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Downloaded from Brill.Com10/04/2021 12:45:25PM Via Free Access 242 Revue De Synthèse : TOME 139 7E SÉRIE N° 3-4 (2018) Années 1920-1950 REVUE DE SYNTHÈSE : TOME 139 7e SÉRIE N° 3-4 (2018) 241-266 brill.com/rds ARTICLES Programming Men and Machines. Changing Organisation in the Artillery Computations at Aberdeen Proving Ground (1916-1946) Maarten Bullynck* Abstract: After the First World War mathematics and the organisation of bal- listic computations at Aberdeen Proving Ground changed considerably. This was the basis for the development of a number of computing aids that were constructed and used during the years 1920 to 1950. This article looks how the computational organisa- tion forms and changes the instruments of calculation. After the differential analyzer relay-based machines were built by Bell Labs and, finally, the ENIAC, one of the first electronic computers, was built, to satisfy the need for computational power in bal- listics during the second World War. Keywords: Computing machines – Second World War – Ballistics – Programming – Mathematics Programmer hommes et machines. Changer l’organisation des calculs d’artillerie à Aberdeen Proving ground (1916-1946) Résumé : Après la Première Guerre mondiale les mathématiques et l’organisation des calculs balistiques à Aberdeen Proving Ground changent profondément. C’est le fond du développement de plusieurs machines à calculer qui sont construites et utilisées dans les * Maarten Bullynck, né en 1977, studied mathematics, German languages and media studies in Gent and Berlin. He defended his PhD Vom Zeitalter der formalen Wissenschaften. Parallele Anleitung zur Verarbeitung von Erkenntnissen anno 1800 in 2006. From 2007 to 2008 he was a fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt-Stiftung with a project on J. H. Lambert, including the development of a website featuring Lambert’s collected works. Since 2009 he is maître de conferences at the Département de mathématiques et histoire des sciences at Université Paris 8. He publishes on the history of number theory, on the history of computing and on scientific communication in the 18th century. © fondation « pour la science » & koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/19552343-13900013 Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 12:45:25PM via free access 242 revue de synthèse : TOME 139 7e SÉRIE N° 3-4 (2018) années 1920-1950. L’article regarde comment l’organisation calculatoire forme et change ces instruments. Après l’analyseur différentiel, des machines à relais sont construites par Bell et finalement, l’ENIAC, l’un des premiers ordinateurs électroniques, est développé, tous pour satisfaire aux besoins calculatoires en balistique pendant la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale. Mots-clés : Machines à calculer – Deuxième Guerre mondiale – Balistique – Programmation – Mathématiques Das Programmieren von Menschen und Maschinen. Änderungen in der Anordnung ballistischer Rechnungen in Aberdeen Proving Ground (1916-1946) Zusammenfassung: Nach dem 1. Weltkrieg wurde die Mathematik und die Organisation ballistischer Rechnungen in Aberdeen Proving Ground gründlich reformiert. Dies wurde der Ansatzpunkt weiterer Entwicklung einer Anzahl von Rechnungshilfen, die in den Jahren 1920 bis 1950 gebaut und benutzt wurden. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht, wie die rechnerische Organisation die Architektur der Rechnungsinstrumenten formt und ändert. Nach dem Differential Analyzer wurde eine Relais-basierte Maschine von Bell Labs gebaut, und schließlich der ENIAC, einer der ersten vollelektronischen Computer, alle zur Bewältigung der ballistischen Rechnungen im 2. Weltkrieg. Schlagworte: Rechnungsinstrumente – Ballistik – 2. Weltkrieg – Programmierung – Mathematik Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 12:45:25PM via free access m. Bullynck : Programming Men and Machines 243 ANALYSE e calcul manuel et le calcul avec une machine sont différents dans leur conception et exécution, mais il y a une grande interaction et continuité entre ces deux façons de cal- culer.L Les calculs dirigés par Gaspard de Prony au Cadastre dans les années 1790, qui ont inspiré Charles Babbage pour l’organisation de son Analytical Engine, sont célèbres. Plus récemment encore Marie Croarken et David Alan Grier ont montré dans leurs travaux qu’il y a une grande continuité entre l’organisation du calcul manuel dans des bureaux de calcul et le développement et l’utilisation des machines à calculer qui inaugurent la nais- sance de l’ordinateur. Cet article étudie un lieu et un temps spécifique, Aberdeen Proving Ground pendant l’entre-deux-guerres (1919-1946), et s’attache à montrer comment l’orga- nisation du calcul et les méthodes de calcul changent et sont modulées au fur et à mesure que des machines mathématiques sont construites. Après la Première Guerre mondiale, en effet, les mathématiques et l’organisation des calculs balistiques sont réorganisées à Aberdeen Proving Ground. La nouvelle méthode utilisée, – l’intégration numérique – permet entre autres de calculer des variations d’une nouvelle trajectoire plus facilement après le calcul d’une première trajectoire. Cette nou- velle organisation entraîne une séquence plus linéaire mais aussi plus longue d’opérations arithmétiques que le calculateur doit suivre, et permet une séparation plus nette entre les données mathématiques, les données empiriques et les résultats du calcul. Cette organi- sation prédominera jusqu’à la fin de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. La première machine à calculer montée à Aberdeen est un analyseur différentiel d’après le modèle de Vannevar Bush. Des variations de l’intégration numérique sont dis- cutées, notamment la place des tables dans les calculs et l’impossibilité d’utiliser sur une machine la méthode qui permet d’obtenir facilement les variations d’une trajectoire. La deuxième machine est une machine à relais construite par Bell Labs, d’abord pour la Marine (Model III), plus tard, dans une version améliorée et généralisée, pour la Marine et Aberdeen (Model V). Si l’architecture du Model III répète en partie encore l’organisa- tion de l’intégration numérique, la transition vers le Model V annonce un autre point de vue, celui de la calculatrice généraliste que sera l’ordinateur. En particulier, la séparation nette entre les tables, les données et les résultats est abandonnée, et des mécanismes de décision pour modifier et programmer plus précisément la séquence de calcul sont mis en place. Plus encore, la vitesse des parties de la machine devient déterminante pour le choix de l’algorithme. La dernière machine analysée dans cet article est l’ENIAC, l’un des premiers ordina- teurs, né à la rencontre de l’analyseur différentiel avec les outils digitaux qui utilisent le tube à vide. Dès le début, J. W. Mauchly avait organisé sa machine en fonction de l’algo- rithme qu’il avait sélectionné pour faire les calculs balistiques. Pendant le développement de la machine toutefois, il s’est avéré qu’on pouvait facilement recâbler la machine pour exécuter un calcul quelconque. Un système de programmation, basé sur les tables des fonctions, était mis en place en 1947-1948. La rapidité de calcul de l’ENIAC étant très Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 12:45:25PM via free access 244 revue de synthèse : TOME 139 7e SÉRIE N° 3-4 (2018) disproportionnée avec la lenteur de la lecture (et de l’écriture) des données, les ingénieurs et utilisateurs de la machine ont été forcés d’envisager d’autres méthodes mathématiques (notamment itératives) et d’aborder des problèmes comme l’arrondi et le lissage des données. L’interaction entre l’organisation mathématique d’un calcul et le support matériel qui sous-tend ce calcul ne va pas dans une seule direction, mais est en fait une relation bidirectionnelle entre la matérialité du calcul et les mathématiques. L’analyse des calculs balistiques et le développement des machines à Aberdeen illustre ce point et montre com- ment, dans une période courte mais très active, les mathématiques et les machines ont interagi et se sont modifiées réciproquement. Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 12:45:25PM via free access m. Bullynck : Programming Men and Machines 245 he United States’ decision to enter World War I marks the beginning of a new and close alliance between science and the military. On June 19, 1916 the National ResearchT Council was organized to encourage “the employment of scientific methods in strengthening the national defense”.1 This employment would come in many forms, ranging from technological developments to the application of statistical control pro- cedures and psychological tests for managing the commodities needed during the war effort. One of the earliest employments of science was the reform of the mathematical procedures used in ballistics. While at first sight this reform could be regarded as a purely mathematical one, the preference of one method over another, it also marked the beginning of a new organ- isation of men, tables and machines for computational labour. In the scientific articles that discussed the mathematical reform this aspect remained implicit, but the techni- cal reports and field manuals spoke more clearly of the effect of mathematical forms on the organization of manual calculation. This new organization of computational labour would imprint itself on the minds of the artillery officers. When, starting from the 1930s, new machinery, analogue or digital, would be deployed to aid in the artillery computations, these dispositives would still guide them in using and describing the new machines, having an impact on the hardware architecture and/or the utilisation and programming of the early computers. New Ways of Organizing Human Computation Labour after World War I During the First World War the
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