Working in the Scientific State: John Womersley’s Early Career

IF 0.5 3区哲学 Q4 COMPUTER SCIENCE, THEORY & METHODS

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Pub Date : 2024-09-13 DOI:10.1109/mahc.2024.3433788

Mark Priestley

引用次数: 0

Abstract

John Ronald Womersley, first superintendent of the Mathematics Division created at the United Kingdom’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in 1945, is best known to historians of computing for appointing Alan Turing to lead a project to design an electronic digital computer. Although Turing dissociated himself from the project in 1947, and Womersley left the NPL in 1950, the NPL’s Electronic Division completed the Pilot ACE computer in 1951 [10]. This machine is remembered for its unique design and excellent performance, but Womersley has received little credit for this achievement, often being dismissed as a second-rate mathematician who did not effectively lead the project he had started.

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在科学国家工作：约翰-沃姆斯利的早期职业生涯

约翰-罗纳德-沃姆斯利（John Ronald Womersley）是英国国家物理实验室（NPL）1945 年成立的数学部的第一任主管，他因任命阿兰-图灵领导一个设计电子数字计算机的项目而为计算机史学家所熟知。虽然图灵在 1947 年退出了该项目，沃姆斯利也在 1950 年离开了 NPL，但 NPL 的电子部还是在 1951 年完成了 Pilot ACE 计算机[10]。这台计算机因其独特的设计和卓越的性能而被人们所铭记，但沃姆斯利却很少因这一成就而获得赞誉，他常常被认为是一个二流数学家，没有有效地领导他所启动的项目。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 工程技术-计算机：理论方法

CiteScore

0.80

自引率

28.60%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： The IEEE Annals of the History of Computing serves as a record of vital contributions which recount, preserve, and analyze the history of computing and the impact of computing on society. Where possible, first hand accounts of events and activities are recorded with minimal editorial change, and scholarly reports of analyses of the historical record from archives and personal contact are published so as to better understand both the past and the future of our field.