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A Brief History of Analog Targeting Systems

posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the Surigao-Strait dept.

ed.goforth writes:

"Gears of war: When mechanical analog computers ruled the waves over at Ars is a quick recap of the history of naval targeting & fire control systems and the transition from analog to digital. In short, you'll never believe just how good those old designs were, and how much work it's taken to make GPS-based guidance be as accurate."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Sir Garlon on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:37AM

    by Sir Garlon (1264) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:37AM (#18103)

    One of the earliest applications of electronic computers was the computation of artillery tables in World War II. There's a fascinating documentary called ''Top Secret Rosies [topsecretrosies.com]'' (you can get the disk from Netflix, but I don't know about streaming) about the young women who were first hired to compute those tables by hand, then later to program the electronic computer.

    I knew about the women mathematicians in the war effort from the biographical information about famous mathematicians in my undergrad textbooks, but my wife was amazed at this "untold" history. It's odd that we found this historical perspective in the abstract algebra textbook but not the women's studies books.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by carguy on Tuesday March 18 2014, @11:03AM

    by carguy (568) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @11:03AM (#18118)

    > about the young women who were first hired to compute those tables by hand

    They also used mechanical calculators (generically, "adding machines"). These people (mostly women) were called "computers" since their job was to "compute" things. A family friend is in her 90s now, she worked as a computer for several years around 1950. She is probably the most meticulous person I know, perfect for the job.