Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Rediscovering WWII's Top-Secret Computing 'Rosies'

Posted by Roblimo on Tuesday February 8, 2011 @06:53PM from the better-65-years-late-than-never dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Women were recruited to do ballistics calculations and program computers during WWII. Half a century later, their work is only beginning to get recognition." Some of that recognition is in the form of a documentary film released in 2010 titled Top Secret Rosies.

1 of 113 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:Common practice by Chris+Mattern · 2011-02-09 04:13 · Score: 3, Insightful

So - how do you explain all the naval gunnery?
They weren't on the ships. The gunners on the ships, who were indeed men, in the days before you had artillery computers (machines) had charts and tables to look up the answers in. Books of them. Who calculated those charts and tables? Women in offices hired for the task. This was the standard procedure for solving numerical problems in the days before calculating machines (slide rules were only good for about three significant digits--fine for an estimate, but no good for work that required more accuracy. Also, pre-computed references were better for involved calculations for specialized purposes (like artillery ranging)). My dad got his degree in mechanical engineering back in the '50s; I still have his slide rule--and his book of mathematical tables.