The Transportation Problem on the 1620 Digital Computer

Abstract

One of the earlist puplished accounts of a scientific method for formulating and solving distribution or transpor- tation problems appeared in 1941. World war II subsequently saw considerable development of the techniques of linear programming and operations research. In 1951 considerable advance was given to linear programming by the cowles comiss- ion, and particularly to the solution of distribution problems by G.B. Dantzig and T.C. Koopmans. At this stage, however, the methods were still diff- cult for a non mathematician to under stand. The first really simplified approach, "the North west corner method" was presen- ted in 1953 by W.W. Cooper and A. Charnes..