Professor Edith Clarke

Clarke studied mathematics and astronomy at Vassar College, receiving an A.B. in 1908. She briefly taught mathematics and physics at a private school in San Francisco and at Marshall College. She then spent some time studying civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin?Madison, but left to become a "computer" at AT&T in 1912. She computed for George Campbell, who applied mathematical methods to the problems of long-distance electrical transmissions. While at AT&T, she studied electrical engineering at Columbia University by night. In 1918, Clarke enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the following year she became the first woman to earn an M.S. in electrical engineering from MIT. Despite her degree, she was unable to be hired as an engineer. Instead, she went to work for General Electric as a supervisor of computers in the Turbine Engineering Department. In her spare time, she invented the Clarke calculator, a simple graphical device that solved equations involving electric current, voltage and impedance in power transmission lines. The device could solve line equations involving hyperbolic functions ten times faster than previous methods. She applied for a patent on the device in 1921.