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Gary wrote-

| I just noticed in a volume of H.O. 214 printed in 1940 a statement that
| the computations were done with seven place logarithms. This shows that
| the early volumes were computed by hand. This was done as part of the
| WPA program to put out of work mathematicians to work during the
| depression. I wonder when these tables started to be calculated with
| computers? Think of the amount of work doing all these calculations,
| (720 entries per page, 259 pages per volumes, 186,400 entries per
| volume) by hand.

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Gary may be interested in the following reminiscences by Donald Sadler, who
was superintendent of the Nautical Almanac Office in Britain over the period
between 1936 and 1971, which spanned the transition between hand,
electromechanical, and electronic computation.
http://www.hmnao.com/nao/history/dhs_gaw/index.html

There's other interesting stuff in the same historical section of the
Nautical Almanac Office website.

George

contact George Huxtable, at  george@hux.me.uk
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.

   

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