NE #31: The very first bug
Every computer science lecture probably begins with this sentence: “Did you know that the term bug comes from the fact that a moth was found in a mainframe computer at the beginning of the digital age?” Unfortunately, that’s not entirely true. Part 31 of the Nerd Encyclopedia explains:
A bug is understood as a bug in a program. On the 9th It is said to have happened in September 1945 that Mark II, a computer from Harvard University, issued an error message. Even university computers are not immune to it.
So you opened the computer as part of the troubleshooting — they were slightly larger than the smartwatch on our wrist at the time — and found the obvious cause of the problem: A moth ! She wanted to make herself comfortable in the panel F in the Relay 70 and paid this daring project with life — the cause of death is unfortunately not recorded.
The remnants of the moth were glued into a logbook (why actually?) and by Dr. Grace Hopper comments with the famous remark: “First actual case of bug being found.”
The first documented case of a motte in a computer was the first documented case. But that was by no means how often assumed the birth of the term bug as a synonym for a bug in a system. This happened much earlier, namely the end of the 19th century. century by our old friend Thomas Edison :
‘Bugs’ ‘ as such little faults and difficulties are called à show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached.
Thomas Edison at Theodore Puskas, 1878 [COMP1]
The term even found its way into the Oxford English Dictionary:
a defect or fault in a machine, plan, or the like.
There the Pall Mall Gazette is given as the source [JSTO1]:
“Mr [Thomas] Edison… had been up the two previous nights discovering a ‘bug’ in his phonograph à an expression for solving a difficulty, and implying that some imaginary insect had secreted itself inside and is causing all the trouble.
Thomas Edison, March 11, 1889
It should also be mentioned that Dr. Hopper the moth neither found nor glued into the logbook, but only the iconic comment underneath wrote [PCWE1].
Nevertheless, we should fearfully acknowledge that the moth in Panel F has allowed her life to help the term bow come to fruition to shape it. Thank you, Moth.
