Dear members of SIGCIS,

I am happy to announce the publication of a special issue of Revue de Synthèse (vol 139: 3-4, 2018) on "Mathematics and Machines", edited by Liesbeth De Mol, Marie-José Durand-Richard and myself .

The issue looks at the interactions between mathematics and manual, analogue or digital computation and focuses on the period before and after World War II. I attach our English translation of the introduction, explaining the topic and outlining the articles of the special issue. The issue itself is online here:

https://brill.com/view/journals/rds/139/3-4/rds.139.issue-3-4.xml

(While access to the issue is restricted, some of the articles can be found in preprint form on HAL-SHS Archives Ouvertes, https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/ notably nrs. halshs-01541616 and hal-01814822)

Content: vol 139: 3-4, 2018: Special Issue: "Mathématiques et Machines", ed. by Liesbeth De Mol, Maarten Bullynck and Marie-José Durand-Richard

* Liesbeth De Mol, Maarten Bullynck and Marie-José Durand-Richard
Introduction: Mathématiques et machines (pp.235–239)

* Maarten Bullynck
Programming Men and Machines. Changing Organisation in the Artillery Computations at Aberdeen Proving Ground (1916-1946), (pp. 241–266)

* Allan Olley
A Task that Exceeded the Technology: Early Applications of the Computer to the Lunar Three-body Problem (pp. 267–288)

* Marie-José Durand-Richard
De l’analyseur différentiel à l’ordinateur : le parcours de Douglas R. Hartree (1897-1958) (pp. 289–326)

* Loïc Petitgirard
Machines analogiques et mathématiques des systèmes dynamiques. Le groupe de « Dynamique théorique » de Théodore Vogel à Marseille (France), 1948-1964 (pp. 327–360)

* Liesbeth De Mol and Maarten Bullynck
Making the History of Computing. The History of Computing in the History of Technology and the History of Mathematics (pp. 361–380)

* Des mathématiques, des machines et des hommes (Review section, pp. 419–432)

best wishes,

Maarten Bullynck
Département de mathématiques & histoire des sciences & UMR 8533 IDHE.S
Université Paris 8