The times., 1900-03-18
WOMEN As COMPUHERS
Financially Considered the Work
Does Not Pay.
Feminine MnthemRticianS aud Sci
fcs-ion. and Are Usually Gentle.
Retiring Beings Who Have LIttie
sympathy for "woman's Rights"

/ The average woman c0mputor in To.
1 big Observatories makes culy $500 a year.
| The daughter Of the Instruments she
| handles in measuring her spaces and de-
/ grees will double her income The CON-
/ putOr who maps out work for the others
/ and carries on private research work OF her
own. or as assistant TO a director. makes
| $500 According to Minnesota woman
now chief computor at Columbia Univer-
/ sity. science does not pay; dressmaking or
( habcrdashery is far more remunerative.
| But this woman loves her business and Is
/ even now in outside hours engaged upon
I determination Of the proper motions Of GER
tains stars. 1000 OF which were catalogued
/ years ago by learned authorities.
There are three young college women
working in the computing room az Colum-
( bia They measure the stars by means Of
photographs Of them. and are assisted in
/ the task by matchlessly human-like instru-
I ments devised for this purpose. They toll
I daily over the calculations Of their meas
/ urements. but they are mathematicians.
| pure and simple and aspire to no flights in
/ astronomy Should they marry they will
I compute no more. But with the chief com
putOr it is different. II she married to-
morrow she would go on determining the
proper motions Of stars. unless her hus-
band positively forbid.
And it is noticeable that women matne-
maticians and scientists are seldom FOR
wOman's rights. In the category Of brill
liant names from Madame Lepante. tae
wife Of the royal clockmaker in Paris. down
to the workers Of the present day they are
retiring womanly domestic. Some have
reared as many as twelve children. whole
somely and tenderly. and even those re-
corded as having discovered comets IN
their own right. have practiced self-ab-
negation in following their husbands 10 the
'ends Of the earth or in subverting their
own ambition and accomplishments that
masculine achievement might be for
warded
Many women ccmputOrs are employed
at the Harvard Observatory. and among
them four original workers engaged In
making Investigations with the Draper
telescope under the direction OF Mrs. VIII
liamira Fleming Mrs Fleming is a native
Of Dundee. Scotland. She came to this
country twenty years ago and secured en-
ployment at Harvard as a eomputor, be-
ing then a pioneer in the field. Her re-
spOns Utilities have steadily increased, and
she conducts much important inyestiga-
ton having discovered a number Of vari-
able stars and confirmed the discovery or
several new stars to be accredited 20 her
assistants, the Misses Leland, Aaury.
Stevens aud Wells. Nearly all Of the dis
cussion Of photographs taken at the Har-
ward Observatory and at its minor stations
maintained at places in the south and west
is done by women.
practical calculator and astronomer
I is Mrs Alice Lamb Updegraff, who for
: two years had charge of the extensive
| time service of the Washburn Observa-
{ tory. and also made many observations OF
/ the miner planets and double stars with
J 1I.5-inch equatorial telescope. She direct
/ ed the time service at the National OBJ
: sarvatorv in the Argentine Republic up
! 10 1899 and a the same time participated
Z in the observation Of a list Of 4s0 south
ern stars and in the reductions OF the
same. Now she is translating a German
thesis on astronomy and contributing to
current journals on mathematical mat
Z ters.
Marguerite Palmer has done much COM
putting in the Yale observatory and con-
tributed several articles to the Obserya
tory bulletin Of transactions. She has
computed definite orbit for the comet
discovered by Maria Mitchell Up TO
few months ago Hannah Mace was assist
ant at the United States Naval Observa-
tory. woman. formerly chief computor
Mimi. is one OF the associate editors Of
an astronomical monthly. Among the ANA
teur astronomers who have private OBJ
servatOries is Miss Rose O'HallOran. OF
san Francisco. who makes a study OF
eclipses meteOrs. variable stars. and gen
eral aspects. Miss DOrOthea Klumpke. OF
the same city. is one American woman
who puts her energies to foreign service
She is now director OF the bureau for the
Il
Photographic Catalogue at the Paris Oh
seryatory. OF the six women computors
in the department she is the only Ameri-
can having become identified with the
observatory in 1851. when she entered 1t
as a student Her advancement has been
rapid and her observations OF the minor
planets and Of the Tsmple-Swift comet
have been published in the French scien-
tifc journals.
Another woman computor and explorer
is Miss Ashley who studies the surface
Of the moon. Her labors are regularly re
corded in the "Seismographical Journal.
She is Of the same name as the woman
draughjsman who maps out the plans for
the improved philosophical instruments
she uses bur the two women are no rela-
tion. and they work with very different
Tools although tending toward the same
end.
Mrs Coreita K. Davis is an independent
worker. at present engaged upon very in
tric,te combinations and reductions for
~, be,egt ~ invastigarnrs She computes
f,.i+.,,I. i,,rssti.atjoTs A. Nev. York and
~.,,,,-- ,r,i,.,,s ~ ..,Ds,, enocbs Of ohser.
,',t;,,,-,.. co,,arntpo The diearant stars
and does work tending to facilitate the
,''',orc,,,,s ,,rits-s C~sat credit he due
- ~ a., I-,tIo,,-g nao ttervsv Her
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