SeriesSearchFull courseOur workAbout & contact
STORYTech Stories · #1EP.71 · 24 s

Tech Story: the first computer bug was a real moth

Cover of the lesson: Tech Story: the first computer bug was a real mothComing to YouTube soon
Subscribe on YouTube Follow on Instagram
// WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

The first computer "bug" was a real moth (1947, Harvard Mark II, logged by Grace Hopper's team).

// LESSON NOTES

The first computer bug was a REAL bug! 🦋💻

📅 9 September 1947, Harvard University. The Harvard Mark II — a computer that switched with relays (tiny switches moved by magnets) — kept failing.

🔍 The engineers opened panel F. Stuck in relay #70: a moth! It was blocking the contacts.

📓 They taped the moth into the logbook and wrote: "First actual case of bug being found." Engineers already called faults "bugs" — that's why it was funny. Grace Hopper's team loved telling the story, and the page is now in the Smithsonian museum.

📌 De-bugging, for real.

Read the voiceover (transcript)
  1. The first computer bug was a real bug!
  2. September, nineteen forty-seven. The Harvard Mark Two computer kept failing.
  3. Engineers opened panel F. Stuck in relay number seventy: a moth!
  4. They taped it into the logbook: first actual case of bug being found.
  5. De-bugging, for real!
  6. Next story: the transistor! Follow for more!

Related lessons

EP.70 · Motors & Drivers · 4Two motors: a robot car EP.72 · Why does…?How does a microwave heat your food? EP.69 · QuizQuiz: brown-black-red-gold, what value is this resistor? EP.73 · Electronics Basics · 11The inductor: the coil that fights change