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Documentary on the women who hacked ENIAC
by meyers | October 31, 2007 at 12:11 pm
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Did you know, sixty years ago, six young women programmed the ENIAC, the first all-electronic programmable computer?
Six young women mastered the power of the ENIAC – an 80 foot long, 8 foot tall, black metal machine – and harnessed its power through an archaic programming interface using dozens of wires and 3000 switches. They programmed ENIAC to perform a ballistics trajectory, a
differential calculus equation important to the WWII effort, and they
succeeded brilliantly. When the ENIAC was unveiled to the public on
February 14, 1946, their program captured the imagination of the press
and made headlines across the country. Afterwards, the ENIAC became a
legendary machine and its engineers (all men) became famous. Never
introduced or credited at the ENIAC events of the 1940s, the
Programmers story disappeared from history. They became invisible.



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