When Computers Were Human
Language: English
Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2005
- First Edition
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Twice Sold Tales, Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.Twice Sold Tales, Capitol Hill
AbeBooks seller since August 31, 1999
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 38.50
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
First Edition. Black cloth boards with gilding on outer spine. Minor bumping and rubbing to spine and boards. Soiling to text block. Soiling to paste-downs and free endpapers. Pages are clean, binding is tight. Minor bumping, rubbing and soiling to dust jacket. Dust jacket is housed in a Brodart mylar protective sleeve.
Seller Inventory # 11799
- Title
- When Computers Were Human
- Author
- Grier, David Alan
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
- Publication year
- 2005
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- Near Fine
- Binding
- Hardcover, 409 pages
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0691091579
- ISBN 13
- 9780691091570
- Edition
- First Edition.
- Seller catalogs
- First Editions, History, Science
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.
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About the Author
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Twice Sold Tales, Capitol Hill
Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since August 31, 1999
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