In 1939, as Konrad Zuse was developing his electromechanical calculators in Germany, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of Mathematics and Physics at Iowa State College in the United States, embarked on a groundbreaking project. Alongside his recently graduated student, Clifford Berry, Atanasoff began constructing an experimental prototype of an electronic calculator. This pioneering work culminated in 1942 with the creation of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), recognized as the first computer to employ binary calculus.
The ABC was a remarkable achievement for its time, as it utilized electronic technology instead of the traditional mechanical components found in earlier calculating machines. This innovation allowed for significantly faster and more efficient calculations. Moreover, the use of binary calculus, a numerical system based on two digits (0 and 1), laid the foundation for modern computing.
While Zuse's calculators and Atanasoff's ABC were significant milestones in the history of computing, they were not the only advancements being made during this period. Other notable figures, such as Alan Turing in the United Kingdom, were also making important contributions to the field. Turing's theoretical work on computability and his design for a hypothetical computing machine, known as the Turing machine, would have a profound impact on the development of modern computers.
The work of these early pioneers paved the way for the rapid advancements in computing technology that would follow in the decades to come. Their innovations and discoveries laid the groundwork for the powerful and versatile computers that we rely on today.
In the months leading up to the start of his project, Atanasoff gradually formed the belief that designing an electronic calculator was possible, although the specific approach remained elusive. The mental strain of grappling with this problem is vividly described in his interview with Katherine Fishman for the book "The Computer Establishment" (McGraw Hill, 1981):
"I commenced to go into torture," Atanasoff confessed, emphasizing the two years of intense contemplation that followed. His evenings were spent tirelessly pondering the concept in his physics building office. The weight of the unsolved problems became so overwhelming that one winter night in 1937, he found himself in physical and mental torment. Seeking an outlet for his frustration, he embarked on a long, high-speed drive, a habit he employed to regain emotional control. However, on this particular night, the torment was relentless, driving him across the Mississippi River and deep into Illinois, a staggering 189 miles from his starting point. Recognizing the need to stop, he sought refuge in a roadside establishment, drawn by its welcoming light. Cold and exhausted, he found solace in a drink, gradually regaining his composure.
This anecdote illustrates the immense dedication and mental effort Atanasoff invested in his pursuit of the electronic calculator. It underscores the challenges faced by early innovators in the field of computing, who often grappled with complex problems and the pressure to achieve breakthroughs. Despite these obstacles, Atanasoff's perseverance and ingenuity ultimately led to the creation of the ABC, a pioneering machine that laid the foundation for modern computing.
In a legal dispute to determine the rightful inventor of the first electronic computer, John Vincent Atanasoff provided pivotal testimony. He recounted a moment of clarity during a late-night drive, seeking refuge in a roadside inn. It was within this humble setting that Atanasoff solidified key principles for his calculator's construction, including the groundbreaking use of binary systems for data representation. This revelation propelled his dream of building an electronic calculator out of a two-year stagnation and into a tangible project.
Decades later, on October 19, 1973, Judge Earl L. Larson of the District Court of Minneapolis delivered a landmark ruling. He affirmed Atanasoff's claim, recognizing him as the inventor of the first electronic digital calculator. This verdict, delivered 34 years after the fact, rectified a historical oversight that had obscured Atanasoff's contributions. The widespread acclaim of ENIAC, a calculator developed seven years after Atanasoff's prototype, had often led to its misattribution as the pioneering electronic computer. This legal recognition restored Atanasoff's rightful place in the annals of computer science, ensuring his innovative work would no longer be overshadowed.
In 1944, Howard Aiken, a professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, unveiled the Mark I calculator, an imposing machine measuring 20 meters long and 3 meters high. Its operational capacity was limited to 3 operations per second due to its reliance on electro-mechanical telephone relays. Aiken, drawing inspiration from Charles Babbage's pioneering work, secured funding for his research from IBM President Thomas John Watson. This financial support enabled the development and completion of Mark I in 1944, with subsequent models Mark II, III, and IV following in its footsteps.
Interestingly, the Mark I programming team included a young couple, Conway Berners-Lee and Mary Lee Woods. Their son, Tim Berners-Lee, born in 1955, would later revolutionize information sharing by inventing the World Wide Web standards and protocols in 1990. This remarkable lineage highlights the profound impact of early computing pioneers on subsequent generations of innovators.
The Mark calculators are also remembered for an unusual incident in 1947 when operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped within a relay. This event, documented in a logbook now preserved at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, is often cited as the origin of the term "bug" to describe a fault in an electronic device. However, the term "bug" was already in use in engineering circles to describe technical errors.
The Mark calculators gained notoriety for an unusual incident on September 9th, 1947, when operators discovered the cause of an error in the Mark II: a moth trapped within a relay. This peculiar event, meticulously documented in a logbook with the attached moth as evidence, is now preserved at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
While this episode is often cited as the origin of the term "bug" to describe a fault in electronic devices, the term was already in use long before this incident. Engineers and technicians had been using "bug" to refer to technical glitches for years, if not decades.
The widespread attribution of the term's origin to this specific event might be due to its tangible and somewhat humorous nature. The image of a moth disrupting a complex machine like the Mark II captured the imagination and provided a relatable anecdote for explaining technical malfunctions. However, it's essential to recognize that the term "bug" predates this incident and has a more nuanced history within the engineering and technology communities.
Following the development of Zuse's calculators in Germany and Aiken's calculators in the United States, the race for computing advancements continued. In 1946, the United States solidified its position at the forefront of this technological revolution with the unveiling of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering. This monumental achievement by John Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly marked a significant leap forward in computing power and capabilities.
The sheer scale of ENIAC's computational power is a testament to the remarkable engineering feat it represented. To achieve its impressive speed of 5,000 operations per second, ENIAC utilized a staggering 18,000 vacuum tubes, powered by a dedicated electrical plant. This immense processing capability came at the cost of substantial size and energy consumption. The machine weighed 30 tons, occupied a space of 30 meters in length, 3 meters in width, and 1 meter in depth, and consumed a whopping 140,000 watts of power. Its intricate circuitry comprised 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, and 6,000 switches. Anecdotes from ENIAC's biographers even recount how the initial activation of the machine caused a noticeable drop in electrical current across Philadelphia and generated significant heat, raising the surrounding air temperature to a sweltering 120° Fahrenheit.
Officially, ENIAC was designed as a superfast calculator for ballistic trajectory calculations, capable of processing data so rapidly that it could compute a rocket's trajectory in real-time. However, the creators' aspirations extended far beyond military applications. Mauchly, in particular, envisioned using ENIAC to predict weather patterns and investigate the potential influence of solar phenomena like sunspots and solar storms on Earth's climate.
While modern science has largely ruled out a direct correlation between solar activity and weather, Mauchly's pursuit of this question in the 1930s was a testament to his forward-thinking approach. Recognizing the immense complexity of weather prediction, he initially considered employing a large team of human calculators and punched card machines for data processing. However, after attending the 1939 World Fair, he realized the limitations of these methods and the need for a more powerful and efficient calculating machine. This realization ultimately led him to collaborate with Eckert on the development of ENIAC, a groundbreaking invention that would revolutionize computing and lay the foundation for future advancements in weather forecasting and other scientific fields.
Today, the scientific consensus is that solar phenomena have no direct correlation with weather patterns. However, this understanding was not as clear-cut in 1936 when Mauchly became fascinated with the potential of automatic calculations for weather prediction. Recognizing the immense complexity of weather-related computations, Mauchly initially planned to employ a large team of human calculators to perform the calculations manually, with the intention of using punched card machines, similar to those developed by Herman Hollerith, for data processing.
However, a visit to the 1939 World Fair proved to be a turning point in Mauchly's thinking. Witnessing the capabilities of various calculating machines on display, he realized that even with dozens of punched card machines at his disposal, processing the vast amount of weather data he had collected would take an impractically long time, likely spanning over a decade. This realization highlighted the limitations of existing calculating methods and spurred Mauchly's pursuit of a more powerful and efficient solution, ultimately leading to his collaboration with Eckert on the development of ENIAC.
The term "bug," commonly used today to describe a fault or error in software or electronic devices, has a history that extends far beyond the well-known incident of the moth in the Mark II computer. As early as 1878, Thomas Edison referred to "Bugs" in a letter, using the term to describe the little faults and difficulties that arose during the development of his inventions. This suggests that the term was already in use in engineering and technical circles to denote glitches and malfunctions.
Further evidence of the term's earlier usage can be found in the "Jargon File of computer hackers," where Eric S. Raymond notes that "historians of the field inform us that the term 'bug' was regularly used in the early days of telegraphy." It was used to describe semi-automatic telegraphy keyers that would malfunction and send a string of dots. Additionally, radio technicians employed the term to refer to devices that convert electromagnetic field variations into acoustic signals.
Raymond also highlights the use of "bug" in a broader context, tracing it back to Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part III, where it is used to describe a source of fear or nuisance. This demonstrates that the term has been used metaphorically to describe disruptive events or problems for centuries.
Therefore, while the moth in the Mark II incident is a memorable anecdote often associated with the origin of the term "bug," it is important to acknowledge that the term had a more widespread and established usage in technical and non-technical contexts prior to this event.
"Die thou; and die our fear; For Warwick was a bug that fear'd us all." This quote from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part III, demonstrates the long-standing use of the term "bug" to represent a source of fear or disruption, further illustrating its pre-existing usage beyond the realm of technology.
In 1941, John Mauchly's burgeoning interest in electronics led him to attend an army-sponsored seminar where he met John Presper Eckert, a brilliant young electronics expert. Mauchly shared his vision of creating a machine for complex automatic calculations, and their collaboration would soon prove to be a pivotal moment in the history of computer science. However, Mauchly's prior visit to Iowa, where he observed Atanasoff's early electronic calculator, raised questions about the originality of their subsequent invention, ENIAC.
Despite the court ruling that credited Atanasoff with the invention of the electronic calculator, Mauchly's limited knowledge of electronics at the time suggests that any influence from Atanasoff's work on ENIAC was likely minimal. This supports the argument that ENIAC was largely an independent creation, rather than a derivative of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. The ENIAC project, born from the combined expertise of Mauchly and Eckert, would go on to revolutionize computing and pave the way for future technological advancements.
Initially, Eckert and Mauchly faced a major setback in their pursuit to build ENIAC due to a lack of funding, forcing them to halt their project. However, a fortuitous encounter with Lieutenant Herman Goldstine proved to be a turning point. Goldstine recognized the potential of their work and facilitated a crucial meeting with key figures in both academia and the military.
On April 2, 1943, Eckert, Mauchly, and Goldstine met with Oswald Veblen, the esteemed president of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies, and Leslie Simon, the director of the US Army Ballistic Research Laboratory. This meeting would determine the fate of their ambitious project.
Goldstine later recounted the pivotal moment when, after listening intently to their proposal, Veblen abruptly stood up and exclaimed, "Simon, give Goldstine the money." With this decisive statement, the project to create ENIAC was officially born, backed by a substantial $400,000 in funding that arrived the very next day. This injection of financial support not only allowed Eckert and Mauchly to resume their work but also solidified the critical partnership between the scientific community and the military in advancing computing technology.
Johann von Neumann, a Hungarian scientist with a remarkable track record of groundbreaking contributions across diverse fields, played a pivotal role in the development of ENIAC. His expertise spanned a wide spectrum of disciplines, including quantum physics, logic, game theory, and automatic calculus. Von Neumann's exceptional ability to innovate and revolutionize existing paradigms made him an invaluable asset to the ENIAC project. Notably, in the year preceding ENIAC's creation, he published a seminal report on the Moore School's initiative to construct electronic calculators based on logic, further solidifying his influence in the burgeoning field of computer science.
The introduction of John von Neumann to the ENIAC project was a serendipitous event that would significantly impact the trajectory of the project. In the summer of 1944, a chance encounter between von Neumann and Herman Goldstine at the Aberdeen, Maryland railway station sparked von Neumann's interest in the ENIAC project. As Goldstine, an old acquaintance, described the ongoing work at the Moore School, he observed a spark of intrigue in von Neumann's eyes. This marked the beginning of von Neumann's involvement in the development of ENIAC, and the fortuitous meeting at the Aberdeen railway station initiated a collaboration that would prove instrumental to the project's ultimate success. Von Neumann's expertise in mathematics and computing, combined with the engineering prowess of Eckert and Mauchly, created a powerful synergy that propelled ENIAC to new heights.
In 1947, Eckert and Mauchly, the pioneers behind ENIAC, established the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Over time, ACM grew into a leading scientific and educational organization in the field of computer science, fostering innovation and knowledge sharing among computing professionals.
Following the success of ENIAC, Eckert and Mauchly ventured into entrepreneurship, founding their own company. In 1951, their company introduced UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), a groundbreaking commercial calculator that further advanced the capabilities of electronic computing.
Among the talented individuals working at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation was a young Paul Baran, a 25-year-old engineer and the son of Polish immigrants. Initially tasked with quality control of electronic components for UNIVAC, Baran's ingenuity and expertise soon propelled him to a pivotal role in the development of technologies that would shape the future of communication networks. His groundbreaking work on packet switching, a method of breaking down data into smaller units for transmission across networks, laid the foundation for the modern Internet.