July 14, 2026 • 9 mins
Hard to imagine that a little country hotel could have been the launching pad for the 30 ton device called ENIAC, that completely changed our world . . . the computer. This is the remarkable story of how a small haunted colonial inn became the unlikely birthplace of modern computing.
Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, Today we grab our laptop or even our
mobile phone to do well. I don't know everything, but
these little portable brains have only been around for several decades.
Their ancestor was a device created by two geniuses from
the University of Pennsylvania. Much of the work was done
where the visiting brainiacs of the day stayed while helping
(00:21):
pioneer the first computer. It was a small country in
that had housed travelers starting in seventeen oh four. I'm
Patty Steele. Genius narratives and a few ghost stories from
the birthplace of the ENIAC computer. That's next on the backstory.
The backstory is back, so right now, stop and look
(00:44):
at the device it's allowing you to listen to the backstory.
It's probably either your cell phone or your laptop. Now.
The thing is, these devices are so ubiquitous in our
lives that it's kind of easy for us to take
them for granted. But where did they get their start?
The first actual computer was called ENIAC, or the Electronic
(01:05):
Numerical Integrator and Computer. This thing was massive. It took
up one thousand square feet and weighed thirty tons. Powering
it were eighteen thousand vacuum tubes. Eniac performed five thousand
operations per second. But guess what. A typical cell phone
today executes billions of operations per second. But in those days,
(01:27):
it was earth altering. So let's go back. Imagine checking
into a quiet inn in the Pennsylvania countryside. Businessmen in
the lobby, couples enjoying dinner, bellhops, carrying luggage. It seems
like any other hotel or inn, but this one is special.
It opened in seventeen oh four as the Wayside In
It had hosted American patriots like George Washington and Marquis
(01:50):
de Lafayette, as well as British Redcoats and their hired
Hessian soldiers. Its name was changed to the General Wayne
Inn for a local revolutionary war hero in seventeen ninety four. Later,
Edgar Allan Poe stayed there while revising his poem The Raven.
But this was another kind of revolution one Behind locked
(02:11):
doors at the Inn, some of the most brilliant mathematical
minds in America are working around the clock on a
machine so revolutionary it's going to change the future of humanity,
and even they don't know it yet. They're building the
ancestor of every laptop, smartphone, and AI program that exists today. Well, today,
(02:31):
computers are everywhere. We carry one in our pockets, we
wear them on our wrists. They fly airplanes, performed surgery.
They help us communicate across the globe. But just eighty
years ago, the word computer didn't describe a machine. It
actually described a person. Seriously, it was a job description.
One hundred years ago, thousands of people, a lot of
(02:52):
them women, worked as human computers. Armed with pencils, paper,
slide rules, and mechanical calculators, they spent their days solving
mathematical equations by hand. It was slow and tedious, and
during World War Two it became a major problem. As
the US entered the war in nineteen forty one, the
military faced a huge challenge. Every new artillery gun needed
(03:15):
detailed firing tables to tell soldiers exactly how to aim
their weapons, depending on distance, windspeed, temperature, elevation, and the
AMMO they were using. Producing just one firing table took
thousands of complicated calculations. Human computers needed weeks to complete them. Meanwhile,
engineers were designing newer and more powerful weapons faster than
(03:39):
the calculations could keep up. The army needed a better solution.
Stepping up to the play, two young electrical engineers at
the University of Pennsylvania, John Mawkley and Jay Presper Eckert,
were convinced that electronics could perform calculations thousands of times
faster than mechanical machines and human computers. Those early calculating
(04:01):
machines relied on gears, switches, and moving parts. Mauchley and
Eckert proposed using thousands of electronic vacuum tubes instead. Problem is,
vacuum tubes burned out constantly. Experts said, how could a
machine with almost eighteen thousand of them possibly work? Nevertheless,
construction began in secret in nineteen forty three. The goal
(04:25):
build the world's first large scale, fully electronic general purpose computer.
The machine would eventually be called ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer. It wasn't elegant, and it was massive.
At sixty thousand pounds, it had over five million hands
soldered connections linking its components together. Because all those tubes
(04:48):
generated so much heat, it needed giant cooling systems just
to keep it operating. And this is going to remind
you of all the complaints we're hearing now about energy
consumption at the new AI data centers. When ENIAC was running,
it ate up enough electricity to dim lights in parts
of Philadelphia. And that was just one computer, but it
(05:08):
was astonishingly, shockingly fast. Calculations that once took days were
now completed in seconds. And here's where the General Wayne
comes into the story. As work accelerated during the war,
a lot of scientists, engineers, army officers, and visiting experts
needed a place to stay. The historic General Wayne Inn,
(05:29):
just outside Philadelphia was the perfect spot to wage this
new battle, not with muskets, but with math. Evenings at
the Inn were extensions of the laboratory. Dinner conversations were
brainstorming sessions. Ideas bounced between these brilliant minds, and the
Inn became an informal think tank where some of the
biggest tech breakthroughs of the twentieth century took shape. Also
(05:53):
integraled to the project six remarkable women, Ky McNulty, Betty Jennings,
Betty Snyder, Marilyn Westkoff, Francis Beelis, and Ruth Lichtermann ENIAC's
first programmers. There were no programming languages no instruction manuals,
no computer science degrees. To make ENIAC solve a new problem,
(06:14):
they physically rewired the machine by moving cables, setting switches,
and configuring thousands of connections. Programming could take days, but
the calculations took only seconds. When ENIAC was officially unveiled
in February of nineteen forty six, journalists were stunned. In
that time, five thousand operations every second was unbelievable. Yes,
(06:36):
your smartphone performs billions of operations each second, but in
nineteen forty six, ENIAC was a thousand times faster than
any existing calculating machine. It was actually the beginning of
the digital age. The engineers who gathered in laboratories and
at the General Wayne Inn could never have imagined what
their work would become. Within decades, computers would shrink from
(07:00):
room sized machines to desktop PCs, than laptops, than smartphones.
So every email you send, every online purchase, every streaming movie,
every GPS direction, and every AI conversation all trace their
roots back to those breakthroughs at the General Wayne Inn.
The Inn has had its share of remarkable stories over
(07:20):
the years, reports of ghosts, even a two thousand and
two murder where one of the inn's owners killed his
partner over both financial problems as well as an illicit
affair with a young chef at the inn. At any rate,
these stories are a reminder that history isn't always made
in famous capitals and palaces, or even gleaming laboratories. Sometimes
(07:43):
it happens in quieter places, a classroom, a garage, a workshop,
or a centuries old inn where brilliant minds gathered after
long days of work, sharing ideas over dinner as they
unknowingly helped create the modern world. The General Wayne Inn
a meeting place for the people whose ideas transformed civilization.
(08:04):
So every time you unlock your phone or open your laptop,
you're benefiting from a revolution that began with a handful
of visionaries, one enormous machine called Eniac, and conversations that
continued long after the workday had ended. Hope you liked
the backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review. I'd
love it if you'd subscribe or follow for free to
(08:26):
get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm
me if you have a good story you'd like me
to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram
Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a
production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Duran Group, and
(08:48):
Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Mike Pieseglia. Our writer
is Jake Kushner. New episodes are out every Tuesday and Friday,
and feel free to reach out to me with comments
and story suggests on Instagram at reel Patty Steele and
on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the
Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't
(09:09):
know you needed to know.
All right, Today we grab our laptop or even our
mobile phone to do well. I don't know everything, but
these little portable brains have only been around for several decades.
Their ancestor was a device created by two geniuses from
the University of Pennsylvania. Much of the work was done
where the visiting brainiacs of the day stayed while helping
(00:21):
pioneer the first computer. It was a small country in
that had housed travelers starting in seventeen oh four. I'm
Patty Steele. Genius narratives and a few ghost stories from
the birthplace of the ENIAC computer. That's next on the backstory.
The backstory is back, so right now, stop and look
(00:44):
at the device it's allowing you to listen to the backstory.
It's probably either your cell phone or your laptop. Now.
The thing is, these devices are so ubiquitous in our
lives that it's kind of easy for us to take
them for granted. But where did they get their start?
The first actual computer was called ENIAC, or the Electronic
(01:05):
Numerical Integrator and Computer. This thing was massive. It took
up one thousand square feet and weighed thirty tons. Powering
it were eighteen thousand vacuum tubes. Eniac performed five thousand
operations per second. But guess what. A typical cell phone
today executes billions of operations per second. But in those days,
(01:27):
it was earth altering. So let's go back. Imagine checking
into a quiet inn in the Pennsylvania countryside. Businessmen in
the lobby, couples enjoying dinner, bellhops, carrying luggage. It seems
like any other hotel or inn, but this one is special.
It opened in seventeen oh four as the Wayside In
It had hosted American patriots like George Washington and Marquis
(01:50):
de Lafayette, as well as British Redcoats and their hired
Hessian soldiers. Its name was changed to the General Wayne
Inn for a local revolutionary war hero in seventeen ninety four. Later,
Edgar Allan Poe stayed there while revising his poem The Raven.
But this was another kind of revolution one Behind locked
(02:11):
doors at the Inn, some of the most brilliant mathematical
minds in America are working around the clock on a
machine so revolutionary it's going to change the future of humanity,
and even they don't know it yet. They're building the
ancestor of every laptop, smartphone, and AI program that exists today. Well, today,
(02:31):
computers are everywhere. We carry one in our pockets, we
wear them on our wrists. They fly airplanes, performed surgery.
They help us communicate across the globe. But just eighty
years ago, the word computer didn't describe a machine. It
actually described a person. Seriously, it was a job description.
One hundred years ago, thousands of people, a lot of
(02:52):
them women, worked as human computers. Armed with pencils, paper,
slide rules, and mechanical calculators, they spent their days solving
mathematical equations by hand. It was slow and tedious, and
during World War Two it became a major problem. As
the US entered the war in nineteen forty one, the
military faced a huge challenge. Every new artillery gun needed
(03:15):
detailed firing tables to tell soldiers exactly how to aim
their weapons, depending on distance, windspeed, temperature, elevation, and the
AMMO they were using. Producing just one firing table took
thousands of complicated calculations. Human computers needed weeks to complete them. Meanwhile,
engineers were designing newer and more powerful weapons faster than
(03:39):
the calculations could keep up. The army needed a better solution.
Stepping up to the play, two young electrical engineers at
the University of Pennsylvania, John Mawkley and Jay Presper Eckert,
were convinced that electronics could perform calculations thousands of times
faster than mechanical machines and human computers. Those early calculating
(04:01):
machines relied on gears, switches, and moving parts. Mauchley and
Eckert proposed using thousands of electronic vacuum tubes instead. Problem is,
vacuum tubes burned out constantly. Experts said, how could a
machine with almost eighteen thousand of them possibly work? Nevertheless,
construction began in secret in nineteen forty three. The goal
(04:25):
build the world's first large scale, fully electronic general purpose computer.
The machine would eventually be called ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer. It wasn't elegant, and it was massive.
At sixty thousand pounds, it had over five million hands
soldered connections linking its components together. Because all those tubes
(04:48):
generated so much heat, it needed giant cooling systems just
to keep it operating. And this is going to remind
you of all the complaints we're hearing now about energy
consumption at the new AI data centers. When ENIAC was running,
it ate up enough electricity to dim lights in parts
of Philadelphia. And that was just one computer, but it
(05:08):
was astonishingly, shockingly fast. Calculations that once took days were
now completed in seconds. And here's where the General Wayne
comes into the story. As work accelerated during the war,
a lot of scientists, engineers, army officers, and visiting experts
needed a place to stay. The historic General Wayne Inn,
(05:29):
just outside Philadelphia was the perfect spot to wage this
new battle, not with muskets, but with math. Evenings at
the Inn were extensions of the laboratory. Dinner conversations were
brainstorming sessions. Ideas bounced between these brilliant minds, and the
Inn became an informal think tank where some of the
biggest tech breakthroughs of the twentieth century took shape. Also
(05:53):
integraled to the project six remarkable women, Ky McNulty, Betty Jennings,
Betty Snyder, Marilyn Westkoff, Francis Beelis, and Ruth Lichtermann ENIAC's
first programmers. There were no programming languages no instruction manuals,
no computer science degrees. To make ENIAC solve a new problem,
(06:14):
they physically rewired the machine by moving cables, setting switches,
and configuring thousands of connections. Programming could take days, but
the calculations took only seconds. When ENIAC was officially unveiled
in February of nineteen forty six, journalists were stunned. In
that time, five thousand operations every second was unbelievable. Yes,
(06:36):
your smartphone performs billions of operations each second, but in
nineteen forty six, ENIAC was a thousand times faster than
any existing calculating machine. It was actually the beginning of
the digital age. The engineers who gathered in laboratories and
at the General Wayne Inn could never have imagined what
their work would become. Within decades, computers would shrink from
(07:00):
room sized machines to desktop PCs, than laptops, than smartphones.
So every email you send, every online purchase, every streaming movie,
every GPS direction, and every AI conversation all trace their
roots back to those breakthroughs at the General Wayne Inn.
The Inn has had its share of remarkable stories over
(07:20):
the years, reports of ghosts, even a two thousand and
two murder where one of the inn's owners killed his
partner over both financial problems as well as an illicit
affair with a young chef at the inn. At any rate,
these stories are a reminder that history isn't always made
in famous capitals and palaces, or even gleaming laboratories. Sometimes
(07:43):
it happens in quieter places, a classroom, a garage, a workshop,
or a centuries old inn where brilliant minds gathered after
long days of work, sharing ideas over dinner as they
unknowingly helped create the modern world. The General Wayne Inn
a meeting place for the people whose ideas transformed civilization.
(08:04):
So every time you unlock your phone or open your laptop,
you're benefiting from a revolution that began with a handful
of visionaries, one enormous machine called Eniac, and conversations that
continued long after the workday had ended. Hope you liked
the backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review. I'd
love it if you'd subscribe or follow for free to
(08:26):
get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm
me if you have a good story you'd like me
to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram
Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a
production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Duran Group, and
(08:48):
Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Mike Pieseglia. Our writer
is Jake Kushner. New episodes are out every Tuesday and Friday,
and feel free to reach out to me with comments
and story suggests on Instagram at reel Patty Steele and
on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the
Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't
(09:09):
know you needed to know.
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