| Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing | |
| Introduction: Analogue Computers in the History of Computing | p. 3 |
| Analogue Computers: Another Class of Computing Technology | p. 4 |
| Analogue Computers: A Challenge to Define | p. 7 |
| Analogue Computing as Modelling Technology | p. 10 |
| Structure of This Book | p. 13 |
| Part I: Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing | p. 13 |
| Part II: Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts | p. 14 |
| A Multi-Stranded Chronology of Analogue Computing | p. 17 |
| Two Meanings of Analogue: The Tension Between Analogy and Continuity | p. 18 |
| Towards a Chronology of Analogue Computing | p. 20 |
| First Thematic Time-Line-Mechanising the Calculus: The Story of Continuous Computing Technology | p. 22 |
| 1814-1850: Towards the Mechanical Integrator: The Invention and Development of the Planimeter | p. 22 |
| 1850-1876: Maxwell, Thomson and Kelvin: The Emergence of the Integrator as a Computing Component | p. 26 |
| 1870-1900: The Age of the Continuous Calculating Machine | p. 31 |
| 1880-1920: The Integrator Becomes an Embedded Component Initiating Associations Between Control and Calculation | p. 33 |
| 1920-1946: The 'Heyday' of Analogue Computing? | p. 35 |
| Second Thematic Time-Line-From Analogy to Computation: the Development of Electrical Modelling | p. 39 |
| 1845-1920: The Development of Analogy Methods | p. 40 |
| 1920-1946: Pre-digital Analogue Modelling | p. 42 |
| Third Thematic Time-Line-Analogue Computing and the Entwining of Calculation and Modelling | p. 47 |
| 1940: The Emergence of Analogue Computing as a Technical Label and Class of Machine | p. 47 |
| 1945-1960: The Development and Stabilisation of Computer Technology | p. 49 |
| 1950-1965: The Commercialisation of the Analogue Computer, and the Invention of Hybrid Computing | p. 53 |
| Conclusions | p. 54 |
| Modelling Technology and the History of Analogue Computing | p. 57 |
| Modelling: A Variety of Definitions and Associations | p. 58 |
| Modelling as a Meta-Narrative for the History of Computing | p. 59 |
| Support for Thinking of the Computer as a Modelling Medium | p. 61 |
| Theoretical Support for a Modelling Perspective | p. 63 |
| Historical Support for a Modelling Perspective | p. 67 |
| Analogue Computing as a Technology of Modelling | p. 69 |
| Conclusion | p. 71 |
| Origins of Analogue: Conceptual Association and Entanglement | p. 73 |
| The Establishment of 'Forward Analogy': Historical Influences from Electrical Theory | p. 74 |
| Modelling with Electricity: Early Use of a Reverse Analogy | p. 76 |
| Clifford Nickle and Vannevar Bush: Modelling with the Reverse Analogy | p. 78 |
| Establishing a Modelling Medium Based on the Reverse Analogy: The Work of Nickle and Doherty | p. 78 |
| Stabilising the Field: Bush's Classification Schemes and Their Enrolling Function | p. 81 |
| Positive Association with Computing and Computational Rhetoric | p. 83 |
| Formation of an Analogue User Culture | p. 84 |
| George Philbrick and Lightning Empiricism: An Exemplar of Analogue Culture | p. 86 |
| Simulation Culture and the Transition to Digital | p. 89 |
| Digital Languages for Simulating Analogue Computing | p. 90 |
| Dis-enrollment of Analogue Computing and the Redefinition of Analogue Culture | p. 91 |
| Conclusion | p. 93 |
| Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts | |
| Analogue Computers in British Higher Education | p. 97 |
| Calculation, Modelling, or Control: Three Different Uses, Three Different Histories | p. 101 |
| Analogue Research at Manchester: Networks, Tanks, and Hybrid Computing | p. 103 |
| Analogue Research at Imperial College: Networks and Tanks as Engineering Tools | p. 105 |
| King's College London: Analogue Computing at 'Ultra-High Speed' | p. 106 |
| Analogue Computing at Birmingham | p. 111 |
| Analogue Computing at the University of Bath: An Example of a Technical College | p. 115 |
| The Flowers Report and the Funding of Analogue Computing | p. 116 |
| Conclusion | p. 119 |
| Analogue Computers and Oil Reservoir Modelling | p. 123 |
| Production Management and the Application of Analogue Computing | p. 124 |
| Modelling Hydraulic Pressures with Electricity: William A. Bruce and the Carter Analyser | p. 125 |
| Incorporating Repetitive Operation: The Reservoir Analysers Developed by the Sun Oil Company | p. 127 |
| The Story of the BP Analogue Computer | p. 131 |
| Outsourcing Development to EMI Electronics | p. 133 |
| The BP Analyser in Use | p. 135 |
| BP and the Analogue-Digital Debate | p. 136 |
| Analogue-Digital Issues at the Local Level | p. 137 |
| Analogue-Digital Issues at the Corporate Level | p. 138 |
| Conclusion | p. 139 |
| Analogue-Digital Decisions in British Aeronautical Research | p. 141 |
| Analogue Computing for Aeronautics | p. 142 |
| Soap Film Models as Analogue Computers | p. 143 |
| The Electrolytic Tank as a Table-Top Wind Tunnel | p. 145 |
| Aerodynamic Calculations, British Aircraft Designers and the ARC Computation Panel | p. 147 |
| Tanks Versus Networks | p. 150 |
| Deciding Between Analogue and Digital: The Case of Flutter | p. 151 |
| Thirty Year Persistence: The Shortcomings of Digitalisation | p. 153 |
| Conclusion | p. 155 |
| The Analogue Dishpan: Physical Modelling Versus Numerical Calculation in Meteorology | p. 157 |
| Computation and the History of Meteorology | p. 158 |
| Non-digital Approaches to Meteorology | p. 160 |
| Richardson's Forecast Factory and His Suggested Analogue Alternative | p. 160 |
| Richardson: Mathematician, Experimentalist, Quaker | p. 163 |
| Richardson's Rotating Fluid Experiment and the Tension Between Experiment and Mathematics | p. 165 |
| Dave Fultz and the Experimental Tradition of Meteorology | p. 169 |
| Conclusion | p. 173 |
| Conclusion | p. 177 |
| Three Principal Conclusions | p. 178 |
| Multiple Perspectives of Use Informing Multiple Historical Trajectories | p. 179 |
| Classifications and Social Associations in the Construction and Deconstruction of Analogue Culture | p. 180 |
| Analogue-Digital Debates Were Application Based not Technologically Based | p. 181 |
| Challenges for Future Scholarship in the History of Analogue Computing | p. 182 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 183 |
| References | p. 185 |
| Index | p. 207 |
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