World's first computer bug - photo

**Altair** · May 18, 2022, 08:13 PM

World's first computer bug, a moth trapped inside Harvard's Mark II computer in 1947.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...g_fullsize.jpg

Previously:

ENIAC data cable - GIF
Magnetic-core memory - photo
Cray-1 supercomputer - photo
4.5 megabytes of data represented by punch cards - photo
Changing ENIAC's vacuum tubes - photo

**bruce.desertrat** · May 19, 2022, 05:43 PM

Documented by Grace Hopper.

https://daily.jstor.org/the-bug-in-t...ter-bug-story/

I've always thought that this indicated they they'd had problems like this before, but this is the first time they'd actually found the culprit. I would expect a computer built of vacuum tubes would have a lot of problems with moths, being full of warm spaces with glowing lights.

**WmRMeyers** · May 19, 2022, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by bruce.desertrat

Documented by Grace Hopper.

https://daily.jstor.org/the-bug-in-t...ter-bug-story/

I've always thought that this indicated they they'd had problems like this before, but this is the first time they'd actually found the culprit. I would expect a computer built of vacuum tubes would have a lot of problems with moths, being full of warm spaces with glowing lights.

Run enough current through a moth's body, and they dry out. Keep slamming the relays, and they'll eventually turn to powder. Might have something to do with not finding that many of them. Or not.

bill