Copyright © 2015 Truman State University Press, Kirksville, Missouri, 63501 All rights reserved tsup.truman.edu Cover art: Betty Jean Jennings, ca. 1941; detail of ENIAC, 1946. Cover design: Teresa Wheeler Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Todd, Kim D., author. Jean Jennings Bartik : computer pioneer / Kim Todd. pages cm—(Notable Missourians) Summary: “As a young girl in the 1930s, Jean Bartik dreamed of adventures in the world beyond her family’s farm in northwestern Missouri. After college, she had her chance when she was hired by the U.S. Army to work on a secret project. At a time when many people thought women could not work in technical fields like science and mathematics, Jean became one of the world’s first computer programmers. She helped program the ENIAC, the first successful stored-program computer, and had a long career in the field of computer science. Thanks to computer pioneers like Jean, today we have computers that can do almost anything.”—Provided by publisher. Audience: Ages 10-12. Audience: Grades 4 to 6. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61248-145-6 (library binding : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-61248-146-3 (e-book) 1. Bartik, Jean--Juvenile literature. 2. Women computer scientists—United States—Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. Computer scientists— United States—Biography—Juvenile literature. 4. Women computer programmers— United States—Biography—Juvenile literature. 5. Computer programmers—United States—Biography—Juvenile literature. 6. ENIAC (Computer)—History—Juvenile literature. 7. Computer industry—United States—History—Juvenile literature. I. Title. QA76.2.B27T63 2015 004.092--dc23 2015011360 No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any format by any means without written permission from the publisher. The paper in this publication meets or exceeds the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992. Contents Introduction ....................4 Chapter 1: Missouri Farm Life .....6 Chapter 2: College and War ......13 Chapter 3: A Human Computer ...21 Chapter 4: The First Programmers ..............28 Chapter 5: A Career with Computers ................35 Legacy: Computer Pioneer ......44 Timeline ......................45 For Future Reading .............46 Index .........................48 Image Credits ..................48 4 Introduction As a young girl, Jean Jennings dreamed of having a big adventure. She would lie in the hayloft and daydream about life beyond the cornfields and livestock of her family’s small farm in northwestern Missouri. Jean loved math and science, and she loved to fantasize about leading scientific expeditions to far-off places in search of strange, unknown animals and ancient artifacts that could change life on the planet. After college, Jean had her big chance. She went to Philadelphia and worked for the U.S. Army on a secret project. She worked first as a human “computer,” then as a programmer for the ENIAC, the first successful electronic computer. At that time most women did not work outside of the home, and many people thought women could not do highly technical work like programming. But Jean didn’t pay attention to what people thought about what women could not do. Not only did Jean become one of the world’s first computer programmers, she had a long career working with some of the earliest computers. 5 Chapter 1 Missouri Farm Life Betty Jean Jennings was born on December 27, 1924, outside Stanberry, Missouri, in Gentry County. When she was in her late twenties, she started going by “Jean.” Jean’s parents, Bill and Lula Jennings, had a farm. Her father also taught in a one-room schoolhouse. With one younger sister and five older brothers and sisters, Jean was part of a large family. Stanberry was a small town, but thanks to the railroad that brought people to town and carried farmers’ goods to other cities, it was a busy town. The town had a population of about 1,900 when Jean 6 was born, and had three banks, five grocery stores, three dry goods stores, three clothing stores, three drug stores, two hardware stores, three restaurants, two hotels, one cable manufacturing company, and one meal and feed mill. Most people in the area had farms, but some people worked in town or worked for the railroad. Stanberry became a town in 1879 when a railroad company wanted to build a station there. The town was named after a farmer who had donated land for the railroad’s right-of- way. Having a railroad station made it easier for farmers in the county to sell their produce and get it to market. 7 Chapter 3 A Human Computer Now that she had her chance to see the world, Jean didn’t waste any time. She borrowed some money from her sister, and, the evening after she got the telegram, she got on a train and headed for Philadelphia. She arrived on March 30, 1945, and reported to the University of Pennsylvania. She later said, “They were shocked I had gotten there so quickly.” Jean started training for her new job as a “computer.” Before the first computing machines were 21 invented, a “computer” was a person who calculated mathematical problems using a mechanical calculator. A couple of weeks later, Jean was on her way to lunch when she heard the news: President Roosevelt had died. Everyone was upset by the news, but the country was still at war. Vice President Harry S. Truman became president and continued efforts to win the war. Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, but the war in the Pacific was far from over and everyone feared that Japan would not easily surrender. Jean’s starting salary as a “computer” was $2,000 a year, which is equal to about $26,000 a year in 2015. 22 Chapter 4 The First Programmers Jean and the other four programmers spent a couple of months learning how to use the punch card equipment. By August 1945, they were at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania learning to program the very first electronic, programmable, general-purpose computer. That computer, called the ENIAC, was completely new, so there were no training manuals. Instead 28 the programmers were given block diagrams of the ENIAC’s circuits to study. The ENIAC had a lot of circuits and nearly 18,000 vacuum tubes. The computer’s 40 panels weighed 30 tons and took up 1,800 square feet. That is as heavy as ten pickup trucks and the size of a small house. At first that huge machine had one job—to make a large number of mathematical calculations really fast. The Army had given John Mauchly and Presper Eckert money to design and build the ENIAC so they would have The patent application for the ENIAC included a detailed diagram showing all the units and how they were arranged. Different kinds of units had different functions that all worked together to make calculations. 29 Legacy Computer Pioneer Jean Jennings Bartik grew up on a Missouri farm, but she dreamed of having adventures and doing things that would change the world. Many people thought women could not work in careers like science and engineering, but Jean proved them wrong. She often told people that the best advice she’d ever heard was, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because they think you can’t. You can do anything, achieve anything, if you think you can and you educate yourself to succeed.” Because she was determined to follow her dreams, Jean helped create the world’s first successful electronic computer. Thanks to early computer pioneers like Jean and the other women on the ENIAC team, today we have computers that can do almost anything. Toward the end of her life, Jean commented that, “If my life has proven anything, it is that women (and girls) should never be afraid to take risks and try new things.” 44 Timeline December 27, 1924: Betty Jean Jennings was born outside Stanberry in Gentry County, Missouri. 1941: Jean started college in September. The United States entered World War II in December. January 1945: Jean graduated from Northwest Missouri State Teacher’s College. March 1945: Jean was hired by the military to work as a “computer” at the Ballistics Research Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. June 1945 to December 1946: Jean worked with the ENIAC on projects for the military at the Moore School at University of Pennsylvania. December 1946: Jean married Bill Bartik. March 1947 to March 1948: Jean worked on converting the ENIAC into the world’s first stored-program computer. March 1948 to September 1950: Jean worked at Eckert-Mauchly as programmer for BINAC and UNIVAC I. September 1950 to June 1951: Jean worked at Remington Rand as trainer and programmer for UNIVAC. June 1951 to March 1953: Jean worked as a programming consultant for John Mauchly. 1954 to 1967: Jean and Bill had three children, and Jean was a stay-at-home mom. 1967: Jean received master’s of education from the University of Pennsylvania. October 1967 to November 1986: Jean worked in various technical positions for Auerbach Publishers, Interdata, Honeywell, Systems Engineering Laboratories, and Data Decisions. June 1997: Jean, along with other ENIAC women programmers, was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. April 2002: Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum opened at Northwest Missouri State University. October 2008: Jean was inducted into the Hall of Fellows at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. December 2010: Jean completed her autobiography. March 23, 2011: Jean Bartik died at the age of 86. November 2013: Jean’s autobiography, Pioneer Programmer, was published.