Hitting the Books: The women who made ENIAC more than a weapon - Engadget

Abstraction: Six women programmed ENIAC's first public demonstration but went uncredited

Key points:

• On Demonstration Day (February 15, 1946) at the Moore School, six women programmers (Kay, Fran, Marlyn, Betty, Jean, Ruth) ran the ballistics trajectory that wowed an audience of scientists and military officers.
• ENIAC computed a ballistics trajectory in under 20 seconds — faster than a missile could leave an artillery muzzle — compared to a week of hand calculation.
• The women were never introduced to guests; no attendee knew their role despite thousands of hours spent learning ENIAC's "direct programming" method without any manual or guide.
• Author Kathy Kleiman's book Proving Ground (2022) recovered their stories through extensive research.
• The event is described as the birth of the "Electronic Computing Revolution" and the Information Age; after it, no one looked back at electromechanical computers.

Connections: Eniac · Kathy Kleiman · Computing History · Women In Stem · Early Programming

Source: https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-proving-grounds-kathy-kleiman-grand-central-publishing-143001879.html