Wallace (John) Eckert - Application: solution of differential equations for astronomy, Application: the Manhattan Project

Computer engineer, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. An astronomer by training, he was early intrigued by the possible application of computers to astronomical calculations. He established a computation laboratory at Columbia University and encouraged International Business Machines to support computer research (1933). He developed techniques for linking tabulating and adding equipment, and was director of the Watson Laboratory at Columbia (1945–67), where he helped develop the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (1948).

Application: solution of differential equations for astronomy

The Astronomical Computing Bureau was supported by Dr. Thomas J. Watson, President of IBM, including customer service and hardware circuit modifications needed to tabulate numbers, create mathematical tables, add, subtract, multiply, reproduce, verify, crossfoot, create tables of differences, create tables of logarithms and perform Lagrangian interpolation, all to solve differential equations for astronomical applications.

Application: the Manhattan Project

When Dana Mitchell saw these operations in action, and later served in the Manhattan Project (the wartime project to develop the first nuclear weapons), he mentioned this technique to the T-6 section of the Theoretical Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Manhattan Project;

Use of punch card debugging techniques

Nicholas Metropolis and Richard Feynman immediately set about organizing a punch card solution for a crucial mathematical expression, utilizing the techniques pioneered by Eckert and his IBM methods, such as the use of colored punch cards to signal the end of a series of cards, etc.

Significance of the computing laboratory

Eckert understood the significance of his laboratory, keenly aware of the advantage of scientific calculations performed without human interventions for long stretches of computation.