When Computers Were Human by Grier David Alan

Author:Grier, David Alan [Grier, David Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2013-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

32. Computing floor of the Mathematical Tables Project

Blanch divided the computing floor into four groups, one for each of the arithmetical operations. The largest group, identified as group 1, did addition only. A slightly smaller group, group 2, did subtraction. Group 3, which had about twenty computers, multiplied numbers by a single digit. The elite of the computing floor was the tiny group 4. Its members did long division. She isolated each group within the Mathematical Tables Project office. She placed group members at long tables facing a wall. On the wall she put a poster to remind the computers of the basic rules of arithmetic. Few of them had completed high school, and fewer still could be trusted to work without direction. Since most did not know how to manipulate negative numbers, she devised a scheme that used black pencils to record positive quantities and red pencils to record the negatives. The wall posters described how to handle numbers of different colors. The poster for the addition group read:

Black plus black is black.

Red plus red is red.

Black plus red or red plus black, hand the sheets to group 2.64

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