Technology for Modelling (eBook)

Electrical Analogies, Engineering Practice, and the Development of Analogue Computing

Charles Care (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2010 | 2010
XVIII, 203 Seiten
Springer London (Verlag)
978-1-84882-948-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Historians have different views on the core identity of analogue computing. Some portray the technology solely as a precursor to digital computing, whereas others stress that analogue applications existed well after 1940. Even within contemporary sources, there is a spectrum of understanding around what constitutes analogue computing. To understand the relationship between analogue and digital computing, and what this means for users today, the history must consider how the technology is used. Technology for Modelling investigates the technologies, the concepts, and the applications of analogue computing. The text asserts that analogue computing must be thought of as not just a computing technology, but also as a modelling technology, demonstrating how the history of analogue computing can be understood in terms of the parallel themes of calculation and modelling. The book also includes a number of detailed case studies of the technology's use and application. Topics and features: discusses the meaning of analogue computing and its significance in history, and describes the main differences between analogue and digital computing; provides a chronology of analogue computing, based upon the two major strands of calculation and modeling; examines the wider relationship between computing and modelling, and discusses how the theme of modelling fits within the history of analogue computing; describes how the history of analogue computing evolved through a number of stages of use; presents illustrative case studies on analogue modelling in academic research, oil reservoir modelling, aeronautical design, and meteorology. General readers and researchers in the field of history of computing - as well as history of science more generally - will find this book a fascinating insight into the historical use and evolution of technology. The volume provides a long-needed historical framework and context for these core computing technologies. Dr. Charles Care is a senior software engineer at BT and an Associate Fellow at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Warwick, UK.

Inhalt

Preface 7
Acknowledgements 9
Contents 11
List of Figures 15
Acronyms 17
Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing 19
Introduction: Analogue Computers in the History of Computing 20
Analogue Computers: Another Class of Computing Technology 21
Analogue Computer: A Challenge to Define 24
Analogue Computing as Modelling Technology 27
Structure of This Book 30
Part I: Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing 30
Part II: Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts 31
A Multi-Stranded Chronology of Analogue Computing 34
Two Meanings of Analogue: The Tension Between Analogy and Continuity 35
Towards a Chronology of Analogue Computing 37
First Thematic Time-Line-Mechanising the Calculus: The Story of Continuous Computing Technology 39
1814-1850: Towards the Mechanical Integrator: The Invention and Development of the Planimeter 39
Hermann, Gonnella, Oppikofer: The Various Inventors of the Planimeter 40
1850-1876: Maxwell, Thomson and Kelvin: The Emergence of the Integrator as a Computing Component 43
1870-1900: The Age of the Continuous Calculating Machine 48
1885: H.S. Hele-Shaw and H.P. Babbage: An Early Analogue-Digital Debate 48
1880-1920: The Integrator Becomes an Embedded Component Initiating Associations Between Control and Calculation 50
1884: Determining the Engine Speed of a Royal Navy Warship: The Blythswood Speed Indicator, an Example of an Embedded Integrator 50
1911: Integrators in Fire Control: Arthur Hungerford Pollen and the Royal Navy 51
1915: Technology Transfer: Elmer Sperry, Hannibal Ford and Fire Control in the US Navy 52
1920-1946: The `Heyday' of Analogue Computing? 52
1931: Vannevar Bush and the Differential Analyser 54
Second Thematic Time-Line-From Analogy to Computation: the Development of Electrical Modelling 56
1845-1920: The Development of Analogy Methods 57
Tracing Field Lines, Field Analogies and Electrolytic Tanks 57
Miniature Power Networks and Resistor-Capacitor Models 59
1920-1946: Pre-digital Analogue Modelling 59
1924: The Origins of the MIT Network Analyser 60
1932: Le Laboratoire des Analogies Electriques: Electrolytic Tanks in France 61
1935: George Philbrick and the Polyphemus: Development of Electronic Modelling at Foxboro 62
1942: William A. Bruce and the Modelling of Oil Reservoirs 63
Third Thematic Time-Line-Analogue Computing and the Entwining of Calculation and Modelling 64
1940: The Emergence of Analogue Computing as a Technical Label and Class of Machine 64
1945-1960: The Development and Stabilisation of Computer Technology 66
The Development of Electronic Differential Analysers 66
Early Digital Computers as the Evolution of Analogue Architectures 67
Analogue Techniques on Digital Hardware: The Digital Differential Analyser 68
1950-1965: The Commercialisation of the Analogue Computer, and the Invention of Hybrid Computing 70
Conclusions 71
Modelling Technology and the History of Analogue Computing 73
Modelling: A Variety of Definitions and Associations 74
Modelling as a Meta-Narrative for the History of Computing 75
Support for Thinking of the Computer as a Modelling Medium 77
Theoretical Support for a Modelling Perspective 79
Historical Support for a Modelling Perspective 83
Analogue Computing as a Technology of Modelling 85
Conclusion 87
Origins of Analogue: Conceptual Association and Entanglement 89
The Establishment of `Forward Analogy': Historical Influences from Electrical Theory 90
Modelling with Electricity: Early Use of a Reverse Analogy 92
Clifford Nickle and Vannevar Bush: Modelling with the Reverse Analogy 94
Establishing a Modelling Medium Based on the Reverse Analogy: The Work of Nickle and Doherty 94
Stabilising the Field: Bush's Classification Schemes and Their Enrolling Function 97
Positive Association with Computing and Computational Rhetoric 99
Formation of an Analogue User Culture 100
George Philbrick and Lightning Empiricism: An Exemplar of Analogue Culture 102
Simulation Culture and the Transition to Digital 105
Digital Languages for Simulating Analogue Computing 106
Dis-enrollment of Analogue Computing and the Redefinition of Analogue Culture 107
Conclusion 109
Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts 110
Analogue Computers in British Higher Education 111
Calculation, Modelling, or Control: Three Different Uses, Three Different Histories 115
Analogue Research at Manchester: Networks, Tanks, and Hybrid Computing 117
Analogue Research at Imperial College: Networks and Tanks as Engineering Tools 119
King's College London: Analogue Computing at `Ultra-High Speed' 120
Analogue Computing at Birmingham 125
Analogue Computing at the University of Bath: An Example of a Technical College 129
The Flowers Report and the Funding of Analogue Computing 130
Conclusion 133
Analogue Computers and Oil Reservoir Modelling 136
Production Management and the Application of Analogue Computing 137
Modelling Hydraulic Pressures with Electricity: William A. Bruce and the Carter Analyser 138
Incorporating Repetitive Operation: The Reservoir Analysers Developed by the Sun Oil Company 140
The Story of the BP Analogue Computer 144
Outsourcing Development to EMI Electronics 146
The BP Analyser in Use 148
BP and the Analogue-Digital Debate 149
Analogue-Digital Issues at the Local Level 150
Analogue-Digital Issues at the Corporate Level 151
Conclusion 152
Analogue-Digital Decisions in British Aeronautical Research 154
Analogue Computing for Aeronautics 155
Soap Film Models as Analogue Computers 156
The Electrolytic Tank as a Table-Top Wind Tunnel 158
Aerodynamic Calculations, British Aircraft Designers and the ARC Computation Panel 160
Tanks Versus Networks 163
Deciding Between Analogue and Digital: The Case of Flutter 164
Thirty Year Persistence: The Shortcomings of Digitalisation 166
Conclusion 168
The Analogue Dishpan: Physical Modelling Versus Numerical Calculation in Meteorology 170
Computation and the History of Meteorology 171
Non-digital Approaches to Meteorology 173
Richardson's Forecast Factory and His Suggested Analogue Alternative 173
Richardson: Mathematician, Experimentalist, Quaker 176
Richardson's Rotating Fluid Experiment and the Tension Between Experiment and Mathematics 178
Dave Fultz and the Experimental Tradition of Meteorology 182
Conclusion 186
Conclusion 189
Three Principal Conclusions 190
Multiple Perspectives of Use Informing Multiple Historical Trajectories 191
Classifications and Social Associations in the Construction and Deconstruction of Analogue Culture 192
Analogue-Digital Debates Were Application Based not Technologically Based 193
Challenges for Future Scholarship in the History of Analogue Computing 194
Concluding Remarks 195
References 196
Index 217

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 25.6.2010
• Reihe/Serie: History of Computing
• Reihe/Serie: History of Computing
• Zusatzinfo: XVIII, 203 p.
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Informatik ► Weitere Themen ► Hardware
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Analog Computing • Computer • History of Computing • Modeling • reservoir • University
• ISBN-10: 1-84882-948-5 / 1848829485
• ISBN-13: 978-1-84882-948-0 / 9781848829480