BEFORE THE ENIAC

During World War II, the Ballistic Research Laboratory of the U.S. Arm y was charged with the responsibility of preparing firing tables for t he various new weapons under development. The computations required fo r the preparation of these firing tables were so time-consuming that t hey overwhelmed the facilities available at the laboratory. In spite o f the extensive arrangements the laboratory made with the University o f Pennsylvania for assistance, the backlog continued to grow. At one p oint, more than 100 female students were engaged to carry out firing t able calculations. It was to relieve this bottleneck that John W. Mauc hly and J. Presper Eckert, two members of the faculty of the Moore Sch ool of Engineering, the University of Pennsylvania, proposed the const ruction of the ENIAC, which was funded by the U.S. Army. In this artic le, I describe the nature of the computations required in the preparat ion of firing tables and explain the reasons why these calculations we re so burdensome.