ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was “the first purely electronic, Turing-complete, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems”. It was constructed during World War II at the University of Pennsylvania. (Wikipedia)
The six women of ENIAC are: Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Frances Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.
Today is International Women’s Day and a very good day to remember and celebrate these women who were forgotten for thier achievements:
Although two women were given recognition at the conference, the rest weren’t even invited to the reception. But Kleiman’s ongoing quest to reveal the forgotten story of the six women has gotten the ball rolling on public awareness: A Wall Street Journal article was written about the women last year [in 1996], and has become a minor Net meme. California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo has been working to name a day in honor of the ENIAC programmers, although her efforts were delayed whe. Congress stopped allowing commemorative days. And Kleiman herself is coordinating a broadcast-quality oral history with the ENIAC women, which will eventually be turned into a documentary.
source: peterlangston
Photos are taken from the U.S. Army Research Lab archive.
Read more about the women of ENIAC: http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/halloffame/1997/eniac.php
Now, to take a break from nerdsville…
Natalija Gros from Jure Breceljnik on Vimeo.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~Mark Twain
That’s a very inspiring video.
I’ve never met anyone who knew about ENIAC really, so once again you amuse me
. Yes, girls were leaders in programming, and then moved a side for men to dominate.
What’s sad about this ENIAC story is, it was something before it’s time, and not only the programmers, but the founders and brains behind the whole idea made neither fame nor fortune.
Read or listen to ENIAC.
girls are leader in what ever they set their mind to do and we ain’t moved for no one
outrageous: Yeah! Ever heard the “She Invented” Did you mean “He Invented” story?
Each sex complements the other at certain things, and when it comes to inventions and technology revolutions, it’s usually men. For example, when the girls were busy programming the computer, boys were busy making history building THE first general purpose computer. Girls were working for them. That’s not undermining their contribution, but the leaders of the project in the picture were all men.
From the Wikipedia article for fastest reference, it reads [ENIAC was conceived and designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania.].
Other examples are Apple, Microsoft, PIXAR, Disney, Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, Amazon, and many others. I’ve been through their stories, all started by men force