🚀 go-pugleaf

>From _Annals of the History of Computing_ v10n4 1989 p. 340:

    The First Bug

    Grace Murray Hopper, Captain, USNR
    NAVDAC
    Washington DC 20374

In the summer of 1945 we were building Mark II; we had to build it in an awful
rush -- it was wartime -- out of components we could get our hands on. We were
working in a World War I temporary building. It was a hot summer and there was
no air conditioning, so all the windows were open. Mark II stopped, and we
were trying to get her going. We finally found the relay that had failed.
Inside the relay -- and these were large relays -- was a moth that had been
beaten to death by the relay. We got a pair of tweezers. Very carefully we
took the moth out of the relay, put it in the logbook, and put scotch tape
over it (Figure 2).
    Now, Commander Howard Aiken had a habit of coming into the room and
saying, "Are you making any numbers?" We had to have an excuse when we weren't
making any numbers. From then on if we weren't making any numbers, we told him
that we were debugging the computer. To the best of my knowledge that's where
it started. I'm delighted to report that the first bug still exists; it is in
the Naval Museum at the Naval Surface Weapons Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.


Figure 2 shows a page of the Mark II log from September 9, 1945, including the
following entries:

    1100 Started Cosine Tape (Sine check)
    1525 Started Mult + Adder Test.
    1545    |moth|     Relay #70 Panel F
            |here|     (moth) in relay.
         First actual case of bug being found.
    1630 Arctangent started.
    1700 Closed down.

As pointed out in the v10n4 _Annals_, this should more correctly be called
"The First Computer Bug," since the meaning of the word "bug" is at least a
hundred years older. An 1878 letter from Thomas Alva Edison to Theodore Puskas
includes the passage "...then difficulties arise -- this thing gives out and
then that -- 'Bugs' -- as such little faults and difficulties are called..."

To anyone interested in computing folklore and history I most strongly
reccommend you subscribe to the _Annals of the History of Computing_. It is
published quarterly for the American Federation of Information Processing
Societies (AFIPS) and can be ordered from 

    Springer-Verlag New York
    Journal Fulfillment Services
    44 Harz Way
    Secaucus NJ 07094

Subscription is $38 per year for individuals in North America.

Steve Golson         sgo...@East.sun.com          gol...@cup.portal.com
Trilobyte Systems -- 33 Sunset Road -- Carlisle MA 01741 -- 508/369-9669
       (consultant for, but not employed by, Sun Microsystems)
"As the people here grow colder, I turn to my computer..." -- Kate Bush