Log Book With Computer Bug
Log Book With Computer Bug
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- Description
- American engineers have been calling small flaws in machines "bugs" for over a century. Thomas Edison talked about bugs in electrical circuits in the 1870s. When the first computers were built during the early 1940s, people working on them found bugs in both the hardware of the machines and in the programs that ran them.
- In 1947, engineers working on the Mark II computer at Harvard University found a moth stuck in one of the components. They taped the insect in their logbook and labeled it "first actual case of bug being found." The words "bug" and "debug" soon became a standard part of the language of computer programmers.
- Among those working on the Mark II in 1947 was mathematician and computer programmer Grace Hopper, who later became a Navy rear admiral. This log book was probably not Hopper's, but she and the rest of the Mark II team helped popularize the use of the term computer bug and the related phrase "debug."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- log book
- Date made
- 1947
- director
- Aiken, Howard Hathaway
- maker
- Harvard University
- IBM
- Harvard University
- Aiken, Howard
- Place Made
- United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
- Physical Description
- tape (overall material)
- paper (overall material)
- cloth (overall material)
- ink (overall material)
- biologicals (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 1.5 cm x 48.4 cm x 29.5 cm; 9/16 in x 19 1/16 in x 11 5/8 in
- ID Number
- 1994.0191.01
- catalog number
- 1994.0191.1
- accession number
- 1994.0191
- Credit Line
- Transfer from United States Department of Defense, Naval Surface Warfare Center
- subject
- Computer Bug
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Computers
- Military
- Computers & Business Machines
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Comments
As a former sailor and Plankowner of her Namesake... the term Bug and debugging were both coined by none other that former "Amazing" Grace Hopper who would go on to become a Navy Admiral and serve nearly 4 decades in the U.S. Navy. She has a US warship named after her the USS HOPPER DDG-70. She was one of only 3 Female Admirals and would become a legend in the US Navy. She was retired and asked to come out of retirement on 3 separate occasions.
Clarence Carroll
Thu, 2019-01-31 08:46
I'm sure it was documented somewhere before. A quick Internet search will yield results, I wager.
A.J. Miller
Wed, 2017-09-27 08:11
Anonymous
Wed, 2021-06-30 11:46