TABLE OF CONTENTS: Introduction: A Grandmother's Secret Life 1
Part I: Astronomy and the Division of Labor 1682-1880 9
Chapter One: The First Anticipated Return: Halley's Comet 1758 11
Chapter Two: The Children of Adam Smith 26
Chapter Three: The Celestial Factory: Halley's Comet 1835 46
Chapter Four: The American Prime Meridian 55
Chapter Five: A Carpet for the Computing Room 72
Part II: Mass Production and New Fields of Science 1880-1930 89
Chapter Six: Looking Forward, Looking Backward: Machinery 1893 91
Chapter Seven: Darwin's Cousins 102
Chapter Eight: Breaking from the Ellipse: Halley's Comet 1910 119
Chapter Nine: Captains of Academe 126
Chapter Ten: War Production 145
Chapter Eleven: Fruits of the Conflict: Machinery 1922 159
Part III: Professional Computers and an Independent Discipline 1930-1964 175
Chapter Twelve: The Best of Bad Times 177
Chapter Thirteen: Scientific Relief 198
Chapter Fourteen: Tools of the Trade: Machinery 1937 220
Chapter Fifteen: Professional Ambition 233
Chapter Sixteen: The Midtown New York Glide Bomb Club 256
Chapter Seventeen: The Victor's Share 276
Chapter Eighteen: I Alone Am Left to Tell Thee 298
Epilogue: Final Passage: Halley's Comet 1986 318
Acknowledgments 323
Appendix: Recurring Characters, Institutions, and Concepts 325
Notes 333
Research Notes and Bibliography 373
Index 401
Illustration Credits 412
Return to Book Description File created: 4/23/2008 | 
