The 'Secret Six': Women Who Programmed the World's First Electronic Computer

Question

Accepted Answer

The colossal ENIAC, often hailed as the world's first all-electronic digital computer, was programmed by a team of six brilliant women, whose groundbreaking work was largely overlooked for decades. They not only designed its first complex programs but also pioneered many fundamental programming techniques still in use today. Unveiled in 1946, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) filled a large room, but its incredible capabilities were actualized by these female 'computers' – a job title that originally referred to people who performed calculations. Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Fran Bilas, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, and Adele Goldstine manually wired thousands of switches and cables to execute ballistic trajectory calculations for the U.S. Army. Their innovation laid the groundwork for modern software engineering, including subroutines and nested loops, yet their pivotal contributions were frequently omitted from historical records, with their presence at press conferences sometimes mistaken for models or 'refrigerator ladies.'

The 'Secret Six': Women Who Programmed the World's First Electronic Computer

More Technology

IBM's Monstrous First Hard Drive: A Ton for 5 Megabytes!

Clicking Wood: The Computer Mouse's Humble Wooden Beginnings

Why Your QWERTY Keyboard Was Designed to Slow You Down

The Mouse That Started It All: A Wooden Wonder