London : Springer , cop. 2010

1 online resource (218 p.)

Description based upon print version of record.. - Preface; Acknowledgements; Contents; List of Figures; Acronyms; 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 Computer: 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. - 1885: H.S. Hele-Shaw and H.P. Babbage: An Early Analogue-Digital Debate1880-1920: The Integrator Becomes an Embedded Component Initiating Associations Between Control and Calculation; 1884: Determining the Engine Speed of a Royal Navy Warship: The Blythswood Speed Indicator, an Example of an Embedded Integrator; 1911: Integrators in Fire Control: Arthur Hungerford Pollen and the Royal Navy; 1915: Technology Transfer: Elmer Sperry, Hannibal Ford and Fire Control in the US Navy; 1920-1946: The `Heyday' of Analogue Computing?; 1931: Vannevar Bush and the Differential Analyser. - Modelling Technology and the History of Analogue Computing. - Second Thematic Time-Line-From Analogy to Computation: the Development of Electrical Modelling1845-1920: The Development of Analogy Methods; Tracing Field Lines, Field Analogies and Electrolytic Tanks; Miniature Power Networks and Resistor-Capacitor Models; 1920-1946: Pre-digital Analogue Modelling; 1924: The Origins of the MIT Network Analyser; 1932: Le Laboratoire des Analogies Electriques: Electrolytic Tanks in France; 1935: George Philbrick and the Polyphemus: Development of Electronic Modelling at Foxboro; 1942: William A. Bruce and the Modelling of Oil Reservoirs. - Third Thematic Time-Line-Analogue Computing and the Entwining of Calculation and Modelling1940: The Emergence of Analogue Computing as a Technical Label and Class of Machine; 1945-1960: The Development and Stabilisation of Computer Technology; The Development of Electronic Differential Analysers; Early Digital Computers as the Evolution of Analogue Architectures; Analogue Techniques on Digital Hardware: The Digital Differential Analyser; 1950-1965: The Commercialisation of the Analogue Computer, and the Invention of Hybrid Computing; Conclusions. - Two Meanings of Analogue: The Tension Between Analogy and ContinuityTowards 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; Hermann, Gonnella, Oppikofer: The Various Inventors 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. - 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 ana

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