Where did the term get the bugs out come from?

Answer 1

In the October 10, 1878 issue of "The Sun", published in New York City, Thomas Edison was being interviewed regarding his early Platinum filament light bulb.

In the article, Edison said, "My object is to keep the bugs out of the invention"

The interviewer responded, "What do you mean by keeping out the bugs?"

Edison's response was, "Study its defects and make the thing complete before we move on the great cities."

So the concept of "bugs" in an invention, or a system, existed long before 1945.

The source of this information is a pamphlet that is in the archives at The Henry Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan. The title of the pamphlet is "The First Story of the Edison Light". This was published when Edison's work on the light bulb was in its infancy, over a year before his first successful carbonized cotton thread experiment of October 21, 1879.

Answer 2

In 1945 a lady by the name of Grace Hopper was working on a Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator (a stone age computer). The Mark II actually employed mechanical relays to simulate circuits. She was experiencing problems with a run and her subsequent investigation revealed that a moth (yes, moth as in flying bug) had become jammed in one of the mechanical relays. Hence the term “bug” emerged and we’re still using it today.