1917, 606, PEARSON.
32. Pearson as summarized by A. V. Hill to Karl Pearson, December 28, 1917, 606, PEARSON.
33. A. E. Moore to Karl Pearson, April 10, 1918, 606b, PEARSON.
34. Kristina Smith to Karl Pearson, March 26, 1918, 209, PEARSON.
35. Mills, W., Road to War, p. 210.
36. Ernest Hemingway to his parents, October 18, 1918, in Villard and Nagel, Hemingway in Love and War, pp. 186–87.
37. Collins, Princeton in the World War, pp. xii–xiv.
38. Christman, Sailors, Scientists and Rockets, p. 18.
39. Moulton, History of the Ballistics Branch, p. 2; Oswald Veblen Diaries, March 23, 1917, VEBLEN.
40. E. H. Moore to Oswald Veblen, January 4, 1918, VEBLEN.
41. Service Record of Oswald Veblen, Records of Ordnance Officers, 1915–1919, vol. 6, ORDNANCE.
42. Crowell, America’s Munitions: 1917–1918, pp. 548, 550.
43. History of Proving Grounds, Reports, Histories and Guides, E 522, ORDNANCE.
44. E. H. Moore to Oswald Veblen, January 4, 1918, VEBLEN.
45. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Report 84, p. 1.
46. McShane et al., Exterior Ballistics, p. 234.
47. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Report 12, p. 2 (Veblen presumed author).
48. Oswald Veblen 1918 Diary, VEBLEN; Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Report 12, p. 1.
49. American Men of Science, 5th ed., New York, Science Press, 1933, p. 937.
50. Farebrother, Memoir on the Life of Myrrick Doolittle; “Myrrick Haskell/Doolittle,” Washington Evening Star; Coast Survey Annual Report for 1911.
51. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Report 12, p. 2.
52. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Report 84, p. 1.
53. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Annual Report for 1919, Appendix 37, p. 13, ORDNANCE.
54. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Report 84, pp. 3, 1.
55. Moulton, History of the Ballistics Branch, p. 71.
56. Order of March 1, 1918, Circular Orders of the Aberdeen Proving Ground, ORDNANCE.
57. John W. Langley, Member of Congress from Kentucky, quoted in Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, p. 135.
58. “Boston Woman Is Rated Insurance Expert Deluxe.”
59. Dos Passos, 42nd Parallel, p. 137.
60. Moulton, History of the Ballistics Branch, pp. 2–8.
61. Ibid., pp. 35–38.
62. Dunham Jackson, undated note (probably 1940s), WILSON PAPERS.
63. Moulton, History of the Ballistics Branch, pp. 6–7.
64. Ibid., p. 6.
65. Oswald Veblen Diaries, August 23, 1918, VEBLEN.
66. Wiener, Ex-Prodigy, p. 254.
67. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Report 12, p. 2.
68. Moulton, History of the Ballistics Branch, p. 50.
69. Ibid., p. ii.
70. “Boston Woman Is Rated Insurance Expert Deluxe.”
71. Wiener, Ex-Prodigy, p. 257.
72. Masani, Norbert Wiener, 1894–1964, p. 68.
73. Wiener, Ex-Prodigy, p. 258.
74. Fussell, The Great War, p. 161.
75. Richardson, Weather Prediction by Numerical Process, p. 219.
76. Ibid., p. vii.
77. Ibid., p. ix.
78. Ibid., p. 219.
79. Ibid.
80. Ibid., pp. 219–20.
CHAPTER TEN
WAR PRODUCTION
1. Crowell, America’s Munitions, p. 16.
2. Cortada, Before the Computer, p. 81.
3. Pugh, Building IBM, p. 14.
4. Benedict, “Development of Agricultural Statistics in the Bureau of the Census.”
5. Pugh, Building IBM, pp. 26–27.
6. Cortada, Before the Computer, pp. 80–81.
7. Pearl and Burger, “Retail Prices.”
8. Ibid.
9. Ezekiel, “Reminiscences of Mordecai Ezekiel,” p. 13; “Hog Astronomy.” “The great progress which has been made in agricultural economics is doubtless due to the liberality of Congress toward the Department of Agriculture. Twenty years ago the total allowances for that department, including permanent appropriations were but little more than $5,000,000. For the current fiscal year, the total, including the road fund and the ‘permanent’ items, is $139,000,000, which accounts in part for the great strides made in what might be termed hog astronomy” (“Hog Astronomy,” p. 51).
10. Hoover, “Testimony before Senate Committee on Agriculture.”
11. See Food Administration Graphical Records, LOC.
12. Wallace, Agricultural Prices (1920), p. 30.
13. Friedberger, Shake-Out: Iowa Farm Families in the 1980s, p. 20.
14. Sinclair, The Jungle.
15. Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 16.
16. Winters, “The Hoover-Wallace Controversy,” pp. 586–97.
17. Gen. 41:29-30.
18. Gen. 41:49, 57; Wallace, “Who Plays the Part of Joseph?” (1912).
19. Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 20.
20. Yule, An Introduction to the Theory o
f Statistics; Ezekiel, “Henry A. Wallace,” p. 791.
21. Wallace, Agricultural Prices (1920), pp. 30, 34.
22. Ibid. He later went back through the data from the nineteenth century to verify his ideas.
23. Gen. 41:39-40.
24. Gen. 41:40.
25. Wallace, Agricultural Prices (1920), p. 34.
26. Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 49.
27. Moulton, History of the Ballistics Branch, p. 88.
28. Wiener, Ex-Prodigy, pp. 255–56.
29. De Weerd, “American Adoption of French Artillery 1917–1918,” pp. 104–16.
30. Christman, Sailors, Scientists and Rockets, p. 27.
31. Kennedy, Over Here, p. 251.
32. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Report 84, p. 2.
33. Wiener, Ex-Prodigy, pp. 255, 257.
34. Price, “American Mathematicians in World War I.”
35. Dunham Jackson, undated note (probably 1940s), WILSON PAPERS.
36. Evans, “Elizabeth W. Wilson Has Won Distinction”; Radcliffe College Alumnae Information Form, 1937, WILSON PAPERS.
37. Orders for Major Oswald Veblen, USA, October 10 &16, 1918, Records of Ordnance Officers, 1915–19, vol. 6, ORDNANCE.
38. Oswald Veblen Diary, November 9, 1918, VEBLEN.
39. See Oswald Veblen Diaries, VEBLEN; Grier, “Dr. Veblen Gets a Uniform.”
40. “Orders,” April 23, 1919, VEBLEN.
41. Phil Schwartz to Oswald Veblen, August 10, 1919, VEBLEN.
42. Karl Pearson, manuscript dated July 6, 1920, PEARSON.
43. Croarken, Early Scientific Computing in Britain (1990), p. 24.
44. Porter, Karl Pearson, p. 3.
45. Pairman, Tables of the Digamma, p. 1.
46. Ibid.
47. Pearson, “On the Construction of Tables and on Interpolation.” parts 1 and 2; Rhodes, E., “On Smoothing”; Irwin, “On Quadrature and Cubature.”
48. Henderson, Bibliotheca Tabularum Mathematicarum, p. 2.
49. Pairman, Tables of the Digamma, pp. 1–2.
50. Thompson, Logarithmetica Britannica, p. 1.
51. Ibid., pp. 1–2.
52. Martin, Die Rechenmaschinen.
53. Thompson, Logarithmetica Britannica, p. 1.
54. See Archibald, “Reviews” (1921); Archibald, “Reviews” (1924).
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FRUITS OF THE CONFLICT
1. Cortada, Before the Computer, p. 81.
2. Tolley, “Interview.”
3. Ibid.; Tolley and Ezekiel, “The Doolittle Method” (1927).
4. Tolley, “Interview.”
5. Ibid.