imafuturist (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
imafuturist) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2022-09-06 09:07 am
imafuturist) wrote in fandomhigh2022-09-06 09:07 am
History of American Inventions, Tuesday - Third Period
This time around, the teachers were actually in the classroom rather than leaving a robot with a note and a movie. How novel!
"Apologies for last week," Tony said with a polite little smile. "Some things came up, so we had to start out with a movie. Which means we skipped over the introductions. So, we'll be quick about that. My name is Tony Stark..."
"...and I'm Steve Rogers," Steve said, adding a slightly dorky little wave. "This is American Inventions, so hopefully you're all in the correct place."
"We're starting out with something that is the basis for the computers that we use today, the ENIAC, or the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, Which was basically a number crunching machine that could calculate sums at a rate beyond the human mind. It was, of course, developed like many inventions that we'll cover, during a war. You'll find that a lot of these came as necessities of wartime or as creature comforts," Tony said, clearly very enthused by the subject matter.
Tony was such a nerd. "It wasn't so very long ago that 'computer' meant someone who did calculations like this for a living," Steve added. "It was a person, not a machine. Why do you think doing math faster would be helpful during a war?"
Tony paused for a moment to allow the class to consider it before providing the answer. "In this instance, the ENIAC was used to calculate artillery for the US Army, be it for basic combat or to determine the effectiveness of new weaponry or the most effective location or weather conditions for it to be used in. These calculations could take a person almost 20 hours of work to complete with all the variables available. The computer, on the other hand, could do it in seconds."
"And in war, every second counts," Steve said, nodding.
Tony nodded at that as well. "But, the most interesting thing, or maybe not as it was a lot more common than you think, is that the programmers who built this machine were all women. And that was not made public knowledge for a long time following their achievements. In fact, the women were excluded from any awards ceremonies for the accomplishments they made with this computer. It took nearly four decades for any acknowledgement for them to come."
"Write these names down," Steve said, "because it will be on a test: Jean Jennings, Marilyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Snyder, Frances Bilas, and Kay McNulty."
"Apologies for last week," Tony said with a polite little smile. "Some things came up, so we had to start out with a movie. Which means we skipped over the introductions. So, we'll be quick about that. My name is Tony Stark..."
"...and I'm Steve Rogers," Steve said, adding a slightly dorky little wave. "This is American Inventions, so hopefully you're all in the correct place."
"We're starting out with something that is the basis for the computers that we use today, the ENIAC, or the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, Which was basically a number crunching machine that could calculate sums at a rate beyond the human mind. It was, of course, developed like many inventions that we'll cover, during a war. You'll find that a lot of these came as necessities of wartime or as creature comforts," Tony said, clearly very enthused by the subject matter.
Tony was such a nerd. "It wasn't so very long ago that 'computer' meant someone who did calculations like this for a living," Steve added. "It was a person, not a machine. Why do you think doing math faster would be helpful during a war?"
Tony paused for a moment to allow the class to consider it before providing the answer. "In this instance, the ENIAC was used to calculate artillery for the US Army, be it for basic combat or to determine the effectiveness of new weaponry or the most effective location or weather conditions for it to be used in. These calculations could take a person almost 20 hours of work to complete with all the variables available. The computer, on the other hand, could do it in seconds."
"And in war, every second counts," Steve said, nodding.
Tony nodded at that as well. "But, the most interesting thing, or maybe not as it was a lot more common than you think, is that the programmers who built this machine were all women. And that was not made public knowledge for a long time following their achievements. In fact, the women were excluded from any awards ceremonies for the accomplishments they made with this computer. It took nearly four decades for any acknowledgement for them to come."
"Write these names down," Steve said, "because it will be on a test: Jean Jennings, Marilyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Snyder, Frances Bilas, and Kay McNulty."