Originally published: 2005.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-400) and index.

Astronomy and the Division of Labor 1682-1880 -- The First Anticipated Return: Halley's Comet 1758 -- The Children of Adam Smith -- The Celestial Factory: Halley's Comet 1835 -- The American Prime Meridian -- A Carpet for the Computing Room -- Mass Production and New Fields of Science 1880-1930 -- Looking Forward, Looking Backward: Machinery 1893 -- Darwin's Cousins -- Breaking from the Ellipse: Halley's Comet 1910 -- Captains of Academe -- War Production -- Fruits of the Conflict: Machinery 1922 -- Professional Computers and an Independent Discipline 1930-1964 -- The Best of Bad Times -- Scientific Relief -- Tools of the Trade: Machinery 1937 -- Professional Ambition -- New York Mid-town Glide Bomb Club -- The Victor's Share -- Only I Alone am Left to Tell Thee.

"Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology." "Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides an introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science." "When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers."--Jacket.

Print version record.

In English.

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