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Technology for Modelling Electrical Analogies, Engineering Practice and the Development of Analogue Computing

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ISBN-10: 1848829477

ISBN-13: 9781848829473

Edition: 2010

Authors: Charles Care

List price: $129.99
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Description:

This book investigates the technologies, the concepts, and the applications of analog computing. It is argued that analog computing must be thought of as not just a computing technology, but also as a modeling technology. The early chapters of the book demonstrate how the history of analog computing can be understood in terms of the two parallel themes of calculation and modeling, and describe how the technology evolved from the electrical modeling of scientists and engineers. The second half of the book focuses on a number of detailed case studies: examining analog modeling in academic research, oil reservoir modeling, aeronautical design, and meteorology.
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Book details

List price: $129.99
Copyright year: 2010
Publisher: Springer London, Limited
Publication date: 7/5/2010
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 203
Size: 6.10" wide x 9.25" long x 0.75" tall
Weight: 2.420

Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing
Introduction: Analogue Computers in the History of Computing
Analogue Computers: Another Class of Computing Technology
Analogue Computers: A Challenge to Define
Analogue Computing as Modelling Technology
Structure of This Book
Part I: Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing
Part II: Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts
A Multi-Stranded Chronology of Analogue Computing
Two Meanings of Analogue: The Tension Between Analogy and Continuity
Towards a Chronology of Analogue Computing
First Thematic Time-Line-Mechanising the Calculus: The Story of Continuous Computing Technology
1814-1850: Towards the Mechanical Integrator: The Invention and Development of the Planimeter
1850-1876: Maxwell, Thomson and Kelvin: The Emergence of the Integrator as a Computing Component
1870-1900: The Age of the Continuous Calculating Machine
1880-1920: The Integrator Becomes an Embedded Component Initiating Associations Between Control and Calculation
1920-1946: The 'Heyday' of Analogue Computing?
Second Thematic Time-Line-From Analogy to Computation: the Development of Electrical Modelling
1845-1920: The Development of Analogy Methods
1920-1946: Pre-digital Analogue Modelling
Third Thematic Time-Line-Analogue Computing and the Entwining of Calculation and Modelling
1940: The Emergence of Analogue Computing as a Technical Label and Class of Machine
1945-1960: The Development and Stabilisation of Computer Technology
1950-1965: The Commercialisation of the Analogue Computer, and the Invention of Hybrid Computing
Conclusions
Modelling Technology and the History of Analogue Computing
Modelling: A Variety of Definitions and Associations
Modelling as a Meta-Narrative for the History of Computing
Support for Thinking of the Computer as a Modelling Medium
Theoretical Support for a Modelling Perspective
Historical Support for a Modelling Perspective
Analogue Computing as a Technology of Modelling
Conclusion
Origins of Analogue: Conceptual Association and Entanglement
The Establishment of 'Forward Analogy': Historical Influences from Electrical Theory
Modelling with Electricity: Early Use of a Reverse Analogy
Clifford Nickle and Vannevar Bush: Modelling with the Reverse Analogy
Establishing a Modelling Medium Based on the Reverse Analogy: The Work of Nickle and Doherty
Stabilising the Field: Bush's Classification Schemes and Their Enrolling Function
Positive Association with Computing and Computational Rhetoric
Formation of an Analogue User Culture
George Philbrick and Lightning Empiricism: An Exemplar of Analogue Culture
Simulation Culture and the Transition to Digital
Digital Languages for Simulating Analogue Computing
Dis-enrollment of Analogue Computing and the Redefinition of Analogue Culture
Conclusion
Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts
Analogue Computers in British Higher Education
Calculation, Modelling, or Control: Three Different Uses, Three Different Histories
Analogue Research at Manchester: Networks, Tanks, and Hybrid Computing
Analogue Research at Imperial College: Networks and Tanks as Engineering Tools
King's College London: Analogue Computing at 'Ultra-High Speed'
Analogue Computing at Birmingham
Analogue Computing at the University of Bath: An Example of a Technical College
The Flowers Report and the Funding of Analogue Computing
Conclusion
Analogue Computers and Oil Reservoir Modelling
Production Management and the Application of Analogue Computing
Modelling Hydraulic Pressures with Electricity: William A. Bruce and the Carter Analyser
Incorporating Repetitive Operation: The Reservoir Analysers Developed by the Sun Oil Company
The Story of the BP Analogue Computer
Outsourcing Development to EMI Electronics
The BP Analyser in Use
BP and the Analogue-Digital Debate
Analogue-Digital Issues at the Local Level
Analogue-Digital Issues at the Corporate Level
Conclusion
Analogue-Digital Decisions in British Aeronautical Research
Analogue Computing for Aeronautics
Soap Film Models as Analogue Computers
The Electrolytic Tank as a Table-Top Wind Tunnel
Aerodynamic Calculations, British Aircraft Designers and the ARC Computation Panel
Tanks Versus Networks
Deciding Between Analogue and Digital: The Case of Flutter
Thirty Year Persistence: The Shortcomings of Digitalisation
Conclusion
The Analogue Dishpan: Physical Modelling Versus Numerical Calculation in Meteorology
Computation and the History of Meteorology
Non-digital Approaches to Meteorology
Richardson's Forecast Factory and His Suggested Analogue Alternative
Richardson: Mathematician, Experimentalist, Quaker
Richardson's Rotating Fluid Experiment and the Tension Between Experiment and Mathematics
Dave Fultz and the Experimental Tradition of Meteorology
Conclusion
Conclusion
Three Principal Conclusions
Multiple Perspectives of Use Informing Multiple Historical Trajectories
Classifications and Social Associations in the Construction and Deconstruction of Analogue Culture
Analogue-Digital Debates Were Application Based not Technologically Based
Challenges for Future Scholarship in the History of Analogue Computing
Concluding Remarks
References
Index