The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-03-18
Women As COMPUYERS
Financially Considered the Work
Does Not Pay.
FEMININE Mathematicians and Sci
fcssi"n. and Are Usually Gentle.
Retiring beings Who Have LIt.ir
sympathy for '.Womnn's Rights

| handles in measuring her spaces and. de-
grees will double her income. The com
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
! haberdashery is far more remunerative.
But this woman loves her business. and Is
/ even now in outside hours engaged upon a
| 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 at Column
bia, They measure the stars by means of
photographs of them. and are assisted in
the task by matchlessiy humsn-like instru-
ments devised for this purpose. They toll
daily over the calculations of their meas
urements. but they are mathematician,
pure and simple and aspire to no flights in
astronomy. Should they marry they will
compute no more. But with the chief COM
putor IL is different. IL 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-
matcians and scientists are seldom for
woman's rights. In the category of bril-
liant names from Madame. Lepante. the
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 to 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 native
of Dundee. Scotland. She came tc this
country twenty years ago and secured en-
ployment at Harvard as a computor, be-
ing then pioneer in the field. Her re-
sponsibilities have steadily increased. and
she conducts much important investiga-
ton. having discovered number of rari-
able stars and confirmed the discovery of
several new stars to be accredited 70 her
assistants. the Misses Leland. !,:aury.
Stevens and 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 aud west
is done by women.
A practical calculator and astronomer
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 a
1i.5-inch equatorial telescope She direct
servatory in the Argentine Republic up
to 1890 and at the same time participated
in the observation of a list of 4sG 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
ters
Marguerite Palmer has done much COM
putting in the Yale observatory and con-
tributed several articles to the observa-
tory bulletin Of transactions. She has
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
at the 0oodseli Observatory. Mortified.
Mimi, is one of the associate editors of
N astronomical monthly. Among the anna
eur astronomers who have private OBJ
;ervatories is Miss Rose O'HalIoran of
San Francisco who makes study of
'clipses. meteors, variable stars. and gen.
.rsl aspects. Miss Dorothea Klumpke, of
he. same city, is one American woman
Who puts her energies to foreign service.
She is now director of the bureau for the
measurement OF the plates of the Astro-
Catalogue at the Paris OBJ
ervatOry- OF the six women eomputors
n the department she is the only Ameri
an. having become identified with the
in 1881 when she entered it
is a student. Her advancement has been
apid. and her observations Of the minor
,lanets and OF the Temple-Swift comet
rave been published in the French scien
itic journals.
Another woman computor and explorer
: Miss Ashley. who studies the surface
f the moon. Her labors are regularly re-
orded in the "Seismographical Journal
he is of the same name as the woman
who maps out the plans for
he improved philosophical instruments
he uses. but the two women are no rela-
ion. and they work with very different
Dols, although tending toward the same
nd.
Mrs. Coreita K. Davis is an independent
orker, at present engaged upon very in
ricate computations and reductions for
he benefit Of Investigators. She computes
ltitude investigations at New York and
aples, arrives at mean eDochs of obser-
atoms concerning the different stars.
nd does work tending to facilitate the
Ibors of her husband and coutem
writer's. Great credit is due
RS. Mary Anna Fallows. nee Hervey. Her
usbsnd being director of the royal OBJ
'rvatory Of the Cape of Good Hope,
ther through removal or death. one By
IT, Prof. FalioWs' assistants left him
nil he was all alone when i'll and unfit
II work. His wife came to the rescue
,lieved him Of entire responsibility. and
Il observatory work without flaw until
sistance could be secured.
There are many women occupying promi-
mt places as computors in the British
iservatorics, and one is director OF the
lar section for the Astronomical Asso-
alton and studies eciipses at various
ints. but this article concerns American
omen and mention must be made OF
iss Proctor. the successful lecturer on
Economical subjects, and the various vo-
en- directors of astronomy at the college,
servatories. Miss Sarah J. Cunningham
the only woman director at a co-educa-
Dnal college. For years she has been
entitled with Swarthmore. Miss Flora
Harpham lately her assistant is now
gagged with her on certain computations
astronomical interest. Helen Hayes in-
ructor OF mathematics at Wellesley. pub
he'd the orbit of one OF the planets.
Try Emma Bird directs the observatory
Smiths. and Mary Watson Whitney at
sssr, as successor to Maria Mitchell, Miss
G. Wentworth and Miss Charlottes R
Hard are we'll known eomputors and
ltributors to current literature concern
: astronomical topics. Twenty-Five years
0 Miss Ida c. Martin was Director Ru-
erford's right hand assistant In the
of plates. and all the earlier