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Rediscovering WWII's Top-Secret Computing 'Rosies'

Posted by Roblimo on 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.

3 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. My high school teacher was one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I went to high school in the late 1970's, just when the electronic calculator was becoming commercially viable. The head of our high school math department was a woman who also taught the linear algebra class. At that point she was in her 50s, and she liked to tell students her story of being a "calculator" during WW II, when she was fresh out of college. That's back when "arrays" were actual arrays of desks, one "calculator" in each performing one calculation on paper, passing the result to other calculator desks near her, getting results from others, then continuing the calculation with the newly received numbers for the next iteration.

    To this day when I'm programming a parallel physical model, I think of her saying "I was a calculator" and smiling at our bewildered faces. I'm glad to hear she's being remembered this way.

     

  2. Makes me think of Feynman by tibit · · Score: 5, Informative

    When Feynman was setting up discretized integrations using IBM machines for the Manhattan project, he made a human calculator model for what the IBM kit would do. The girls calculated as fast as the IBM punched-card based system of tabulators, collators, multipliers, adders, etc. In his words:

    The only difference was that the IBM machines didn't get tired and could work three shifts. But the girls got tired after a while.

    Never mind that he loved being around girls ;)

    --
    A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
  3. Re:WHAT!?? SHE NEVER HEARD ABOUT IT by cptdondo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You're going for funny, but the women were mostly treated like crap by the military brass once the war ended. Look up the history of the female test pilots and trainers. They were typically given the worst jobs, many died on the job, and at the end of the war they got a pink slip and no recognition or benefits. The men OTOH were given parades, VA benefits, pensions, you name it.

    It's a pretty shitty part of US history and I'm glad that someone is finally recognizing the role of women in early technology.