The Pittsburgh Press (February 15, 1946)
Supercalculator gives answers in minutes to problems scientists work on for months
Will aid all studies – atomic to weather
ENIAC – Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer – is a giant device housed in a room 30 by 50 feet in size. Cost of research and development was $400,000. It can make long-range weather predictions, compute length and complicated firing and bombing tables, and will be useful in radar explorations of the universe.
WASHINGTON – An electric computing machine, 1,000 times faster than any previously built, has been developed by the Army Ordnance Department at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering University of Pennsylvania.
The machine will be dedicated today by the War Department and inspected by some of the nation’s leading scientists.
It will soon make possible exact, long-range weather predictions, aid radar explorations of the universe and the study of atomic energy and generally revolutionize the mathematics of engineering, its inventors claim. It is said to be one of the greatest scientific “tools” ever developed. And the potential effect on science of this mechanical robot isn’t fully realized yet, they say.
It is called the ENIAC – Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
Giant of electronic precision
Inventors of the machine are Dr. J. W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, both on the faculty of Moore School.
Containing close to 18,000 vacuum tubes in its mechanism, the new machine is a giant of electronic precision. It occupies a room 30 by 50 feet and weighs 30 tons. Cost of research and development was $400,000.
Mathematical problems and equations which used to take scientists weeks and months – even with the aid of the best electric computers – can be worked out on the ENIAC in a few minutes. This was demonstrated at the first public showing of the machine.
Although the machine was originally developed to compute lengthy and complicated firing and bombing tables for the Army, it will solve equally complex peacetime problems.
To help weathermen
Weather experts have developed a mathematical equation which can forecast the weather almost perfectly and for long range. But there are innumerable elements in the extremely complex equation, such as temperature, wind speed, time of year, etc. When all the quantities are finally put in the equation, the problem of solving it is so complex it takes weeks to figure it out, By the time the equation is solved, the weather it was supposed to forecast is history. But they have proved that the equation is accurate. The ENIAC will be able to compute this weather equation in a few minutes, Army experts claim.
It is known that the long time it took just to figure out the complicated math in connection with the manufacture of the atomic bomb held up its completion for a long time. Had the ENIAC been invented soon enough it would have shortened up the time it took to make the A-bomb considerably. And it will speed up further development of atomic energy, experts hope.
Only one in existence
Although the ENIAC at the Moore School is the only one in existence, the Army plans to let private companies manufacture it. Several companies have already expressed an interest in it. The second machine, it is said, could be made more compact and at much less cost.
The speed of the ENIAC is phenomenal. The first problem put on it, which would have required 100 man-years of trained computer’s work, was completed in two weeks. Only two hours was actual electronic computing time. The rest was devoted to review of the results and details of operation.
If used to complete capacity, the ENIAC will carry out in five minutes more than 10 million additions or subtractions of ten-figure numbers. The machine performs a single addition in 1/5000th of a second and can do a number of distinct additions simultaneously. It can do a single multiplication by a ten-digit multiplier in 1/360th of a second, and give a nine-digit result in division or square rooting in 1/38th of a second.
Opens up new fields
With this speed many industrial and scientific problems which were left unsolved because of the impracticability of working them out will now be solvable. In astronomical science the statistical tables on relative positions of stars for navigational purposes require years to compute. The ENIAC opens up new fields here and in connection with radar exploration of the universe. Cosmological studies of the universe lend themselves to large-scale statistical treatment which will be greatly aided by the ENIAC.
It will also eliminate many of the trial and error techniques now used in industrial research because of the previous impracticability of figuring out the theoretical mathematics beforehand, they say.
The new machine, however, does not remove the need for legitimate experimentation, its inventors pointed out. The calculator does not replace original human thinking, but rather frees scientific thought from the drudgery of lengthy calculating work.
Has limitations
The ENIAC was begun in July 1943 and finished in the fall of 1945. So far it has been used exclusively for the Army to solve ordnance problems. The questions involved in its use by other branches of the government, in private industry and for other research are now being worked out.
Figures are placed in the ENIAC on perforated cards and the answers are also stamped out on cards. There are only about 10 men – those close to its development – who can use it.
Army does admit that the machine has limitations. Here are a few:
- It can’t tell when the U.S. budget will be balanced.
- It can’t figure out your income tax for you.
- It isn’t practical for Junior’s homework.