Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!huxley!nick From: nick@huxley.huxley.bitstream.com (Nick Nussbaum) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: The term Bug Message-ID: Date: 6 Dec 90 20:56:28 GMT References: <7298@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de> <127@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu> <2351@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> Sender: nick@huxley.UUCP Followup-To: comp.arch Organization: Bitstream, Inc. Lines: 19 In-reply-to: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu's message of 6 Dec 90 13:09:03 GMT >Someone in some group in the past posted that the OED traced the use of >the term "bug" for industrial defect to Edison in the last century. I don't know about OED, but I saw a slide of a letter from one of Edison's lead engineers who was in the field with the prototype of Edison's early film sound system. He was proposing that they take an extra few months "to get all the bugs out", from the system rather than use it commercially immediately. I believe the date was in the first decade of the 20th century. The movie sound system was rather neat; it has a mechanical audio amplifier connected to an acoustical gramaphone behind the screen which was linked by cord and pulleys to the hand cranked projector. Details are probably in the Edison Archives in New Jersey, from which the presentation I saw was drawn. -- - the above statements are mine,not Bitstreams- Nick Nussbaum Nick@Bitstream.com (617) 497-6222 x416 Bitstream,Inc. 215 First st. Cambridge,MA 02142-1270 Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com