Hi. It’s been a long time here. All right we all have been using the word bug in our field. When we program something and if we get an error, then we say "Ah, shit ! we got an bug ! ". We has been using this kind of words without knowing how this words came into existence.

Before saying you how this word sneaked into computer field, let us know what is the meaning of bug. A bug is an insect. This word is mostly used in English countries. Now let us travel back in time. Now we are in first generation computers. First generation computers are something really big. You know we can walk inside a first generation computers. A typical first generation computers will have more than 4,00,000 vacuum tubes and completely relies on switches and gears,which inturn has to be operated by humans. For a first generation computer to work properly, humans should change the gears and switches in time. Why because, changing those gears, will make some of the circuits to be closed which is required for a particular operation.

Its a fine time for people at Harvard University. Some of the men at Harvard unversity are working with  MARK II Aiken Relay Calculator. One men asked to change one of the gear for making a circuit to be closed, so that they can get the desired results. nce the man changed the gear, the computer got crashed. So the panel members decided to call the service engineers. The service engineers arrived and as usual inquired what has happened ?

The service engineers started to walk around the computer and one men among the service engineer, said that "I have found a bug". Actually the bug is nothing but a moth. The moth was in one gear. When the other gear was about the encounter the gear which had the moth, the gear hit the moth and the moth suffered a severe crash as a result the moth died on the spot making the circuit open. We know the fact that anything that is dead is a bad conductor of electricity.The two gear is supposed to form a closed circuit, but because of the moth the circuit became open.

The term ‘bug’ was first used by Grace Hopper on September 9th, 1945 when a real bug, a moth, short-circuited an early computer on relay number 70 Panel F, of the MARK II Aiken Relay Calculator, in the Harvard University. The operators of the computer said they had “debugged” the computer, and ever since then the terms has not changed.

A little research with google helped me to get this image.

image

source : http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-h/g-hoppr.htm