Before the development of electronic computers, the term “computer” referred to women, not machines. It was a job title, designating someone who performed mathematical equations and calculations by hand. In 1935, Langley hired five women in its first “Computer Pool.” Over the next thirty years, hundreds of women–most with degrees in math or other sciences–would join those first five computers at Langley. By 1946, a vastly expanded department had grown to about 400 women reading, calculating and plotting data from tests in Langley’s wind tunnels and research divisions. The women played an integral role in both aeronautical and aerospace research at the lab from the mid-1930s into the 1980s, off-loading engineers from data-related tasks to concentrate on other higher-priority matters. Shown here is a female computer using a calculator to conduct data analysis.
Computing jobs were advertised in trade journals and recruiters visited college campuses. Often overlooked in histories of technology, and even in histories of human computing, these women nevertheless played a critical role in research at Langley, back when the computers wore skirts.
An extensive discussion of female computers at Langley from the NACA to NASA, including photographs and lists of individuals, is available online at http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Langley_Research_Center.
Image Credit: NASA Langley Research Center