ENIAC’s Architects Wove Stories Through Computing

This year marks the 80th anniversary of ENIAC, the first general-purpose digital computer. The computer was built during World War 2 to speed up ballistics calculations, but its contributions to computing extend well beyond military applications. Two of ENIAC’s key architects—John W. Mauchly, its co-inventor, and Kathleen “Kay” McNulty, one of the six original programmers—married a few years after its completion and raised seven children together. Mauchly and McNulty’s grandchild Naomi Most delivered a talk as part of a celebration in honor of ENIAC’s anniversary on 15 February, which was held online and in-person at the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester, Pa. The following is adapted from that presentation.RELATED: ENIAC, the First General-Purpose Digital Computer, Turns 80There was a library at my grandparents’ farmhouse that felt like it went on forever. September light through the windows, beech leaves rustling outside on the stone porch, the sounds of cous