Lady Computers

posted: 887 days ago, on Tuesday, 2009 Sep 01 at 02:44
tags: astronomy, history.

Did you know that there were computers in use at the Royal Observatory, Cape Town, in the 19th century? What's more, they were female.

"The first serious effort in Britain to give women a scientific profession in astronomy," writes Mary Brück in Stars and Satellites: Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy (Springer, 2009), "was the 'lady computer' scheme at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introduced in 1890."

At the Cape Observatory, too, these ladies made laborious calculations for miniscule pay.

The image below was recently discovered in the Observatory archives.

via: Hans van der Merwe

 comments

2010 January 10 at 23:20 by Greg

I have absolutely no idea what the picture shows but Im reasonably sure its not a computer and not at the old Royal Observatory- never seen anything like this before. The lady computers still existed when I came to the observatory in the early 60's but they used things like Crelles Tables ( sp?) -something I fortunately never had to learn, and desk calculators where one twirled a handle at high speed.

Anybody got a guess as to what this really is? Looks really fascinating- Im sure it breaks all safety regulations!!

2010 January 20 at 08:09 by Chris

It is clearly the switchboard operator having a bad hair day.

2010 January 20 at 14:26 by Willie

Its easy - a combination picture of a lady manning (pun intended) a manual telephone exchange with a picture of the inside of a PC.

I therefore question the statement: "The image below was recently discovered in the Observatory archives."

2010 January 26 at 10:35 by Edward

This is indeed a rather clever composite photograph of a telephonist from way back and a modern PC; playing on the words "lady computer"!

As to having been found in the archives I think a large pinch of salt is required.

However, in the museum adjoining the big telescope on the Royal Observatory site there is a copy of an advertisement from the local newspaper of that period for a "lady computer". If my memory serves me correctly she had to, amongst other things, be "presentable" and have "an ability with figures". She also received a living allowance - most generous!

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