Smoke test is an ancient engineering phrase to describe the first time you turn something on after building/fixing it. If it starts smoking, something is wrong

Smoke test is an ancient engineering phrase to describe the first time you turn something on after building/fixing it. If it starts smoking, something is wrong. It's been in the Jargon File since the late 80s and was popular in military/defense contracting prior to that. You actually got me curious about this because it's a term I've been using for 40 years, and the earliest reference I've been able to find is in an internal memo about the development of a computer system, circa 1952: > What all this adds up to is, that if Mike Stobin and Willis Ware who have been dealing with the ventilation engineers can come through with the ventilating equipment in time, it is very likely that we can have a smoke test of the arithmetic unit on the JOHNNIAC main frame in October [of 1952]. >The goal of the test will be to connect the A [accumulator register] and MQ for end-around shifting (7.5 order)15 and let the machine shift a set of digits all day while we hammer on the frame and wiggle wires. Applications for wire wigglers are now open. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/corporate_pubs/2008/RAND_CP537.pdf https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/corporate_pubs/20... Well shit I haven't used/heard the term "wire wiggler" in decades time to up my rizz with some outdated slang. It is almost certainly a WWII slang term that spread to universities post-war.