While the term "bug" had been used in engineering slang since Thomas Edison to describe mechanical glitches, the Harvard Mark II incident gave the phrase literal computing history.
The Harvard Mark II was an electromechanical computer that occupied an entire room, operating on thousands of ticking relays. When the machine malfunctioned on a humid September afternoon, technicians hunted down the fault to Relay #70.
There they found a moth beaten to death by the high-voltage relay contacts. The logbook containing the taped moth is preserved today at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Key Takeaways
- Found inside the Harvard Mark II relay system in 1947.
- Grace Hopper popularized the term after logging the actual moth.
- The original logbook is housed at the Smithsonian Institute.
Sources & Archival References:
