Care C. Technology for modelling. Electrical analogies, engineering practice, and the development of analogue computing

Springer-Verlag London Limited 2010. – 218 pp.
This study investigates the technologies, the concepts, and the applications of analogue computing. It is argued that analogue computing must be thought of as not just a computing technology, but also as a modelling technology. The first half of the book demonstrates how the history of analogue computing can be understood in terms of the two parallel themes of calculation and modelling, and describes how the technology evolved. The second half of the book focuses on a number of detailed case studies: examining analogue modelling in academic research, oil reservoir modelling, aeronautical design, and meteorology. Many of these case studies discuss so-called ‘direct’ analogues—analogue computers that used a direct physical analogy. Because they were not used as calculators, direct analogues rarely receive prominence in computing history. However, these were the analogue devices that persisted the longest.Modelling, Calculation and Analogy: The Themes of Analogue Computing.
Introduction: Analogue Computers in the History of Computing.
A Multi-Stranded Chronology of Analogue Computing.
Modelling Technology and the History of Analogue Computing.
Origins of Analogue: Conceptual Association and Entanglement.
Analogue Computing in Use: A Selection of Contexts.
Analogue Computers in British Higher Education.
Analogue Computers and Oil Reservoir Modelling.
Analogue–Digital Decisions in British Aeronautical Research.
The Analogue Dishpan: Physical Modelling Versus Numerical Calculation in Meteorology.