Ross Perot is a collector . He oncebought a copy of the Magna Cartain 1984 . But more intriguingly , he also bought and resurrectedENIAC , the world ’s first electronic computer .
ENIACstands for the “ Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer ” and was conceptualise of during World War II to help calculate the arched route of artillery bullets . It is an dead monumental machine weighing in at 27 heaps and occupying 1,800 substantial foot when fully assembled . Construction began in 1943 , but by the time it was finish up in 1945 , the warfare was over . The Army kept a tight hat on things at first . Even the maintenance manual ( below ) remained classify until 1946 . So what did the United States Army do with this marvel of engineering ? They used it to design the first hydrogen bomb . Then , in 1955 , they threw the thing away .
ENIAC venire on video display at the Smithsonian .
Back in 2006 , the information byplay innovator and former presidential prospect asked his staff to knock down the hallway of Perot Systems with history ’s most interesting computers . And since ENIAC is to computing history what the Magna Carta is to legal account , that became the while to have .
After it was decommissioned , ENIAC was broken up into 40 panel which were basically fall behind in random storage warehouse due to short record - guardianship . Libby Craft , Perot ’s music director of special task , ultimately set out to track down as much of it as she could and found nine panels lay in at Oklahoma ’s Fort Sill . Officials at the root did n’t even know how they end up with several tons of computing history , but they did agree to rent Perot Systems borrow eight of the panels in exchange for doctor them .
ENIAC was too abused and break to actually process information , but Perot ’s stave rigged up a motility - sensor situation that would make the control board lights wink as people walk by . ( Do n’t bury : the world ’s first information processing system was n’t all that very powerful in the first position . ) Since Perotkept his company on pretty stern lockdown , however , not that many visitors got to see it .
Thankfully , Perot ’s ENIAC panels found their way back to Fort Sill last month . ( The Smithsonian has a few panels , too . ) There , it ’s on display at the Army ’s Field Artillery Museum , where visitors can view the massive simple machine and its blinking lights — for free . [ wire ]
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