FrankOhrtman
Good article, just one issue: ENIAC was not the first "modern" computer. The first modern computer came from Iowa State University in 1938. Read more here: https://www.ece.iastate.edu/the-department/history/history-of-computing/
TomLeeM
I think that was very interesting. It is amazing how far computers have come; from taking up a whole room to fitting into the palm of ones hand.
ifmaclean
ENIAC was not the first computer of the modern age, it was the second. The first was Colussus which was developed by a British team at Bletchley Park to decode German encrypted messages. Von Neuman and an American team were allowed access to this highly secret machine following America's entry into the war in late 1941. 'Von Neuman's Bottleneck' which even today is still an issue in computing, was actually 'Turing's Bottleneck' but due to the UK's official secrets act, the story of the UK's computer was kept secret until 1974, by which point IBM ruled the world.
martinwinlow
Or even the UK's Colossus in 1943 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer
garenad
Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse (German: 22 June 1910 – 18 December 1995) was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program-controlled Turing-complete Z3 became operational in May 1941.
Born: 22 June 1910, Berlin, Prussia, German Empire
Died: 18 December 1995 (aged 85), Hünfeld, Hesse, Germany
Known for: Z3, Z4, Plankalkül, Calculating Space (cf. digital physics)
Nationality: German
Konrad Zuse - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse
rjr
I believe it was the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos not the first hydrogen bomb which came later in the 50s/.
Catweazle
There is some competition for the title of World's first truly programmable computer, some would consider the first really effective computer was General Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers' "Colossus" at Bletchley Park Government Code and Cypher School that did hugely valuable service decrypting the Enigma code messages and was thus instrumental in winning the WWII Battle of the Atlantic.
As to programmers, the first has to have been Ada, Lady Lovelace (1815-1852), who wrote code for Charles Babbage's unfortunately never completed "Analytical Engine", who is commemorated by having a programming language - ADA - named after her.
Incidentally, Babbage's first calculating machine - the Difference Engine built in the 1820s - was built for exactly the same purpose as ENIAC, the production of range tables for artillery pieces.
Lindsey Roke
I wonder why the Americans claim this was the world's first electronic computer when Colossus at Bletchley Park (north of London) had already been deciphering German codes for a couple of years (Google it for more details)
Phil Runciman
The first programmer was Ada Lovelace. The wording in the heading was careful but may not be correct. The Moore School was influential but Tommy Flower's team may have beaten them to it! Colossus was kept secret for so many years that your story has gained credence. "The prototype, Colossus Mark 1, was shown to be working in December 1943 and was in use at Bletchley Park by early 1944"
Karmudjun
Nice article David.

It was unclear how the ENIAC worked on the hydrogen bomb theory after Japan’s surrender. The liquid deuterium mass & yield equations for the initial H-bomb development would have required ENIAC's massive computational power. Deuterium (and Tritium) are isotopes of Hydrogen with Neutron(s) that will undergo fusion at lower temperatures (thermo-) if the nuclear reaction could be triggered by a 'fission trigger' - the super event was entirely theoretical - if at all possible - as reported by Teller & Fermi conversations in late 1941.

The Manhattan project took 1920’s theoretical physics to reality. The “Little Boy” Hiroshima bomb was Uranium-235. Fat Man Kokura bomb was a plutonium-239 solid core bomb dropped instead on Nagasaki due to visibility issues. The top-secret Trinity test was the first fission reaction of P-239.

It would have been nice to have listed the 5 or 6 programmable computers used prior to ENIAC – the mechanical/electric computers like Enigma, mechanical like an abacus, etc.
But great info!
https://www.britannica.com/technology/nuclear-weapon/The-first-hydrogen-bombs#ref1080677