When Computers Were Human
Page 46
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Tolley, Memo on a course on least squares, November 16, 1922, TOLLEY.
10. Tolley and Ezekiel, “A Method of Handling Multiple Correlation Problems.”
11. Brandt, “Uses of the Progressive Digit Method.”
12. Tolley and Ezekiel, “A Method of Handling Multiple Correlation Problems.”
13. “BAE News,” vol. 8, no. 18, BAE.
14. Special Report of Howard Tolley, February 23, 1923, TOLLEY.
15. Ibid.
16. Cortada, Before the Computer, pp. 56–59.
17. “BAE News,” vol. 8, no. 18, BAE.
18. Employee List of Tabulating Bureau, December 3, 1926, BAE.
19. “BAE News,” vol. 8, no. 18, BAE.
20. Ezekiel, “Henry A. Wallace,” p. 791.
21. Wallace, “What Is an Iowa Farm Worth?” (1924), pp. 1ff.
22. Ezekiel, “Henry A. Wallace,” p. 791.
23. See Iowa State University, Annual Report, 1950–51, “John Evvard [sic].”
24. Henry Wallace to C. Cuthbert Hurd, February 21, 1965, NMAH.
25. Cox and Homeyer, “Professional and Personal Glimpses of George W. Snedecor.”
26. Wallace and Snedecor, Correlation and Machine Calculation, p. 1.
27. Lush, “Early Statistics at Iowa State University,” p. 220.
28. Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 147.
29. “Interview with Mary Clem by Uta Merzbach,” June 27, 1969, pp. 1, 7–8, SMITHSONIAN.
30. Report of the Mathematics Department for 1928, Vice President for Research File, 6/1/1, ISU; see also Snedecor, “Uses of Punched Card Equipment.”
31. Annual Report of Mathematics Department for 1928, Vice President for Research File, 6/1/1, ISU.
32. See Baehne, Practical Applications of the Punched Card Method, “Introduction and Table of Contents.”
33. “Interview with Mary Clem by Uta Merzbach,” June 27, 1969, pp. 1, 7–8, SMITHSONAIN.
34. “Mary Clem.”
35. “Interview with Mary Clem by Uta Merzbach,” June 27, 1969, pp. 22, 32, SMITHSONIAN.
36. MacDonald, Henry Wallace, p. 118.
37. Henry Wallace to George Snedecor, May 23, 1931, HAW.
38. Reich, The Making of American Industrial Research, pp. 163, 176.
39. “A Quarter Century of Transcontinental Telephone Service”; Mills, “The Line and the Laboratory.”
40. Froelich, Clara, “Biographical Information Form,” Barnard College Archives.
41. Price, “Award for Distinguished Service to Dr. Thornton Carl Fry.”
42. Reich, The Making of American Industrial Research, p. 2.
43. “Mathematical Research.”
44. Millman, A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System, p. 352.
45. “Mathematical Research.”
46. Comrie, L. J., “Inverse Interpolation and Scientific Applications of the National Accounting Machine” (1936).
47. Ibid.
48. Croarken, Early Scientific Computing in Britain, p. 24.
49. Ibid.
50. L. J. Comrie to T. D. Scott, November 28, 1924, Walter Dill Scott Papers, box 13, folder 10 (College of Liberal Arts: Department of Astronomy) Series 3/51/1, Northwestern University Archives.
51. Croarken, Early Scientific Computing in Britain, p. 25. For an interim period of six months, he served as an assistant in the almanac office.
52. Comrie, L. J., “Inverse Interpolation and Scientific Applications of the National Accounting Machine” (1936).
53. Ibid.
54. L. J. Comrie to Wallace Eckert, January 25, 1940, ECKERT.
55. Croarken and Campbell-Kelly, “Beautiful Numbers,” pp. 44–61.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.; Croarken, “Case 5,656.”
58. Croarken and Campbell-Kelly, “Beautiful Numbers”; Croarken, “Case 5,656.”
59. Croarken and Campbell-Kelly, “Beautiful Numbers.”
60. Ibid.; Croarken, “Case 5,656”; L. J. Comrie to Karl Pearson, June 1, 1933, 665/9, PEARSON.
61. Archibald, “BAASMTC Vol. 1.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE BEST OF BAD TIMES
1. Executive Order of 1918, “National Research Council,” in Cochrane, The National Academy of Sciences (1978), appendix.
2. Douglas Miller to Frank Schlesinger, June 27, 1930, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
3. F. K. Richtmyer to D. C. Miller, October 9, 1930, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
4. Frank Schlesinger to F. K. Richtmyer, June 19, 1930, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
5. F. K. Richtmyer to Frank Schlesinger, June 24, 1930, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
6. F. K. Richtmyer to D. C. Miller, October 9, 1933, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
7. Bush, “The Differential Analyzer” (1931), n. 6.
8. Ibid.
9. D. C. Miller to F. K. Richtmyer, October 28, 1933, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
10. Thornton Fry to F. K. Richtmyer, December 22, 1930, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
11. Thornton Fry to F. K. Richtmyer, January 19, 1931, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
12. Henry Reitz to F. K. Richtmyer, March 23, 1934, Correspondence 1934–36, NRC-MTAC.
13. Thornton Fry to F. K. Richtmyer, January 19, 1931, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
14. National Research Council, International Critical Tables (1926), p. ii.
15. F. K. Richtmyer to Thornton Fry, January 21, 1931, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
16. F. K. Richtmyer to Thornton Fry, May 5, 1931, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
17. F. K. Richtmyer to Thornton Fry, June 4, 1931, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
18. This image comes from book 35 of Pliny’s Natural History. He would quote the proverb in Latin: “Ne sutor ultra crepidam.”
19. Davis, H. T., Adventures of an Ultra-Crepidarian (1962), pp. 61–62.
20. Ibid., p. 98.
21. Ibid., pp. 174, 198.
22. Ibid., pp. 203, 294.
23. Ibid., p. 242.
24. Bryan, “The Life of the Professor.”
25. William Rawles to W. L. Bryan, January 18, 1927, IU BRYAN; Davis, H. T., Adventures of an Ultra-Crepidarian, pp. 240–41, 271–72.
26. Thornton Fry to F. K. Richtmyer, January 19, 1931, Correspondence 1930–33, NRC-MTAC.
27. Davis, H. T., Adventures of an Ultra-Crepidarian, pp. 271–72.
28. Ibid.
29. Henry Reitz to F. K. Richtmyer, March 23, 1934, Correspondence 1934–36, NRC-MTAC.
30. Davis, H. T., Adventures of an Ultra-Crepidarian, p. 273.
31. Davis, H. T., Tables of the Higher Mathematical Functions, pp. xi–xiii.
32. Davis, H. T., Adventures of an Ultra-Crepidarian, p. 297.
33. Reiman, The New Deal and American Youth, p. 130.
34. Undated memo from Ardis Monk, head of the computing office, UC PHYSICS.
35. Davis, H. T., Adventures of an Ultra-Crepidarian, pp. 319, 337.
36. Fletcher et al., Index of Tables, pp. 804–6.
37. Comrie, L. J., “Tables of Higher Functions,” Mathematical Gazette, vol. 20, 1936, pp. 225–27.
38. Comrie, “Inverse Interpolation” (1936); Fletcher et al., Index of Tables, pp. 804–6.
39. Fletcher et al., Index of Tables, pp. 804–6.
40. “History of the Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi Railroad Company,” http://www.almrailroad.com/history.htm.
41. Cowles Commission, Report of Research Activities, July 1, 1964–June 30, 1967.
42. Christ, History of the Cowles Commission (1952), p. 7.
43. Carl Christ suggests that Davis may have known of some method to compute regression equations with tabulators (ibid., p. 8).
44. Davis, H. T., Adventures of an Ultra-Crepidarian, pp. 299–300.
45. Ibid., p. 302.
46. Dates unknown; she took her BA in
1927; Colorado College Library Special Collections; Davis, H. T., Tables of the Higher Mathematical Functions, p. 193.
47. Cowles, A., “Can Stock Market Forecasters Forecast?” (1933).
48. Davis, H. T., Adventures of an Ultra-Crepidarian, p. 302; Christ, History of the Cowles Commission, p. 4; Elizabeth Webb Wilson Scrapbooks, vol. 3, p. 40, WILSON PAPERS.
49. Christ, History of the Cowles Commission, p. 10.
50. Elizabeth Webb Wilson Scrapbooks, vol. 3, p. 40, WILSON PAPERS.
51. “Boston Woman Is Rated Insurance Expert Deluxe.” See also Wilson, Compulsory Health Insurance.
52. Veblen, T., The Higher Learning in America (1918), p. 124.
53. Feffer, “Oswald Veblen.”
54. Rodgers, Think, p. 134.
55. Pugh, Building IBM (1995), pp. 34–45.
56. Rodgers, Think, p. 135.
57. Benjamin Wood, interview by Henry Tropp, p. 1, SMITHSONIAN.
58. In his Smithsonian interview, Wood quotes Watson as saying that IBM had no installations in government offices before 1928 (ibid., p. 32), yet Wood clearly had Watson’s attention.
59. Benjamin Wood, interview by Henry Tropp, p. 6, SMITHSONIAN.
60. Watson and Petre, Father and Son and Company, p. 37.
61. Benjamin Wood, interview by Henry Tropp, p. 11, SMITHSONIAN.
62. Watson and Petre, Father and Son and Company, p. 37.
63. Benjamin Wood, interview by Henry Tropp, p. 12, SMITHSONIAN.
64. Brennan, The IBM Watson Laboratory, p. 141.
65. Benjamin Wood, interview by Henry Tropp, p. 12, SMITHSONIAN.
66. Brown, E. W., The Motion of the Moon.
67. Comrie, L. J., “The Application of the Hollerith Tabulating Machine” (1932).
68. L. J. Comrie to Wallace J. Eckert, May 1, 1935, box 1.2, ECKERT. Strictly speaking, Comrie was using cards produced by the British Tabulating Machine Company, a firm that had IBM investment and had licensed IBM technology.
69. Eckert, “Astronomy” (1935); Comrie, L. J., “The Application of the Hollerith Tabulating Machine.”
70. Eckert, “Astronomy.”
71. Wallace J. Eckert to G. W. Baehne, January 9, 1934, box 1.2, ECKERT.
72. Baehne, Practical Applications of the Punched Card Method, preface.
73. Eckert, “Astronomy.”
74. Brennan, The IBM Watson Laboratory, p. 9.
75. Grier, “The First Breach of Computer Security?” (2001). Numerov’s death is described in P. G. Kulikousky, “Boris Numerov,” Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles Gillespie, New York, Scribners, 1974, pp. 158–60.
76. Eckert, Punched Card Methods (1940), p. 1.
77. Report on Annual Meeting of Board of Managers of Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau, April 27, 1940, ECKERT.
78. Henry Reitz to F. K. Richtmyer, February 19, 1934, Correspondence 1934–36, NRC-MTAC.
79. H. L. Reitz to F. K. Richtmyer, March 23, 1934, Correspondence 1934–36, NRC-MTAC.
80. U.S. Army, Ballisticians in War and Peace, p. 11; Aberdeen Proving Ground, Annual Reports for 1933–37.
81. U.S. Army, Ballisticians in War and Peace, p. 11.
82. R. A. Millikan to H. T. Davis, June 24, 1936, Correspondence 1934–36, NRC-MTAC.
83. L. J. Comrie to Robert Millikan, July 28, 1936, Correspondence 1937–39, NRC-MTAC.
84. A. A. Bennett to Henry Barton, October 10, 1936, Correspondence 1937–39, NRC-MTAC.
85. Croarken, “Case 5,656” (1999); see also Wilkins, “The History of H.M. Nautical Almanac Office,” p. 59.
86. Croarken, “Case 5,656” (1999).
87. Ibid.
88. Comrie, “Scientific Computing Service Limited,” pp. 1–3.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SCIENTIFIC RELIEF
1. Polk’s Washington (District of Columbia) City Directory, Richmond, Va., R. L. Polk, 1936; “Malcolm Morrow.”
2. When organized in 1935, the agency was originally called the Works Progress Administration. The Emergency Relief Act of 1939 changed its name to Work Projects Administration. To avoid confusion, this book will use the latter name throughout.
3. Bancroft, “Statistical Laboratory of the Iowa State University” (1966); Dedicatory Plaque, George Snedecor Hall, Iowa State University.
4. U.S. Federal Works Agency, Final Report, p. 65.
5. Works Progress Administration, Index, projects 3895, 3896, p. 13.
6. Ibid., p. iv.
7. Ibid., project 4273, p. 60.
8. “WPA Will Add 350,000 to Rolls.”
9. Office Memorandum No. 433, October 21, 1937, SAB.
10. Ibid.
11. Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, p. 250.
12. Paul Brockett to Frank Lillie, October 21, 1937, SAB.
13. Frank Lillie to Emerson Ross, October 29, 1937, SAB.
14. Office Memorandum No. 433, October 21, 1937, SAB.
15. Ibid.
16. Ickes, Secret Diary of Harold Ickes, p. 233; Kessner, Fiorello H. La Guardia, p. 418.
17. Office Memorandum No. 433, October 21, 1937, SAB.
18. Paul Brockett to Frank Lillie, November 6, 1937, SAB.
19. Paul Brockett to Frank Lillie, November 1, 1937, SAB.
20. Summary of Meeting, January 28, 1938, BRIGGS.
21. Lyman Briggs to the Secretary of Commerce, November 7, 1934, BRIGGS.
22. Civil Works Administration Projects folder #680, box 46, NBS.
23. Cochrane, Measures for Progress (1966), p. 332.
24. Paul Brockett to Frank Lillie, November 16, 1937, SAB.
25. “Lowan Information Sheet,” LOWAN.
26. Snyder-Grenier, Brooklyn, p. 258.
27. Lowan WPA Employment Form, MTP WPA.
28. George Pegram to Oswald Veblen, June 13, 1933, LOWAN.
29. Arnold Lowan Biographical Record Form, LOWAN.
30. Ida Rhodes to Uta Merzbach, November 4, 1969, NMAH.
31. Gertrude Blanch, interview by Henry Thatcher in San Diego, March 17, 1989, STERN.
32. Howe, World of Our Fathers, p. 131.
33. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service Certificate, March 16, 1966, STERN.
34. Gertrude Blanch, interview with Michael Stern, approximately 1989, STERN.
35. Blanch’s library included Bennett, Corporation Accounting, New York, Ronald Press, 1919; Rosenthal, Technical Procedure in Exporting and Importing, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1922; and Mills, Statistical Methods, New York, Holt, 1924 (card file of book collection, STERN).
36. Transcript of Gittel Kaimowitz, BLANCH NYU.
37. Rossiter, Women Scientists in America, p. 173.
38. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, p. 70.
39. Director FBI to Assistant Attorney General, May 17, 1956, BLANCH FBI.
40. Order of King’s County Court for Gittel Kaimowitz, February 9, 1932, STERN.
41. Gertrude Blanch, interview with Michael Stern, approximately 1989, STERN.
42. Gertrude Blanch, interview by Henry Thatcher in San Diego, March 17, 1989, STERN.
43. Ibid.
44. Blanch, Properties of the Veneroni Transformation (1934), p. i.
45. Records of the Alpha Chapter of Sigma Delta Epsilon, 1930–40, CORNELL.
46. Blanch, Properties of the Veneroni Transformation (1934), p. i.
47. “Field Mathematician Gets Top Job Rating.”
48. Hazel Ellenwood to Gertrude Blanch, February 26, 1937, CORNELL.
49. Gertrude Blanch, interview with Michael Stern, approximately 1989, STERN.
50. Gertrude Blanch, interview by Henry Thatcher in San Diego, March 17, 1989, STERN.
51. Gertrude Blanch, interview with Michael Stern, approximately 1989, STERN.
52. Gertrude Blanch, interview by Henry Thatcher in San Diego, March 17, 1989, STERN.
53. Gertrude Blanch, interview by Henry Tropp, May 16, 1973, SMITHSONIAN.
54. Barlow, Barlow’s Tables.
55. Mathemat
ical Tables Project, Tables of the Exponential Function (1939).
56. Ibid., pp. 50–51.
57. Report of Meeting, January 28, 1938, BRIGGS.
58. Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Division of Physical Sciences, April 1, 1938, NAS.
59. U.S. Federal Works Agency, Final Report, p. 41.
60. Gertrude Blanch, interview with Henry Tropp, May 16, 1973, SMITHSONIAN.
61. Gertrude Blanch, interview by Henry Thatcher in San Diego, March 17, 1989, STERN.
62. Ida Rhodes to Uta Merzbach, November 4, 1969, NMAH.
63. Grier, “The Math Tables Project” (1998).
64. Slutz, “Memories of the Bureau of Standards SEAC.”
65. Abraham Hillman, interview with the author, February 1996.
66. David Stern, interview with the author, January 2002.
67. Abraham Hillman, interview with the author, February 1996.
68. Gertrude Blanch, interview with Michael Stern, approximately 1989, STERN.
69. Gertrude Blanch, interview with Henry Tropp, May 16, 1973, SMITHSONIAN.
70. Weekly Report of the Mathematical Tables Project for September 15, 1941, MTP WPA.
71. Fletcher et al., An Index of Mathematical Tables, p. 881.
72. Blanch and Rhodes, “Table-Making at the National Bureau of Standards.”
73. The procedure for reauthorizing is described in Office Memorandum No. 433, October 21, 1937, SAB.
74. The most complete series of this correspondence is found in Lowan Correspondence, 1940, box 13, Records Relating to Computing, NBS.
75. Lyman Briggs to Arnold Lowan, June 28, 1939, BRIGGS.
76. Arnold Lowan to Lyman Briggs, June 28, 1939, and Lyman Briggs to Arnold Lowan, July 27, 1939, BRIGGS.
77. John von Neumann to Arnold Lowan, September 19, 1940, NEUMANN.
78. Phil Morse to Arnold Lowan, September 21, 1938, W.P.A. Math Table Files, MORSE.
79. Arnold Lowan to Phil Morse, September 28, 1938, W.P.A. Math Table Files, MORSE.
80. Phil Morse to Arnold Lowan, October 18, 1938, W.P.A. Math Table Files, MORSE.
81. Howard, The WPA and Federal Relief Policy, p. 278.
82. Bethe and Critchfield, “The Formation of Deuterons by Proton Combination”; Bethe, “Energy Production in Stars.”
83. Blanch et al., “The Internal Temperature Density Distribution of the Sun” (1942).
84. Hans Bethe to Arnold Lowan, February 14, 1939, MTP AMP.
85. Hans Bethe quoted in Bernstein, “Profiles (Hans Bethe Part I).”
86. Hans Bethe to Arnold Lowan, January 17, 1940, Bethe File, Records Relating to Computing, NBS.