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Cyhist Jul 3 1996 B
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[Moderator's note: here is a transcript of an email discussion I had with
William A. Reitwiesner, whose mother worked first as a human "computer"
then on ENIAC, witnessing the transition from human computers to digital
computers (the word "computer" used to describe a human job.) Hopefully
she too will send us a description of her experience. With William
Reitwiesner's permission, I've forwarded our correspondence to the list.]
On July 3, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:
>>I just saw the notice in the June 24 1996 issue of *Government Computer
>>News*, p. 4, about the history of ENIAC.
>>
>>For what it's worth, I am a result of ENIAC. My parents were both BRL
>>employees (my mother was one of the "computers" that ENIAC was to
>>replace) and met there. I was born in Havre de Grace and spent my first
>>few years in Aberdeen. Of course, I have no memories of the place (and
>>my memories wouldn't be the sort of things you're looking for). My
>>father, George Reitwiesner, died a few years ago, but my mother, known
>>then as Home McAllister, is still alive. She has email but no WWW access.
>>
>>William Addams Reitwiesner
>>wrei@loc.gov
On Wed, 3 Jul 1996 12:13:51 -0500, David S. Bennahum wrote:
>William -- thanks for the note. Maybe your mother would be interested in
>writing a description of what it was like to be a "computer" (many people
>do not know that the word originates from this) and her recollections of
>how her work was turned over to digital computers. What was the transition
>like? Was there a point where both people and machines worked in parallel,
>or was it done all at once? What did she do after the transition? It
>would be great to hear first-person from her, since as far as I know I've
>never seen anything written about what it was like to witness first hand
>the transition from human computers to digital ones. Feel free to forward
>this message to her.
>
>best,
>db
>
On July 3, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:
I've forwarded your note to my mother, and when her server gets back in
commission (whenever that may be) she can read it.
I mentioned your email to her over the phone, and she said that she fought
being moved from being a computer to working with the IBM machines, and
later fought being moved to the ENIAC project. Not because she was a
Unabomberist Luddite or anything, but because she *liked* calculating
ballistics tables by hand, and because she was *good* at it.
That's something which is often overlooked in all of our talk of "progress"
and so on -- for example in libraries (such as where I work), the card
catalog has been replaced by an online catalog. While online catalogs are
marvelous, the card catalog had benefits which can't be replicated in an
online catalog. Not just the ability to move from here to there in the
catalog without having to type anything (my peeve), but the careers of
people who, as opposed to most of us, were actually *good* at filing 3X5
cards into card drawers. I suppose we should feel the same way about them
as we do about buggy-whip manufacturers at the beginning of the 20th
century, but still there's a loss.
For a long time the human computers worked in parallel with the ENIAC,
mostly because the ENIAC was so unreliable. The ENIAC crew felt that the
unreliability was a consequence of turning the damn thing *off* every night
and then *on* the next day, which meant power surges through the thousands
of vacuum tubes each time, and then hours troubleshooting the blown tubes.
That's actually the reason my father used the ENIAC to calculate the value
of pi, to some 2000 decimal places, which took 72 hours over a Labor Day
weekend -- to show that if you just let it run it would run fine. It
wasn't to advance our knowledge of pi (he also calculated e the same way),
but nonetheless my father has ended up as a footnote in the history of pi.
On July 5, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:
>With your permission, I'd like to forward your note to the list; I hope
>your mother will be able to write something as well.
OK, fine, I have no objections. Remember, what I'm telling you is *not* in
any way a memoir, as I wasn't there (at least not in any functional
capacity).
I may have left you with an incorrect impression. My mother *was* one of
the "computers", but she was transferred to, and worked for a long time on,
the ENIAC project. Apparently most of the computers didn't transfer, but
she did.
My father told me that one of the problems with the ENIAC, one which caused
many subtle problems with the machine, was finally traced to the janitorial
crew. While mopping or sweeping, occasionally they'd accidentally knock
out a wire. Scared of possible repercussions, they'd just plug the wire
back in. Did they put it in the right socket? "Who cares, all I know is
it's not hanging loose any more".
______________________________________________________________________
William A. Reitwiesner, whose mother worked first as a human "computer"
then on ENIAC, witnessing the transition from human computers to digital
computers (the word "computer" used to describe a human job.) Hopefully
she too will send us a description of her experience. With William
Reitwiesner's permission, I've forwarded our correspondence to the list.]
On July 3, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:
>>I just saw the notice in the June 24 1996 issue of *Government Computer
>>News*, p. 4, about the history of ENIAC.
>>
>>For what it's worth, I am a result of ENIAC. My parents were both BRL
>>employees (my mother was one of the "computers" that ENIAC was to
>>replace) and met there. I was born in Havre de Grace and spent my first
>>few years in Aberdeen. Of course, I have no memories of the place (and
>>my memories wouldn't be the sort of things you're looking for). My
>>father, George Reitwiesner, died a few years ago, but my mother, known
>>then as Home McAllister, is still alive. She has email but no WWW access.
>>
>>William Addams Reitwiesner
>>wrei@loc.gov
On Wed, 3 Jul 1996 12:13:51 -0500, David S. Bennahum wrote:
>William -- thanks for the note. Maybe your mother would be interested in
>writing a description of what it was like to be a "computer" (many people
>do not know that the word originates from this) and her recollections of
>how her work was turned over to digital computers. What was the transition
>like? Was there a point where both people and machines worked in parallel,
>or was it done all at once? What did she do after the transition? It
>would be great to hear first-person from her, since as far as I know I've
>never seen anything written about what it was like to witness first hand
>the transition from human computers to digital ones. Feel free to forward
>this message to her.
>
>best,
>db
>
On July 3, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:
I've forwarded your note to my mother, and when her server gets back in
commission (whenever that may be) she can read it.
I mentioned your email to her over the phone, and she said that she fought
being moved from being a computer to working with the IBM machines, and
later fought being moved to the ENIAC project. Not because she was a
Unabomberist Luddite or anything, but because she *liked* calculating
ballistics tables by hand, and because she was *good* at it.
That's something which is often overlooked in all of our talk of "progress"
and so on -- for example in libraries (such as where I work), the card
catalog has been replaced by an online catalog. While online catalogs are
marvelous, the card catalog had benefits which can't be replicated in an
online catalog. Not just the ability to move from here to there in the
catalog without having to type anything (my peeve), but the careers of
people who, as opposed to most of us, were actually *good* at filing 3X5
cards into card drawers. I suppose we should feel the same way about them
as we do about buggy-whip manufacturers at the beginning of the 20th
century, but still there's a loss.
For a long time the human computers worked in parallel with the ENIAC,
mostly because the ENIAC was so unreliable. The ENIAC crew felt that the
unreliability was a consequence of turning the damn thing *off* every night
and then *on* the next day, which meant power surges through the thousands
of vacuum tubes each time, and then hours troubleshooting the blown tubes.
That's actually the reason my father used the ENIAC to calculate the value
of pi, to some 2000 decimal places, which took 72 hours over a Labor Day
weekend -- to show that if you just let it run it would run fine. It
wasn't to advance our knowledge of pi (he also calculated e the same way),
but nonetheless my father has ended up as a footnote in the history of pi.
On July 5, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:
>With your permission, I'd like to forward your note to the list; I hope
>your mother will be able to write something as well.
OK, fine, I have no objections. Remember, what I'm telling you is *not* in
any way a memoir, as I wasn't there (at least not in any functional
capacity).
I may have left you with an incorrect impression. My mother *was* one of
the "computers", but she was transferred to, and worked for a long time on,
the ENIAC project. Apparently most of the computers didn't transfer, but
she did.
My father told me that one of the problems with the ENIAC, one which caused
many subtle problems with the machine, was finally traced to the janitorial
crew. While mopping or sweeping, occasionally they'd accidentally knock
out a wire. Scared of possible repercussions, they'd just plug the wire
back in. Did they put it in the right socket? "Who cares, all I know is
it's not hanging loose any more".
______________________________________________________________________
