Input Kludge

The phrase first appeared in print in a 1957 syndicated newspaper article by U.S. Army Specialist William D. Mellin, explaining that early UNIVAC computers could not correct for carelessly prepared inputs. IBM instructor George Fuechsel separately claimed to have coined it independently while teaching the IBM 305 RAMAC around 1958–59 — a 2004 self-report that spread widely despite lacking contemporary documentation. The underlying frustration had an earlier antecedent: Charles Babbage noted in 1864 that erroneous instructions to his Difference Engine could only yield erroneous results.