The University of Pennsylvania, another school in the Ivy League with Princeton and Harvard entrenched in the war effort, also contributed to the military with scientific research. At the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, an Army contract directed by Herman Goldstine developed another advanced machine for advanced calculation known as the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC.
This machine was built primarily for calculating ballistic trajectories for artillery, a crucial function of a modern army. Despite being somewhat limited in function, it also represented a breakthrough by being the first computer to use electronic programming rather than a mechanical device using punch cards. As a result, it could produce calculations at lightning-fast speeds — fast for 1944, anyway.
This room-sized apparatus consisted of 17,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 1,500 relays and was as complex as it was enormous. Able to execute 5,000 additions per second, it outperformed anything else built to date. Work began on the machine in 1943 and only wrapped up in 1946, which means WWII ended before it could contribute to the effort. Nonetheless, the war is what pushed for its development and remains a legacy of the technological achievements of the era.
