When Computers Were Human

by David Alan Grier

  87. Curtiss, “Tables of the First Ten Powers of the Integers from 1 to 1000; Tables of the Exponential Function ex” (1941).

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  TOOLS OF THE TRADE

  1. Lowan’s letters regularly mention his search for calculators. See, for example, Lyman Briggs to Arnold Lowan, November 25, 1940, BRIGGS.

  2. Ida Rhodes to Uta Merzbach, NMAH.

  3. Interview of Gertrude Blanch with Henry Tropp, May 16, 1973, SMITHSONIAN.

  4. Bulletin of Iowa State College for 1934–35, p. 326.

  5. American Men of Science, 11th ed., New York, Bowker, 1965.

  6. Stibitz, “Computer” (1940).

  7. Kruger, “A Slide Rule for Vector Calculations.”

  8. Millman, A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System, pp. 27–28; Fry, “Industrial Mathematics” (1941).

  9. Stibitz, “Early Computers” (1980).

  10. Notes of January 19, 1938, Research Case 20878, Reel FC-4618, ATT.

  11. Stibitz, “Computer.”

  12. Andrews, E. C., “Telephone Switching and the Early Bell Laboratories Computers” (1982).

  13. Stibitz, “Early Computers.”

  14. Irvine, “Early Digital Computers at Bell Telephone Laboratories.”

  15. See Iowa State College Budget for 1937–38, ISU-ADMIN; “Statement on Statistics,” Statistics 1945 File, Records of the Vice p. resident for Research, ISU-ADMIN.

  16. “Interview with Mary Clem by Uta Merzbach,” June 27, 1969, p. 14, SMITHSONIAN.

  17. Atanasoff, “Computing Machine for the Solution of Large Systems of Linear Algebraic Equations” (1984), p. 233.

  18. The complexity increases with the cube of the size of the problem. Doubling the size of a problem increases the effort by a factor of 8 = 23. Increasing a problem by a factor of 12 (from 2 to 24) demands 1738 = 123 times the effort.

  19. Atanasoff and Brandt, “Application of p. unched Card Equipment to the Analysis of Complex Spectra.”

  20. Atanasoff, “Advent of Electronic Digital Computing” (1984).

  21. Grier, “Agricultural Computing and the Context for John Atanasoff” (2000); Iowa State College Budget for 1938–39, ISU-ADMIN.

  22. Testimony of John V. Atanasoff, ENIAC Trial, vol. 11, CBI, quoted in Atanasoff, “Advent of Electronic Digital Computing,” p. 239.

  23. Atanasoff, “Advent of Electronic Digital Computing.”

  24. John Atanasoff to John Mauchly, May 31, 1941, Trial Record, Honeywell v. Illinois Scientific, CBI.

  25. Atanasoff, “Computing Machine for the Solution of Large Systems of Linear Algebraic Equations.”

  26. J. V. Atanasoff to Warren Weaver, July 10, 1940, Feb. 26 folder 1, 13/20/51, ATANASOFF.

  27. Deposition of Warren Weaver, Honeywell v. Illinois Scientific, Henry Hansen Papers, box 5, file 2, 3/6/72, ISU-ADMIN.

  28. Diary of Warren Weaver, April 29, 1940, WEAVER.

  29. J. V. Atanasoff to Warren Weaver, July 10, 1940, Feb. 26 folder 1, 13/20/51, ATANASOFF.

  30. Mollenhoff, Atanasoff, Forgotten Father of the Computer, p. 52.

  31. Atanasoff, “Computing Machine for the Solution of Linear Algebraic Equations,” p. 233. Experience with a modern reconstruction has confirmed the challenges with the card punch and has also suggested that the machine could be a delicate device; see Grier, “Henry Wallace and the Start of Statistical Computing” (1999).

  32. Stewart, R., “End of the ABC.”

  33. Mollenhoff, Atanasoff, Forgotten Father of the Computer, p. 10.

  34. Herman Goldstine quoted in Stern, From ENIAC to UNIVAC, p. 34. The controversy has an extensive literature that includes Stern, From ENIAC to UNIVAC; Goldstine, The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann; the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 6, no. 3; Burks and Burks, The First Electronic Computer; Burks, Who Invented the Computer?; McCartney, ENIAC.

  35. Aiken, “Proposed Automatic Calculating Machine.”

  36. Aiken and Hopper, “The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator—I” (1946).

  37. Aiken and Hopper, “The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator—III” (1946).

  38. Cohen, Howard Aiken (1999), p. 63.

  39. Ibid., pp. 12–13, 22.

  40. Ibid., p. 42.

  41. Kidwell, “From Novelty to Necessity” (1990); H. Shapley to L. J. Comrie, February 23, 1923, UA630.22 box 4, HARVARD OBS.

  42. Aiken, “Proposed Automatic Calculating Machine.”

  43. Cohen, Howard Aiken, pp. 24, 85.

  44. Quoted in Ceruzzi, Reckoners (1983), p. xi.

  45. Bloch, “Programming Mark I,” p. 82.

  46. See Harvard University, Annals of the Computation Laboratory; Mathematical Tables Project, Tables.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  PROFESSIONAL AMBITION

  1. Wells, H. G., “The World of Tomorrow,” New York Times, May 5, 1939, p. AS4.

  2. “I.B.M. Convention Set,” New York Times, April 29, 1939, p. 34.

  3. “Debris Still Fills Pavilion of WPA,” New York Times, May 4, 1939, p. 20.

  4. “WPA Finds Friends at Its Fair Exhibit,” New York Times, July 6, 1939, p. 18.

  5. “WPA Exhibit Opens without Fanfare,” New York Times, May 23, 1939, p. 18.

  6. Lowan makes no mention of the fair in his correspondence, perhaps because he had little to show. See correspondence for 1939, MTP WPA.

  7. A. A. Bennett quoted in Executive Committee Minutes, April 7, 1939, NRC-PS.

  8. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Annual Report for 1936, ORDNANCE.

  9. Bliss, Mathematics for Exterior Ballistics, p. 55.

  10. R. C. Archibald to Simon Newcomb, July 2, 1902, NEWCOMB.

  11. Resume, Raymond Claire Archibald, Archibald Correspondence, Electronic Computers, 1939–54, NBS.

  12. Oswald Veblen to R. C. Archibald, January 12, 1928, VEBLEN.

  13. R. C. Archibald to MTAC Committee, June 28, 1939, Correspondence, 1940, NBS-MTAC.

  14. Albert Barrows to Luther p. Eisenhart, September 16, 1939, Correspondence, 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  15. Albert Barrows to Luther p. Eisenhart, July 11, 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  16. Archibald to Barrows, October 2, 1939, MTAC Correspondence, 1937–39, NRC-MTAC.

  17. Archibald to Y. Tsuyi, National Research Council of Japan, Correspondence, 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  18. W. J. Eckert to R. C. Archibald, August 16, 1940, ECKERT.

  19. MTAC Membership List, 1940, MTAC Folder, ECKERT.

  20. R. C. Archibald to Warren Weaver, Rockefeller Foundation, October 23, 1939, Correspondence, 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  21. Lehmer, Guide to Tables in the Theory of Numbers.

  22. L. P. Eisenhart to R. C. Archibald, July 20, 1940, Correspondence for 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  23. Archibald to Eisenhart, July 16, 1940, Correspondence for 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  24. Churchill Eisenhart, interview by William Aspray; Office Memorandum No. 433, 21 October, 1937, SAB.

  25. L. P. Eisenhart to A. Barrows, July 20, 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  26. R. C. Archibald to L. P. Eisenhart, July 29, 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  27. R. C. Archibald to L. P. Eisenhart, August 1, 1940, NRC-MTAC.

  28. See Correspondence for 1940, NRC-MTAC. The letter from Eisenhart to Albert Barrows, October 16, 1940, best describes the situation and the issues from Eisenhart’s point of view.

  29. Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 2, chap. 5.

  30. Gallup, “American Institute of Public Opinion Surveys” (1939), p. 599.

  31. Quoted in Burns, The Lion and the Fox, p. 393.

  32. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Annual Report for 1939, ORDNANCE.

  33. Dick, “A History of the American Nautical Almanac Office,” pp. 11–54.

  34. L. J. Comrie to W. J. Eckert, January 25, 1940, ECKERT.

  35. Weber, The Naval Observatory, pp. 42–43.

  36. U.S. Naval Observatory, Annual Report for 1944, p. 2.

  37. Capt. J. F. Hellweg, Superintendent, Naval Observatory, to Wallace Eckert, Decem
ber 6, 1939, ECKERT; see Gutzwiller, “Wallace Eckert,” pp. 150–51.

  38. U.S. Naval Observatory, Annual Report for 1941, pp. 10, 11, 13.

  39. “Final Report of the Math Tables Project,” March 15, 1943, MTP WPA.

  40. Lowan, “The Computational Laboratory at the National Bureau of Standards” (1949).

  41. Baxter, Scientists against Time, p. 7.

  42. Report of Arnold Lowan, June 13, 1941, MTP WPA.

  43. Allegra Rogers to Arnold Lowan, June 9, 1941, MTP WPA.

  44. He was discovering new groups as late as 1942; see Weekly Report of May 25, 1942, MTP WPA.

  45. Lyman Briggs to Col. Loper, June 14, 1941, MTP WPA.

  46. U.S. Federal Works Agency, Final Report, p. 79.

  47. Arnold Lowan to Philip Morse, March 18, 1941, MORSE.

  48. U.S. Federal Works Agency, Final Report, pp. 84, 85.

  49. Arnold Lowan to Philip Morse, December 17, 1940, MORSE.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Arnold Lowan to John von Neumann, May 17, 1941, NEUMANN.

  52. Plans were reviewed by an outside reviewer, the WPA office of New York, sponsor Lyman Briggs, the Washington WPA office, and the Central Statistical Office. This last group coordinated government statistical work and once had counted Howard Tolley of the Department of Agriculture among its members; see A. Lowan to p. Morse, October 19, 1938, MORSE.

  53. Night Letter, August 29, 1940, BRIGGS.

  54. R. C. Archibald to the Gentlemen of the Committee, December 31, 1941, NRC-MTAC.

  55. Wallace Eckert to R. C. Archibald, January 7, 1942, ECKERT.

  56. Lindbergh, The War Within and Without, pp. 241, 243.

  57. Philip Morse to Arnold Lowan, January 19, 1942, MORSE.

  58. Philip Morse to Arnold Lowan, January 12, 1942, and May 13, 1942, MORSE.

  59. Memo of Karl Compton, January 29, 1942, MORSE.

  60. Julius Stratton to Lyman Briggs, March 9, 1942, MORSE.

  61. Florence Kerr to Lyman Briggs, April 8, 1942, MTP WPA.

  62. Florence Kerr to R. C. Branion, May 19, 1942, MTP WPA; see also Lyman Briggs to General Huie, May 3, 1942, MTP WPA.

  63. Florence Kerr to Lyman Briggs, April 8, 1942, MTP WPA.

  64. Frank Culley to General Huie, July 1, 1942, MTP WPA.

  65. Report from Cincinnati office of FBI, September 20, 1955, BLANCH FBI; Philip Morse to Lyman Briggs, May 30, 1943, MORSE.

  66. “Summary of Supplemental Investigation,” April 23, 1956, BLANCH FBI.

  67. Grier, “The First Breach of Computer Security” (2001); see Stepanoff to Eckert, August 8, 1940, Eckert to Stepanoff, August 8, 1940, and Schilt to Eckert, August 9, 1940, ECKERT. For background on Amtorg, see Rhodes, R., Dark Sun (1995), pp. 57ff.

  68. Phil Morse to Fewell of National Bureau of Standards, June 25, 1942, MORSE.

  69. Pierce, Long Range Navigation (1948), p. 403.

  70. Melville Eastman to Julius Furer, July 2, 1942, MTP ONR.

  71. Ibid.

  72. Lyman Briggs to General Huie, September 7, 1942, MTP WPA.

  73. General Huie to Lyman Briggs, September 15, 1942, MTP WPA.

  74. Philip Morse to Arnold Lowan, October 2, 1942, MORSE.

  75. Internal Memo, “Simplified Outline of LORAN System Components,” October 8, 1942, MTP ONR.

  76. Fletcher Watson (MIT) to Warren Weaver (AMP), November 23, 1942, MORSE.

  77. Arnold Lowan to Philip Morse, November 2, 1942, MORSE.

  78. Ida Rhodes to Uta Merzbach, November 4, 1969, NMAH; a similar quote is given in Ida Rhodes, interview with Henry Tropp, March 21, 1973, SMITHSONIAN.

  79. L. J. Comrie to Arnold Lowan, December 7, 1942 (copy), MORSE.

  80. L. J. Comrie to Arnold Lowan, May 16, 1942, MTP WPA.

  81. Arnold Lowan to Philip Morse, December 31, 1941, MORSE.

  82. G. S. Bryan to New York City WPA Office, January 6, 1943, MTP WPA.

  83. To the Commandant, 3rd Naval District, February 16, 1943, MTP ONR.

  84. Regina Schlachter to Commandant, 3rd Naval District, February 15, 1944, MTP ONR.

  85. NDRC Organizational Chart, August 1943, AMP.

  86. Weaver, Scene of Change, p. 87.

  87. Warren Weaver to Jerzy Neyman, October 21, 1941, NEYMAN.

  88. Ibid.

  89. See Minutes of Executive Committee, Applied Mathematics Panel, AMP.

  90. Warren Weaver, “Report on the Proposed Applied Mathematics Panel,” November 12, 1942, AMP.

  91. Owens, “Mathematicians at War” (1996).

  92. Diary of Warren Weaver, December 10, 1942, AMP.

  93. Warren Weaver to James Conant, February 8, 1942, AMP.

  94. Warren Weaver to Grace Hopper, February 16, 1942, AMP.

  95. Hopper, “Commander Aiken and My Favorite Computer,” pp. 185–94.

  96. Warren Weaver to Lyman Briggs, February 23, 1942, AMP.

  97. Arnold Lowan to Philip Morse, March 3, 1943, MORSE.

  98. Lowan, “The Computational Laboratory at the National Bureau of Standards,” p. 37.

  99. Ida Rhodes to Uta Merzbach, November 4, 1969, NMAH.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  THE MIDTOWN NEW YORK GLIDE BOMB CLUB

  1. Beauclair, “Alwin Walther, IPM, and the Development of Calkulator/Computer Technology in Germany, 1930–l945.”

  2. Herbert Salzer, interview with the author.

  3. Croarken, Early Scientific Computing in Britain, pp. 61–74.

  4. Ceruzzi, “When Computers Were Human” (1991).

  5. G. S. Bryan to New York City WPA Office, January 6, 1943, MTP WPA; E. C. Crittenden, Acting Director, ONR, to Lowan, October 23, 1943, MTP ONR; Warren Weaver to Applied Mathematics Panel, November 12, 1943, MTP AMP.

  6. R. C. Archibald to MTAC Committee, August 6, 1942, ECKERT.

  7. L. Eisenhart to A. Barrows, August 7, 1942; A. Barrows to L. Eisenhart, August 10, 1942, NRC-MTAC.

  8. After his initial reaction, Weaver said that he would do nothing to stop the plan. W. Weaver to L. Eisenhart, August 14, 1942, NRC-MTAC.

  9. W. Eckert to R. C. Archibald, October 28, 1942, ECKERT.

  10. R. C. Archibald to MTAC Committee, August 6, 1942, ECKERT.

  11. Archibald, “Introduction” (1943).

  12. J. Brainerd to L. Briggs, February 9, 1943, Directors Correspondence, Records of the Director, UD E-6, NBS.

  13. Memo from Arnold Lowan to Mathematical Tables Project Staff, October 16, 1946, Monte Carlo Computations File (verso used as scratch paper), Research on Electronic Computers, 1939–54, NBS.

  14. Brainerd to J. A. Shohat, February 23, 1943, Course on Mathematical Ballistics, PENNSYLVANIA.

  15. U.S. Army, Ballisticians in War and Peace, p. 11; Irven Travis, Oral History, pp. 2–3.

  16. R. S. Zug to Major Gillon, “Report on work at Moore School, University of Pennsylvania, July 1–10, 1942,” July 14, 1942, Course on Mathematical Ballistics, PENNSYLVANIA.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Ibid.

  19. S. Reid Warren to J. Brainerd, January 9, 1945, Office of the Vice Dean, Correspondence for 1945, PENNSYLVANIA.

  20. Herman Goldstine, interview with the author, July 2002; Goldstine, The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann, p. 133.

  21. Herman Goldstine, interview with the author, July 2002.

  22. Minutes of Moore School Meeting of December 18, 1944, Course on Mathematical Ballistics, PENNSYLVANIA; Report (unsigned), July 27, 1942, Office of the Vice Dean, Correspondence for 1943, PENNSYLVANIA; Program for Selection and Processing of Applicants, July 17, 1942, Office of the Vice Dean, Correspondence for 1942, PENNSYLVANIA.

  23. Dean Pender to George Turner, September 21, 1942, Office of the Vice Dean, Correspondence for 1943, PENNSYLVANIA.

  24. W. Weaver to Applied Mathematics Panel, November 12, 1943, MTP AMP.

  25. Report (unsigned), July 27, 1942, Office of the Vice Dean, Correspondence for 1943, PENNSYLVANIA.

  26. See, for example, letters of July 10, 15; November 9, 14, 18, 1942; Januar
y 22, 23, 24, 28; March 27, 1943, Moore School of Electrical Engineering, Office of the Vice Dean, Records 1931–1948, UPD 8.1, PENNSYLVANIA.

  27. Minutes of Moore School Meeting of December 18, 1944, Course on Mathematical Ballistics, PENNSYLVANIA.

  28. Adele Goldstine to J. G. Brainerd, May 27, 1943, Office of the Vice Dean, Correspondence for 1943, PENNSYLVANIA.

  29. Comrie, L. J., “Computing Machines,” Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation, vol. 1, no. 2 (April 1943), pp. 63–64; Shannon, C. E., “Mathematical Theory of the Differential Analyzer,” Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation, vol. 1, no. 2 (April 1943), p. 64.

  30. Goldstine, The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann, p. 149.

  31. Croarken, Early Scientific Computing in Britain, pp. 62, 64.

  32. “The Missions of a Convert,” undated manuscript, TODD.

  33. John Todd, Interview, p. 9, SMITHSONIAN.

  34. Ibid.; John Todd, interview with the author.

  35. Taussky, “How I Became a Torchbearer for Matrix Theory.”

  36. Croarken, Early Scientific Computing in Britain (1990), p. 68; a similar statement was made by Todd in an interview with the author, January 2002.

  37. John Todd, interview with the author.

  38. Sadler and Todd, “Mathematics in Government Service and Industry” (1946).

  39. Frank Olver, interview with the author, March 2002.

  40. Olga Taussky-Todd to Frances Cave-Browne-Cave, August 29, 1947, CBC.

  41. John Todd, interview with the author.

  42. Todd, “John von Neumann and the National Accounting Machine” (1974).

  43. John von Neumann to John Todd, November 17, 1947, quoted ibid.; see also Aspray, John von Neumann (1990), pp. 27–28.

  44. For much of the war, the office of the Applied Mathematics Panel was in the Empire State Building, but all committee meetings were held at Rockefeller Center.

  45. Minutes of Executive Committee, December 13, 1943, AMP.

  46. Minutes of Executive Committee, May 24, 1943, AMP.

  47. Minutes of Executive Committee, April 26, 1943, AMP.

  48. Diary of J. D. Williams, February 9, 1944, AMP.

  49. Minutes of Executive Committee, February 7, 1944, AMP.

  50. Minutes of Executive Committee, November 22, 1943, AMP.

  51. See, for example, the discussion of the Coast Artillery for a specialized theory of ballistics, Minutes of Executive Committee, September 20, 1943, AMP.