Computers Working at NASA Glenn's 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel
In this photo taken in 1957, a staff of women computers work in the 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory, now NASA's Glenn Research Center. The lab’s Computer Section occupied three offices on the second story of the office building at the 8- by 6 facility. The largest office, seen in this photograph, contained approximately 35 women with advanced mathematical skills, a second office housed 20 to 25, and a third 10.
Each major test facility at the laboratory had banks of mercury-filled manometer boards which measured pressure levels at various locations inside the facility’s test section. Often, one board consisting of 100 tubes produced a single data point. There could be scores of data points for each test run. Cameras were set up in front of the manometer boards to capture the readings throughout the test.
The following day the computers, seen in this photograph, would receive the photographs and plot the data points on a graph. The process often took days. It might be weeks before the researchers received the results of their tests. Friden adding machines, that aided in the calculations, can be seen on some of the desks.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: GRC-1957-C-43712
Date: 1957
Computers Working at NASA Glenn's 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel
In this photo taken in 1957, a staff of women computers work in the 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory, now NASA's Glenn Research Center. The lab’s Computer Section occupied three offices on the second story of the office building at the 8- by 6 facility. The largest office, seen in this photograph, contained approximately 35 women with advanced mathematical skills, a second office housed 20 to 25, and a third 10.
Each major test facility at the laboratory had banks of mercury-filled manometer boards which measured pressure levels at various locations inside the facility’s test section. Often, one board consisting of 100 tubes produced a single data point. There could be scores of data points for each test run. Cameras were set up in front of the manometer boards to capture the readings throughout the test.
The following day the computers, seen in this photograph, would receive the photographs and plot the data points on a graph. The process often took days. It might be weeks before the researchers received the results of their tests. Friden adding machines, that aided in the calculations, can be seen on some of the desks.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: GRC-1957-C-43712
Date: 1957