NavList:

David P wrote

There is scope for further research here because the internet is remarkably quiet about C H Hutchings USN.  C H Hutchins certainly conceived and designed star tables pre 1947 ( https://www.ion.org/publications/abstract.cfm?articleID=101939  & Cotter), but he wasn’t the only person who did so, e.g. AP1618.  His ideas must have been close enough to the 1947 edition of HO249/AP3270 Volume 1 for the idea at least to be credited to him by US commentators of the period (Swope & Dohm). 

THe 1930s/40s was a period when lots of fertile minds were addressing the problem of reducing sights. For example I knew that Comrie  produced Hughes tables in the late 1930s. I have just  found out that in the same period Myerscough and Hamilton also produced their short tables.

Another Phd thesis is https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00037198/00001.  It does not tell us what we already know. My  opinion of PhD theses has gone down after reading Cotter's and the above  documents. They are not the sophisticated dissertations I had assumed theses to be! Maybe someone could  fund me to spend time in the US and UK researching navirgation tables in the 1930s - 1950s? I would expect to receive all neccessary vaccinations and  work visas.

Seriously, the 1930s - 1950s needs some serious research by those with access to the various archives. I wonder if anyone anticipated the coming changes due to electronic replacing human computers.