The origin of the term "bugs"

[Shore Guy]

Anyone know the origin of calling the speed and altitude indexes "bugs"?

[Fil]

I know that the term 'bug' in computer speak came from the time of punch cards. If a real bug (spider etc) crawled into the punch cards there'd be a problem...probably a bug.

Perhaps something similar... once upon a time a pilot was flying along and a nice orange spider sat on his ASI/HSI and he found himself flying at a speed the same as where the spider sat. He probably spent many a night training his new friend to sit still and sit where he was told...until someone else invented the bug as we know it.


Nah!!!

[The Nr Fairy]

Minor clarification of the computer use of "bug" - it originated earlier than punch cards, in the days of valves - if an insect got in the workings and shorted something out.

[moggie]

They are on the glass and look (very slightly) like insects (bugs) squashed on a windscreen.

[malanda]

Minor clarification of the computer use of "bug" - it originated earlier than valves, in the days of relays - if an insect got in the workings and jammed a relay. :)

Oh - and punched cards have been around much longer than valves, anyway.

[GotTheTshirt]

As its a reminder it could just come from
"stop BUGGING me"!

[The Nr Fairy]

malanda :

Thanks for that. Back to geek school for me . . .

[PPRuNe Dispatcher]

From http://www.neystadt.org/john/humor/Bugs-Origin.htm

Ever wondered about the origins of the term "bugs" as applied to computer technology? U.S. Navy Admiral Grace Murray Hopper has firsthand explanation. She was on duty until 1992, when she died being. Being pioneer in computer technology during World War II. At the C.W. Post Center of Long Island University, Hopper told a group of Long Island public school administrators that the first computer "bug" was a real bug -- a moth. At Harvard one August night in 1945, Hopper and her associates were working on the "granddaddy" of modern computers, the Mark I. "Things were going badly; there was something wrong in one of the circuits of the long glass-enclosed computer," she said. "Finally, someone located the trouble spot and, using ordinary tweezers, removed the problem, a two-inch moth. From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it." Hopper said that when the veracity of her story was questioned recently, "I referred them to my 1945 log book, now in the collection of Naval Surface Weapons Center, and they found the remains of that moth taped to the page in question."

[m&v]

In the early days of the DC8 etc,and poss'before-there were no indicators on the Airspeed/altimeter for specific speed /altitude.The Industry adopted some form for marking the variable weight/performance required speeds,alt's on descent(mda) etc.Hence the ring around the instrument face with'movable'bugs(white plastic pointers) to be set for performance reminders(V's and flap limits).Now,of course,it's all built in(157 pieces of info on the 320 FMA) :D

[sky9]

No M&V you were nearly right : ;)

When they first came out they were called "little white pointers that you put around your altimeter and ASI’s". Pilots got fed up with this and referred to them as "little white B******" as in "Where are we putting the B****** for this Take Off or Approach?

Eventually the name was shortened to Bugs as in "ere where’ve you set your bugs?" when you’re 10 kts. fast on the approach.
:) :)

[twistedenginestarter]

They look like bugs crawling around the rim of your dial.

Dispatcher

I don't think your quote is right. I believe the term bug (for machine sequence error) was around well before these events. About 100 years before, in fact.

It is very difficult to say precisely when and where any trend started.

[Self Loading Freight]

The Grace Hopper quote is accurate, and the moth exists, but 'bug' predates computers. Edison used it in his notebooks, for example.

R

[moggie]

Any referenc to computer bugs is just a red herring - there is no connection.

By the way, when I flew the VC10 for the RAF, our "bugs" were drawn on the ASI and Altimeter with a white chinagraph pencil.

I stand by my "squashed insect" theory.