Item Description

THE PUNCHED CARD METHOD -- introduction; The Punched Card and the Machines; the Operating Principle of the Hollerith Method; The Tabulating Card; The Machines of the Thomas J Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau; Other Machines and devices not now in use at the Bureau;

MACHINE METHODS -- General Considerations of the Punched Card Technique; introduction; Numerical Checks; Short cuts in Multiplication; Special sorting techniques; The formation of sums of products without the individual products; Special Cards for breaking control; Suggestions for clerical work;

THE CONSTRUCTION AND USE OF SPECIAL TABLES OF TABULAR FUNCTIONS -- introduction; summation with the tabulator; the use of tables in the form of punched cards;

INTERPOLATION, MECHANICAL QUADRATURE AND ALLIED SUBJECTS -- general remarks; notation; Interpolation by the Lagrangian Method; the Formation of Differences; the subdivision of tables;

NUMERICAL HARMONIC ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS -- introd; Machine methods for small series; Machine methods for large series;

THE MULTIPLICATION OF SERIES -- the problem; extensive series; small series;

THE NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS; ASTRONOMICAL APPLICATIONS -- THE Calculations Involved in the Construction of a Catalogue of PHotographic Star Positions -- Introd; the Punching of the Cards; The Computation of the Precession; The Computation of the Rectangular Coordinates; STELLAR PHOTOMETRY - introd; the use of the punched cards;

NUMERICAL LUNAR THEORY - introd; the problem; the method with the punched cards;

THE COMPUTATION OF PLANETARY PERTURBATIONS - the problem; the computation of special perturbations; the computation of general perturbations;

APPENDIX - list of Card catalogues at the Bureau; Additional Description of the Machines and Plugboards; The Organization of The Thomas J Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau; Index.