When Computers Were Human (67 page)

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; January 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.

52
. Applied Mathematics Panel to Chairs of Mathematics Departments, December 15, 1943, Correspondence 1940–45, IOWA MATH.

53
. Reports of Columbia SRG, AMG-C, and BRG, Minutes of Executive Committee, May 4, 1944, AMP; MacLane, “Appendix: Roster of People.”

54
. Isaacson, “The Origin of Mathematics of Computation and Some Personal Recollections.”

55
. Budget of the Applied Mathematics Panel for 1944, Diary of Warren Weaver, January 10, 1944, AMP.

56
. See AMP Correspondence for September–October 1943, November 1943, especially Equitable Life Insurance to Warren Weaver, October 27, 1943, and Diary of Mina Rees for November 6, 1944, AMP.

57
. Minutes of Executive Committee, June 28, 1943, AMP.

58
. Warren Weaver to Harold V. Gaskill, Iowa State College, November 4, 1943, Diary of Mina Rees, AMP.

59
. Stewart, “End of the ABC.”

60
. Rosser, “Mathematics and Mathematicians in World War II.”

61
. Abraham Hillman, interview with the author, February 1996.

62
. Weekly Reports of Mathematical Tables Project, 1943–44, AMP.

63
. Officer in Charge of New York Project to Hydrographer, October 9, 1944, MTP ONR.

64
. Warren Weaver to Lyman Briggs, March 31, 1944, AMP.

65
. Craven and Gate,
The Army Air Forces in World War II
, p. 169.

66
. Reid,
Neyman from Life
, p. 190.

67
. Owens, “Mathematicians at War: Warren Weaver and the Applied Mathematics Panel, 1942–1945” (1989).

68
. Diary of Warren Weaver, November 16, 1943, AMP.

69
. See “Excerpt from Diary of J. Neyman, Washington, DC and Eglin Field, Florida,” December 3–19, 1942, Jerzy Neyman Correspondence, AMP.

70
. Reid,
Neyman from Life
, p. 183.

71
. Jerzy Neyman to Warren Weaver, August 6, 1942, Jerzy Neyman Files, AMP.

72
. Ibid.

73
. Linus Pauling to Warren Weaver, February 5, 1942, Jerzy Neyman Files, AMP.

74
. Warren Weaver to Jerzy Neyman, July 2, 1942, Jerzy Neyman Files, AMP.

75
. Executive Committee Minutes, November 29, 1943, AMP.

76
. Jerzy Neyman to Warren Weaver, December 17, 1943, AMP. This letter was written from California after the Mathematical Tables Project had finished work in New York, but Neyman had yet to learn this.

77
. Diary of Warren Weaver, December 17, 1943, AMP.

78
. Craven and Gate,
The Army Air Forces in World War II
, p. 169.

79
. Commander Bramble quoted in Executive Committee Minutes, December 20, 1943, AMP.

80
. Andrews, E. C., “Telephone Switching and the Early Bell Laboratories
Computers” (1982); Williams,
A History of Computing Technology
, pp. 225–27; Cesareo, “The Relay Interpolator.”

81
. Executive Committee Minutes, December 20, 1943, AMP.

82
. There are many discussions of the ENIAC. The canonical accounts are Stern,
From ENIAC to UNIVAC
, and Goldstine,
The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann
. Two versions that attempt to address the machine in the context of its human computers are Fritz, “The Women of ENIAC,” and Bergin,
Fifty Years of Army Computing
.

83
. Arthur Burks, interview conducted by William Aspray, June 20, 1987, OH 136, CBI.

84
. Eckstein, “J. Presper Eckert.”

85
. Cohen, I. B.,
Howard Aiken
(1999), pp. 115, 119; Campbell, “Mark II, an Improved Mark I.”

86
. Executive Committee Minutes, March 6, 1944, AMP.

87
. Ibid.

88
. Mina Rees to Oswald Veblen, June 9, 1945, Applied Mathematics Panel Correspondence, AMP.

89
. See, for example, Executive Committee Minutes, March 1, 1943, AMP.

90
. Quoted in Stachel, “Lanczos's Early Contributions to Relativity and His Relationship with Einstein.”

91
. Blanch and Rhodes, “Table-Making at the National Bureau of Standards.”

92
. Executive Committee Minutes, November 6, 1944, AMP.

93
. Undated memo from Ardis Monk, head of the computing office, UC PHYSICS.

94
. Metropolis and Nelson, “Early Computing at Los Alamos”; see also Gleick,
Genius
, pp. 175–84.

95
. Everett Yowell, Interview, SMITHSONIAN.

96
.
Register of the United States for 1901
, Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1901.

97
. Everett Yowell, interview with the author, December 1998.

98
. Everett Yowell, Interview, SMITHSONIAN.

99
. Metropolis and Nelson, “Early Computing at Los Alamos.”

100
. Feynman, “Los Alamos from Below.”

101
. Metropolis and Nelson, “Early Computing at Los Alamos”; Gleick,
Genius
, pp. 175–84.

102
. Cohen, Portrait of a Computer Pioneer, p. 164.

C
HAPTER
S
EVENTEEN

T
HE
V
ICTOR
'
S
S
HARE

1
. Stibitz, “Lecture” (1946), p. 15; Comrie, “Careers for Girls” (1944).

2
. Diary of J. B. Williams, December 2, 1944, AMP. The term is used in a reference to John Tukey of Princeton University. Tukey, credited with inventing the word “bit” to refer to a binary digit, was known to be inventive with language and is probably the source of the term “kilogirl.” Stibitz referred to “girl years”; Stibitz, “Lecture” (1946).

3
.
Comrie, “Careers for Girls” (1944).

4
. Ida Rhodes to Uta Merzbach, November 4, 1969, NMAH; Abraham Hillman, interview with the author, February, 1996; Golemba,
Women in Aeronautical Research
, p. 41.

5
. Minutes of Executive Committee, September 25, 1944, AMP; see Reingold, “Vannevar Bush's New Deal for Research” (1987).

6
. Stewart, I.,
Organizing Scientific Research for War
, p. 299.

7
. Zachary,
Endless Frontier
, p. 218.

8
. Warren Weaver to Lyman Briggs, October 2, 1944, General Correspondence 7/1/44 to 21/31/44, AMP.

9
. Minutes of Executive Committee, September 25, 1944, AMP; see Stewart, I.,
Organizing Scientific Research for War
, pp. 299–309.

10
. Warren Weaver to J. G. Brainerd of the University of Pennsylvania, December 19, 1944, General Correspondence 7/1/44 to 21/31/44, AMP.

11
. Minutes of Executive Committee, September 11, 1944, AMP.

12
. Ibid.

13
. Officer in Charge of New York Project to Hydrographer, October 9, 1944, MTP ONR.

14
. Minutes of Executive Committee, August 28, 1944, AMP.

15
. Notes of Thornton Fry, October 18, 19, 1944, AMP.

16
. Minutes of Executive Committee, November 6, 1944, AMP.

17
. Minutes of Executive Committee, March 15, 1945, AMP.

18
. Ibid.

19
. Minutes of Executive Committee, April 2, 1945, AMP.

20
. Ibid.

21
. Richard Courant, “Some Thoughts on the Research Board for National Security” (ca. March 1945), AMP.

22
. Minutes of Executive Committee, April 2, 1945, AMP.

23
. McCullough,
Truman
, p. 349.

24
. Minutes of Executive Committee, April 16, 1945, AMP.

25
. Minutes of Executive Committee, June 2, 1945, AMP.

26
. Minutes of Executive Committee, April 2, 1945, AMP.

27
. Lyman Briggs to General Huie, April 13, 1942, MTP WPA.

28
. Todd, “Oberwolfach—1945” (1983).

29
. Beauclair, “Alwin Walther, IPM, and the Development of Calkulator/Computer Technology in Germany, 1930–1945,” p. 342.

30
. Todd, “Oberwolfach—1945” (1983).

31
. Ibid.

32
. Süss, “The Mathematical Research Institute Oberwolfach through Critical Times.”