Care Technology for Modelling

Electrical Analogies, Engineering Practice, and the Development of Analogue Computing
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84882-948-0
Verlag: Springer-Verlag
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 203 Seiten

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 seniorsoftware engineer at BT and an Associate Fellow at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Warwick, UK.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Care, Charles

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Preface;7
2;Acknowledgements;9
3;Contents;11
4;List of Figures;15
5;Acronyms;17
6;Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing;19
6.1;Introduction: Analogue Computers in the History of Computing;20
6.1.1;Analogue Computers: Another Class of Computing Technology;21
6.1.2;Analogue Computer: A Challenge to Define;24
6.1.3;Analogue Computing as Modelling Technology;27
6.1.4;Structure of This Book;30
6.1.4.1;Part I: Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing;30
6.1.4.2;Part II: Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts;31
6.2;A Multi-Stranded Chronology of Analogue Computing;34
6.2.1;Two Meanings of Analogue: The Tension Between Analogy and Continuity;35
6.2.2;Towards a Chronology of Analogue Computing;37
6.2.3;First Thematic Time-Line-Mechanising the Calculus: The Story of Continuous Computing Technology;39
6.2.3.1;1814-1850: Towards the Mechanical Integrator: The Invention and Development of the Planimeter;39
6.2.3.1.1;Hermann, Gonnella, Oppikofer: The Various Inventors of the Planimeter;40
6.2.3.2;1850-1876: Maxwell, Thomson and Kelvin: The Emergence of the Integrator as a Computing Component;43
6.2.3.3;1870-1900: The Age of the Continuous Calculating Machine;48
6.2.3.3.1;1885: H.S. Hele-Shaw and H.P. Babbage: An Early Analogue-Digital Debate;48
6.2.3.4;1880-1920: The Integrator Becomes an Embedded Component Initiating Associations Between Control and Calculation;50
6.2.3.4.1;1884: Determining the Engine Speed of a Royal Navy Warship: The Blythswood Speed Indicator, an Example of an Embedded Integrator;50
6.2.3.4.2;1911: Integrators in Fire Control: Arthur Hungerford Pollen and the Royal Navy;51
6.2.3.4.3;1915: Technology Transfer: Elmer Sperry, Hannibal Ford and Fire Control in the US Navy;52
6.2.3.5;1920-1946: The `Heyday' of Analogue Computing?;52
6.2.3.5.1;1931: Vannevar Bush and the Differential Analyser;54
6.2.4;Second Thematic Time-Line-From Analogy to Computation: the Development of Electrical Modelling;56
6.2.4.1;1845-1920: The Development of Analogy Methods;57
6.2.4.1.1;Tracing Field Lines, Field Analogies and Electrolytic Tanks;57
6.2.4.1.2;Miniature Power Networks and Resistor-Capacitor Models;59
6.2.4.2;1920-1946: Pre-digital Analogue Modelling;59
6.2.4.2.1;1924: The Origins of the MIT Network Analyser;60
6.2.4.2.2;1932: Le Laboratoire des Analogies Electriques: Electrolytic Tanks in France ;61
6.2.4.2.3;1935: George Philbrick and the Polyphemus: Development of Electronic Modelling at Foxboro;62
6.2.4.2.4;1942: William A. Bruce and the Modelling of Oil Reservoirs;63
6.2.5;Third Thematic Time-Line-Analogue Computing and the Entwining of Calculation and Modelling;64
6.2.5.1;1940: The Emergence of Analogue Computing as a Technical Label and Class of Machine ;64
6.2.5.2;1945-1960: The Development and Stabilisation of Computer Technology;66
6.2.5.2.1;The Development of Electronic Differential Analysers;66
6.2.5.2.2;Early Digital Computers as the Evolution of Analogue Architectures;67
6.2.5.2.3;Analogue Techniques on Digital Hardware: The Digital Differential Analyser;68
6.2.5.3;1950-1965: The Commercialisation of the Analogue Computer, and the Invention of Hybrid Computing;70
6.2.6;Conclusions;71
6.3;Modelling Technology and the History of Analogue Computing;73
6.3.1;Modelling: A Variety of Definitions and Associations;74
6.3.2;Modelling as a Meta-Narrative for the History of Computing;75
6.3.3;Support for Thinking of the Computer as a Modelling Medium;77
6.3.3.1;Theoretical Support for a Modelling Perspective;79
6.3.3.2;Historical Support for a Modelling Perspective;83
6.3.4;Analogue Computing as a Technology of Modelling;85
6.3.5;Conclusion;87
6.4;Origins of Analogue: Conceptual Association and Entanglement;89
6.4.1;The Establishment of `Forward Analogy': Historical Influences from Electrical Theory;90
6.4.2;Modelling with Electricity: Early Use of a Reverse Analogy;92
6.4.2.1;Clifford Nickle and Vannevar Bush: Modelling with the Reverse Analogy;94
6.4.2.2;Establishing a Modelling Medium Based on the Reverse Analogy: The Work of Nickle and Doherty;94
6.4.2.3;Stabilising the Field: Bush's Classification Schemes and Their Enrolling Function;97
6.4.2.4;Positive Association with Computing and Computational Rhetoric;99
6.4.3;Formation of an Analogue User Culture;100
6.4.3.1;George Philbrick and Lightning Empiricism: An Exemplar of Analogue Culture;102
6.4.4;Simulation Culture and the Transition to Digital;105
6.4.4.1;Digital Languages for Simulating Analogue Computing;106
6.4.5;Dis-enrollment of Analogue Computing and the Redefinition of Analogue Culture;107
6.4.6;Conclusion;109
7;Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts;110
7.1;Analogue Computers in British Higher Education;111
7.1.1;Calculation, Modelling, or Control: Three Different Uses, Three Different Histories;115
7.1.2;Analogue Research at Manchester: Networks, Tanks, and Hybrid Computing;117
7.1.3;Analogue Research at Imperial College: Networks and Tanks as Engineering Tools;119
7.1.4;King's College London: Analogue Computing at `Ultra-High Speed';120
7.1.5;Analogue Computing at Birmingham;125
7.1.6;Analogue Computing at the University of Bath: An Example of a Technical College;129
7.1.7;The Flowers Report and the Funding of Analogue Computing;130
7.1.8;Conclusion;133
7.2;Analogue Computers and Oil Reservoir Modelling;136
7.2.1;Production Management and the Application of Analogue Computing;137
7.2.1.1;Modelling Hydraulic Pressures with Electricity: William A. Bruce and the Carter Analyser;138
7.2.1.2;Incorporating Repetitive Operation: The Reservoir Analysers Developed by the Sun Oil Company;140
7.2.2;The Story of the BP Analogue Computer;144
7.2.2.1;Outsourcing Development to EMI Electronics;146
7.2.3;The BP Analyser in Use;148
7.2.4;BP and the Analogue-Digital Debate;149
7.2.4.1;Analogue-Digital Issues at the Local Level;150
7.2.4.2;Analogue-Digital Issues at the Corporate Level;151
7.2.5;Conclusion;152
7.3;Analogue-Digital Decisions in British Aeronautical Research;154
7.3.1;Analogue Computing for Aeronautics;155
7.3.1.1;Soap Film Models as Analogue Computers;156
7.3.1.2;The Electrolytic Tank as a Table-Top Wind Tunnel;158
7.3.2;Aerodynamic Calculations, British Aircraft Designers and the ARC Computation Panel;160
7.3.2.1;Tanks Versus Networks;163
7.3.2.2;Deciding Between Analogue and Digital: The Case of Flutter;164
7.3.3;Thirty Year Persistence: The Shortcomings of Digitalisation;166
7.3.4;Conclusion;168
7.4;The Analogue Dishpan: Physical Modelling Versus Numerical Calculation in Meteorology;170
7.4.1;Computation and the History of Meteorology;171
7.4.2;Non-digital Approaches to Meteorology;173
7.4.3;Richardson's Forecast Factory and His Suggested Analogue Alternative;173
7.4.3.1;Richardson: Mathematician, Experimentalist, Quaker;176
7.4.3.2;Richardson's Rotating Fluid Experiment and the Tension Between Experiment and Mathematics;178
7.4.4;Dave Fultz and the Experimental Tradition of Meteorology;182
7.4.5;Conclusion;186
7.5;Conclusion;189
7.5.1;Three Principal Conclusions;190
7.5.1.1;Multiple Perspectives of Use Informing Multiple Historical Trajectories;191
7.5.1.2;Classifications and Social Associations in the Construction and Deconstruction of Analogue Culture;192
7.5.1.3;Analogue-Digital Debates Were Application Based not Technologically Based;193
7.5.2;Challenges for Future Scholarship in the History of Analogue Computing;194
7.5.3;Concluding Remarks;195
8;References;196
9;Index;217