When Computers Were Human

by David Alan Grier

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.

Genres: History, Science, Technology, Nonfiction, Mathematics, Computers, History Of Science

423 pages, ebook

First published February 22, 2005

About the author

Professor at George Washington University

Reviews

[Brian Borchers · Rating 5 out of 5]

There has been a lot of interest recently in the history of computing before the advent of digital computers, and particularly the role that women played as computers (a job title) in the first half of the twentieth century. The book and Movie, Hidden Figures, described a group of black women who worked as computers at the NACA and later NASA laboratory at Langley VA. Rise of the Rocket Girls gave an oral history of women computers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Grier's book is considerably broader in its coverage. I'd recommend all 3 books.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing how the author managed to write about such an interesting topic in such a dull way.

[Lucille Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very solid history of computers as a profession, before the rise of the electric computer. Author suffers from a lack of good transitions between topics and times, his prose is a bit wooden, and certain topics should have been delved into further. Nonetheless, a good read.

[Bradley Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of human computers.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lot of interesting historical context but ada lovelace only gets 2 sentences in the entire book 🙄🙄

[Ushan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first electronic digital computers were made in the early 1940s, and dozens more were built in the late 1940s and the early 1950s. How was computing done before that? The French Revolution introduced not only a new calendar and a new system of weights and measures, but also division of the right angle into 100 grades instead of 90 degrees. New trigonometric tables needed to be prepared for surveyors, who might lose their revolutionary fervor if they had to convert grades to degrees and use the ancien régime tables. The official in charge of this chanced upon the chapter in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations about a pin factory, and decided to organize a computing factory, hiring former wigmakers and servants, whose occupations were superfluous in the revolutionary society, but who could do arithmetic. Decades later Charles Babbage heard of this, and tried to build an automatic calculator of polynomials, but failed, having spent an enormous amount of money; a Swedish engineer and his son did build a simpler version. The nineteenth century saw many mechanical calculators and slide rules, which continued to be used well into the twentieth century; in the Soviet Union they were used into the 1970s. Large astronomical, ballistic, nautical calculations demanded large workshops full of calculators; the New Deal's stimulus program hired hundreds of unemployed men and women to calculate mathematical tables. One meteorologist imagined a weather forecasting service staffed by 64000 calculators; before Edward Lorenz's butterfly paper it was not realized, how hard it is. Electromechanical tabulators were used since the 1890 United States census; during the Manhattan Project, young Richard Feynman gave a plutonium bomb computation both to women with mechanical calculators and to tabulators; at first the women were ahead, but then they got tired, and the tabulators didn't.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember the team sport of complex calculations?

Usually, the word “computer” generates images of a powerful, programmable machine that can perform almost any task. However, a “computer” was originally a person who performed complex math. Some “human computers” were scientists who did advanced calculations, but most were workers who labored over the same types of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing hour after hour, day after day. Scientist David Alan Grier weaves a wonderful story of the history of computing, framed by the discovery of Halley’s Comet and its three subsequent appearances. The comet gives the story a nice structure that helps readers see the advances in computing over the past three centuries. Grier introduces colorful personalities and covers pivotal historical events in the rise of mechanical computing. getAbstract finds that this history book informs your understanding of how computerization advanced while also being a terrific read.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once looked up "computer" in a 1937 dictionary and read "one who computes". This book is a nice, if dry, history about those who computed in the days before digital took over...astronomy, navigation, ballistics, weather, census...the math tables are mind boggling, and I used many (Chemical Rubber Company anyone?)

I had a little nostalgia in the last chapter...Grier talked about two mainframes that marked the definite end to human computing - the IBM 360 and UNIVAC 1108 - both of which I wrote assembly language code for. I still remember that the UNIVC had 36 bit words.