ENIAC

The hum of ENIAC was a familiar background noise in the vast room, almost comforting to the technicians who worked on this titanic machine.

Just now, that reassuring hum was interrupted by an abrupt silence, followed by an unmistakable pop.

The technician’s heart sank. A vacuum tube had burned out again. She took a deep breath, knowing that each failure meant hours of meticulous work ahead. There were more than 17,000 of these tubes.

She glanced at the area of the computer where she thought the sound had come from, the multiplier unit. It was one of the more temperamental sections, with a history of tube failures.

Hours seemed to pass as her patience waned, but finally, there it was: a tube with darkened glass. This was the culprit—the cause of the interruption to the important work being done.

A wave of relief washed over her. She carefully removed the damaged tube, its glass still warm to the touch, and replaced it with a new one.

ENIAC Genesis

In the 1940s, the world was in flux. Techno…