When Computers Were Human

Abstract

A memorandum dated April 27, 1942, from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, is reproduced. The memorandum describes a computing facility at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, in which a team of humans equipped with mechanical calculators was organized to assist in aeronautics research. The memorandum reveals much about the state of computing as it existed just before the invention of automatic digital computers, whose introduction would bring this era to a close.