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Article #1238

Moth in relay! Urban myth?

#1238
From: b... Brad Sherman
Date: Sun, 04 Feb 1990 07:23
16 lines
1179 bytes
I have heard a number of versions of a story about a moth
flying into a relay of an early electro-mechanical computer.
The moth gets taped into the system log book.
The use of "bug" meaning computer problem is born.

Two questions:
	Can someone attest to moth in the logbook story?
	(First- or second- hand sources preferred.)

	I find it hard to believe that this was the first time
	that an insect jammed a relay.  Is this really the origin
	of this meaning of bug?

--
	Brad Sherman (b...@alfa.berkeley.edu)
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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!luth!eru!bloom-beacon!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!alfa.berkeley.edu!bks
From: b...@alfa.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Moth in relay! Urban myth?
Message-ID: <1990Feb4.072343.7821@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 4 Feb 90 07:23:43 GMT
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Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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Posted: Sun Feb  4 08:23:43 1990
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