Guide to the Amelia Reid National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Human Computer Papers,
1945-1958
Guide prepared by Ratana Ngaotheppitak
NASA Ames History Office
NASA Ames Research Center
Mail Stop 207-1
Moffett Field, California 94035
Phone: (650) 604-1032
Email: ARC-DL-history@mail.nasa.gov
URL: http://history.arc.nasa.gov
©2010
NASA Ames Research Center. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Amelia Reid National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Human Computer Papers,
1945-1958
NASA Ames History Office
NASA Ames Research Center
Contact Information:
- NASA Ames History Office
- NASA Ames Research Center
- Mail Stop 207-1
- Moffett Field, CA 94035
- Phone: (650) 604-1032
- Email: ARC-DL-history@mail.nasa.gov
- URL: http://history.arc.nasa.gov/contacts.htm
- Collection processed by:
- Ratana Ngaotheppitak
- Date Completed:
- November 2010
Descriptive Summary
Title: Amelia Reid National Advisory for Aeronautics (NACA) Human Computer Papers
Date (inclusive): 1945-1958
Collection Number: PP09.16
Creator:
Reid, Amelia
Extent:
Number of containers: 2
Volume: 1 cubic foot
Repository:
Ames Research Center,
Ames History Office
Moffett Field, California 94035
Abstract: The Amelia Reid Papers include computation charts, computing tools, convention brochures, computation manuals and notes pertaining
to Reid's career as a human computer for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The papers are related to
Reid's professional development and work as a human computer, and contain organizational information about the NACA.
Language:
English
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-government
material, researcher must contact the original creator.
Preferred Citation
NASA Ames History Office, NASA Ames Research Center. Moffett Field, California. Amelia Reid National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA) Human Computer Papers, 1945-1958, [Container number]: [Folder number]. [Identification of item]. [Date,
if available].
Abbreviated Citation
NASA ARC. PP09.16, [Container number]: [Folder number]. [Identification of item]. [Date, if available].
Custodial History
This collection was accumulated by Amelia Reid and later transferred to her office at Reid Hillview Airport. After her death
in 2001, her son, Robert Reid III, passed the collection into the custodianship of Yvonne Russell (a former NACA engineer
who met Reid after her tenure at the NACA, during Reid's aviation days). Subsequently, Russell donated the collection to the
NASA Ames History Office.
Acquisition Information
Transferred from Yvonne Russell in August 2009.
Biographical History
Amelia Reid, formerly Amelia Lola, was born on November 13, 1924 in Ord, Nebraska. Reid obtained her bachelor's degree in
mathematics from Kearney State College in Nebraska. Reid went on her first flight in 1939 in a Taylor J-2 Cub with Evelyn
Sharp, Nebraska's first female pilot, which sparked a lifelong interest in aviation. Amelia Lola took on the name Carman from
her first husband.
In 1945 Reid worked for the National Bureau of Standards in Washington D.C. In the late 1940s Reid moved to California and
obtained a position at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at Ames Aeronautical Laboratory. Reid worked
as an Electronic Machine Computer, or human computer in the Electronic Machine Computing Branch under the Theoretical and
Applied Research Division. Reid concurrently earned her master's degree in mathematics from San José State University while
employed with the NACA. As a human computer, Reid applied her knowledge of mathematics to transcribe raw data. She analyzed
and reduced data into standard engineering values.
During the 1950s Amelia Lola Carman met her second husband and became Amelia Reid. Her father-in-law and four other pilots,
including Reid's husband, opened up Reid Hillview Airport. In 1959 her son, Robin, was born. In the same year Reid left the
NACA and opened up a flight school at Reid Hillview Airport. She initially operated the flight school out of her Ford automobile,
then later out of two trailers. Eventually Reid re-mortgaged her home in order to build a hangar where she ran her flight
school until the end of her life.
In Reid's lifetime she was a mathematician, pilot, flight instructor, flight advocate, and aerobatics performer. Reid was
also an accomplished ballroom dancer and a concert violinist. She logged over 55,000 flight hours and instructed over 4,000
students. Amelia Reid held two FAA certificates, a Commercial Pilot Certificate and an Air Transport Pilot Certificate. She
was also rated for flight and ground instructing, gliders, single and multi-engine land and sea aircraft, and on a Cessna
Citation CE-500 business jet. Amelia Reid passed away on March 3, 2001.
Administrative History
In 1939 the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory was established as a second laboratory for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
(NACA). Throughout the life of the organization, the NACA used human computers to convert its raw flight research data into
analyzable forms. Proficient in mathematics, these individuals analyzed and transcribed data accumulated in research tests,
and performed complex calculations in order to transform it into manageable units. For example, they might transcribe and
reduce an oscillograph recording from a flight test into standard engineering values. Human computers used basic tools such
as slide rulers and electronic calculators to complete these calculations.
With the onset of World War II, when men joined the armed services in droves leaving shortages in workplaces across the country,
women were able to step up into these human computer positions generally occupied by men. At Ames, these women human computers
were fondly and proudly called the "computer girls." In the late 1940's Amelia Reid joined the human computer team at Ames.
In 1952 the Director of Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Smith DeFrance, formed an electronic computing machine unit to be led
by William Mersman. Amelia Reid worked under Mersman in the Electronic Machine Computing Branch of the Theoretical and Applied
Research Division as an Electronic Machine Computer.
Sources Consulted:
Powers, Sheryll Goecke, Women in Flight Research at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center from 1946 to 1995, Monograph in Aerospace
History, No. 6. (Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1997).
Robert Reid III, in discussion with the author, August 2010.
Indexing Terms
The following terms may be used to index this collection.
Personal Name
Reid, Amelia
Lola Carman, Amelia
Corporate Name
Ames Aeronautical Laboratory (U.S.)
International Business Machines Corporation
United States. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
Subjects
Datamation professional series
Digital-to-analog converters
IBM 650 (Computer)
Magnetic Drum
Women and computers
Women mathematicians
Geographic Names
Moffett Field (Calif.)
Scope and Content
The Amelia Reid Papers document the activities of Amelia Reid during her time as a human computer and graduate mathematics
student. Reid's papers are related to her professional and academic work. The collection contains tools, project materials
and other resources a human computer may have used.
The bulk of Reid's papers center on two main areas: her work using the 650 calculators from the International Business Machine
Corporation (IBM) and calculating mathematical equations of Nth order polynomials. There are extensive handwritten notes that
describe her work on polynomials to accompany the data printouts. The papers convey the high-level mathematical comprehension
human computers were required to have and the complexity of transforming data into manageable units of information.
There is also organizational information on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1957, information pertaining
to the winter 1956 Western Joint Computer conference held in San Francisco, manuals and brochures from multiple computing
vendors, and papers on mathematical theories that Reid collected for reference. The materials are textual and graphical, and
include electronic data calculator graphs, data sheets, computing guidelines, technical manuals and other printed matter.
Arrangement of the Amelia Reid National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Human Computer Papers
The collection is arranged by function to reflect Reid's professional work, academic work, and the tools and resources she
used. Within the functional arrangement, publications, brochures and manuals are arranged alphabetically by corporate name.
The arrangement scheme for the collection was imposed during processing in the absence of a discernible original order.
Box 1, Folder 1
Polynomials- Nth Order, Solutions, Programming and Obsolete Materials: Professional Work,
n.d.
Box 1, Folder 2
Nth Order Polynomial Set-up and Wiring Panels: Coursework and Research,
1954-1955
Box 1, Folder 3
IBM Magnetic Drum Calculator Type 650: Coursework,
n.d.
Box 1, Folder 4
Western Joint Computer Conference,
February 7-9, 1956
Box 1, Folder 5
National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics (NACA) Organizational Tools,
1953-1957
Box 1, Folder 6
Tools: Formulas, Equations, Charts and Graphs Used By Human Computers,
n.d.
Box 1, Folder 7
Reference Papers on Mathematical Computations,
1951-1953
Box 1, Folder 8
Burroughs Brochures,
n.d.
Box 1, Folder 9
Datamation Subscription Magazine,
1958
Box 1, Folder 10
Datatron Brochures and Manuals, (1 of 2),
1956-1958
Box 1, Folder 11
Datatron Brochures and Manuals, (2 of 2),
1956-1958
Box 2, Folder 1
International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) Brochures and Manuals, (1 of 4),
1945-1956
Box 2, Folder 2
International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) Brochures and Manuals, (2 of 4),
1945-1956
Box 2, Folder 3
International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) Brochures and Manuals, (3 of 4),
1945-1956
Box 2, Folder 4
International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) Brochures and Manuals, (4 of 4),
1945-1956
Box 2, Folder 5
Librascope Brochures and Manuals,
1955-1956
Box 2, Folder 6
Precision Analog Communication Equipment (PACE) Brochure,
n.d.
Box 2, Folder 7
Remington Rand Brochures,
n.d.
