Mail Archives: opendos/2000/11/09/06:34:23
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert W Moss" <domanspc AT juno DOT com>
To: <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 10:46 PM
Subject: Re: Trivia
> Joe,
> I guess I will have to apologize to you.
> There have a few dozen others called the first, but,
>
> YES, the first personal computer was published in
> Radio Electronics in 1950 and 1951. It was only a
> schematic and you had to find all the parts to build
> it. The cost was variously quoted as "Under $1,000",
> "about $600", and "about $300".
>
> I didn't get too many takers so I guess most of the people
> on the list are not interested in trivia or surfing the net.
>
> It was NOT:
> IBM PC - 1981, IBM Datamaster - 1981, IBM 5120 - 1980,
> IBM 5110 - 1978, Apple ][? - 1976/1977, IBM 5100 - 1975,
> Altair - 1975, Mark 8 - 1974, Scelbi-8H - 1973, HP 65 - 1973,
> Xerox Alto - 1973, Micral - 1973, Intel SIM 4 - 1972,
> HP 9830 - 1972, Kenback-1 - 1971, IMLACK PDS-1 - 1970,
> Arkay CT-650 - 1969, Paperclip Computer - 1967,
> Honeywell Kitchen Computer - 1966, DEC PDP-8 - 1965,
> Minivac 601 - 1961, Heathkit EC-1 - 1959, GENIAC - 1955,
Some of these in the list do not even qualify as a personal computer as they
were expensive and some are huge. I think that a PC should be a desktop
system that can fit on a desk or your kitchen table.. You also stated that
it must be programable and run a program. The Heathkit PC-1 was an analog
computer. It had 30 some tubes in it. I wanted to buy one but was out of my
price range, then when I could afford to buy one, they no longer made them.
Heath was bought out by Zenith and Zenith dropped many of the Heath products
and mostly used the PC computer side of things and discontinued selling
kits. What a shame. I put together many Heathkit kits. I still have a dual
trace Oscilloscope I built in about 1975 and it still works. The first
Heathkit I built was a CB radio in 1963/64 for my highschool electronics
class project.
[TRIVIA]
What kit products did Heath start his company with (Shortly after WWII.)
<grin> This may be a killer to find the answer to if you do not already know
the answer.
Interesting note and something I have been wanting to check back on, but
keep forgetting. There was a project going on a few years ago to produce the
ENIAC computer on a chip that would replicate the original ENIAC. It is
designed to be used just like the original including the flipping of
switches to enter the code. I would like to get one of these computers if it
has/will been/be completed.
> What it WAS:
> The SIMON. By Edmund Berkley.
>
> The plans and story were published in
> Radio Electronics Magazine, in 1950-1951.
> By 1959 there were 400 plans sold.
> The average cost to build one at that time
> was said to be about $300.
This also was probably an analog computer. Analog computers should not
qualify as they were not based of the stored program concept. Almost all
computers of that era were analog.
There were a few exceptions. The digital types back then took up whole
buildings. That would hardly qualify as a personal computer! IBM claims that
they had the first one back in 1963 as it was a single user computer, but
that would only qualify if you had megbucks and used your entire basement or
garuage for it! It was the IBM 610 Auto-Point Computer in 1957, but this
machine was not based on the stored program concept and it cost $55,000!
The original post staed this:
Remember, it must be small, inexpensive, simple, digital,
automatic, programmable and accessible, i.e. to those who
are not millionaires. (Hint: It was a microcomputer, and it
was available before the Altair 8800 - some surfing
required
The reason I posted sevral models for my answer was because of the term
microcomputer. My question is what does micro mean? Something that will fit
on a deck or kitchen table? Does it have to use a microprocesor? Or does it
have to use micro-electronics? Depending on the answer to the question, I
listed several that would qualify, one for each category.
So this computer you wrote about above, does not qualify. If we used IBM's
example of what they state was the first personal computer it would have to
be the first digital computer using stored programs ever build by:
* Virtual Museum of Computing
_________________________________________________________________
John V. Atanasoff: Obituary
June 1995
_________________________________________________________________
John V. Atanasoff, 91, who invented the first electronic computer in
1939 and later saw others take credit for his discovery, died of a
stroke June 15 at his home in Monrovia, Md.
Dr. Atanasoff, whose pioneering work ultimately was acknowledged
during lengthy patent litigation in the 1970s, never made money off
his invention, which was the first computer to separate data
processing from memory. It heads the family tree of today's personal
computers and mainframes.
Two other scientists, J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly, drew on
Dr. Atanasoff's research. In the mid-1940s, they were the first to
patent a digital computing device, which they called the ENIAC
(electronic numerical integrator and computer). They said they had
worked out the concept over ice cream and coffee in a Philadelphia
restaurant. For many years, they were acclaimed as the fathers of
modern computing.
But a court battle 20 years ago between two corporate giants,
Honeywell and Sperry Rand, directed the spotlight to Dr. Atanasoff. He
said the idea in fact, had come to him over bourbon and water in a
roadhouse in Illinois in 1937. He was out on a drive from Iowa State
University, in Ames, where he taught mathematics and physics, and had
stopped to think about the computing devices he had been working on
since 1935.
He needed a machine that could do the complex mathematical work he and
his graduate students had been trying on desk calculators. He and two
others at Iowa State already had build an analog calculator called a
laplaciometer, which analyzed the geometry of surfaces.
It was that evening in the tavern, he said, that the possibility of
regenerative memory and the concept of logic circuits came to him. The
machine he envisioned was different from anything conceived before.
It would be electronically operated and would use base-two (binary)
numbers instead of the traditional base-10 numbers. It would have
condensers fro memory and a regenerative process to preclude loss of
memory from electrical failures. It would use direct logical action
for computing rather than the counting system used in analog
processes.
Within months, he and a talented graduate student, Clifford Berry, had
developed a crude prototype of an electronic computer. Although it
used a mechanical clock system, the computing was electronic. It had
two rotating drums containing capacitors, which held the electrical
charge for the memory. Data were entered using punch cards. For the
first time, vacuum tubes were used in computing. The project, which
cost $1,000, was detailed in a 35-page manuscript, and university
lawyers sent a copy to a patent lawyer.
The next year, Mauchly, a physicist at Ursinus College, near
Philadelphia, whom Dr. Atanasoff had met at a conference, came to see
Dr. Atanasoff's work. Mauchly stayed several days at the Atanasoff
home, where he was briefed extensively about the computer project and
saw it demonstrated. He left with papers describing its design.
That same year, Dr. Atanasoff tried to interest Remington Rand in his
invention, saying he believed it could lead to a "computing machine
which will perform all the operations of the standard tabulators and
many more at much higher speeds," but the company turned him down.
Years later, it would eagerly seek his assistance.
Dr. Atanasoff had hoped to file a patent for his computer, but he was
called away to Washington at the start of World War II to do physics
research for the Navy. And there were complications with Iowa State,
which held rights to his work but had discontinued efforts to secure a
patent.
By the time the computer industry was off and running, Dr. Atanasoff
was involved with other areas of defense research and out of touch
with computer development. The Iowa State prototype had been
dismantled while he was away working for the Navy. But he had kept his
research papers.
He later said he "wasn't possessed with the idea I had invented the
first computing machine. If I had knovn the things I had in my
machine, I would have kept going on it."
The Atanasoff prototype finally was recognized as the father of modern
computing when, in a patent infringement case Sperry Rand brought
against Honeywell, a federal judge voided Sperry Rand's patent on the
ENIAC, saying it had been derived from Dr. Atanasoff's invention.
It was "akin to finding a new father of electricity to replace Thomas
Edison," said a writer on the computer industry. The decision made
news in the industry, but Dr. Atanasoff, by this time retired,
continued to live in relative obscurity in Frederick County.
Later, in 1988, two books about his work were published: "The First
Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story," by Alice R. Burns and
Arthur W. Burns, and "Atanasoff, Forgotten Father of the Computer," by
Clark R. Mollenhoff. Other articles were published in the Annals of
the History of Computing, Scientific American and Physics Today.
In 1990, President George Bush acknowledged Dr. Atanasoff's pioneering
work by awarding him the National Medal of Technology.
John Vincent Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, N.Y. He was an electrical
engineering graduate of the University of Florida and received a
master's degree in mathematics from Iowa State University, where he
taught for 15 years. He received a doctorate in physics from the
University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Atanasoff left Iowa State in the early 1940s to become director of
the underwater acoustics program at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at
White Oak, now the Naval Surface Weapons Center, where he worked
largely with mines, mine countermeasures and depth charges.
He participated in the atomic weapons tests at Bikini Atoll after
World War II and became chief scientist for the Army Field Forces, at
Fort Monroe, Va., in 1949. He returned to the ordnance laboratory
after two years to be director of the Navy Fuze programs, and in 1952
he began his own company, Ordnance Engineering Corp.
That company was sold to Aerojet Engineering Corp. in 1956, and Dr.
Atanasoff was named a vice president. After he retired in 1961, he was
a consultant and continued to work in computer education for young
people. He also developed a phonetic alphabet for computers.
His honors included the Navy's Distinguished Civilian Service Award,
five honorary doctorates, the Computer Pioneer Medal of the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Holley Medal of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Distinguished
Achievement Citation of Iowa State University. He was a member of the
Iowa Inventors Hall of Fame. Dr. Atanasoff, whose father was born in
Bulgaria, also was awarded Bulgaria's highest science award and was a
member of the Bulgarian Academy of Science.
He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Mu Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi
honorary societies and the Cosmos Club.
Dr. Atanasoff's marriage to Lura Meeks Atanasoff ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Alice Crosby Atanasoff of Monrovia; three
children from his first marriage, Elsie A. Whistler of Rockville,
Joanne A. Gathers of Mission Viejo, Calif., and John V. Atanasoff II
of Boulder, Colo.; four sisters; three brothers; 10 grandchildren; and
seven great-grandchildren.
See also (New) biography.
_________________________________________________________________
Atanas Parashkevov, June 1995.
Forwarded by Jay Yantchev.
Formatted for the World Wide Web and hyperlinks added by Jonathan
Bowen.
* Virtual Museum of Computing
_________________________________________________________________
John V. Atanasoff: Obituary
June 1995
_________________________________________________________________
John V. Atanasoff, 91, who invented the first electronic computer in
1939 and later saw others take credit for his discovery, died of a
stroke June 15 at his home in Monrovia, Md.
Dr. Atanasoff, whose pioneering work ultimately was acknowledged
during lengthy patent litigation in the 1970s, never made money off
his invention, which was the first computer to separate data
processing from memory. It heads the family tree of today's personal
computers and mainframes.
Two other scientists, J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly, drew on
Dr. Atanasoff's research. In the mid-1940s, they were the first to
patent a digital computing device, which they called the ENIAC
(electronic numerical integrator and computer). They said they had
worked out the concept over ice cream and coffee in a Philadelphia
restaurant. For many years, they were acclaimed as the fathers of
modern computing.
But a court battle 20 years ago between two corporate giants,
Honeywell and Sperry Rand, directed the spotlight to Dr. Atanasoff. He
said the idea in fact, had come to him over bourbon and water in a
roadhouse in Illinois in 1937. He was out on a drive from Iowa State
University, in Ames, where he taught mathematics and physics, and had
stopped to think about the computing devices he had been working on
since 1935.
He needed a machine that could do the complex mathematical work he and
his graduate students had been trying on desk calculators. He and two
others at Iowa State already had build an analog calculator called a
laplaciometer, which analyzed the geometry of surfaces.
It was that evening in the tavern, he said, that the possibility of
regenerative memory and the concept of logic circuits came to him. The
machine he envisioned was different from anything conceived before.
It would be electronically operated and would use base-two (binary)
numbers instead of the traditional base-10 numbers. It would have
condensers fro memory and a regenerative process to preclude loss of
memory from electrical failures. It would use direct logical action
for computing rather than the counting system used in analog
processes.
Within months, he and a talented graduate student, Clifford Berry, had
developed a crude prototype of an electronic computer. Although it
used a mechanical clock system, the computing was electronic. It had
two rotating drums containing capacitors, which held the electrical
charge for the memory. Data were entered using punch cards. For the
first time, vacuum tubes were used in computing. The project, which
cost $1,000, was detailed in a 35-page manuscript, and university
lawyers sent a copy to a patent lawyer.
The next year, Mauchly, a physicist at Ursinus College, near
Philadelphia, whom Dr. Atanasoff had met at a conference, came to see
Dr. Atanasoff's work. Mauchly stayed several days at the Atanasoff
home, where he was briefed extensively about the computer project and
saw it demonstrated. He left with papers describing its design.
That same year, Dr. Atanasoff tried to interest Remington Rand in his
invention, saying he believed it could lead to a "computing machine
which will perform all the operations of the standard tabulators and
many more at much higher speeds," but the company turned him down.
Years later, it would eagerly seek his assistance.
Dr. Atanasoff had hoped to file a patent for his computer, but he was
called away to Washington at the start of World War II to do physics
research for the Navy. And there were complications with Iowa State,
which held rights to his work but had discontinued efforts to secure a
patent.
By the time the computer industry was off and running, Dr. Atanasoff
was involved with other areas of defense research and out of touch
with computer development. The Iowa State prototype had been
dismantled while he was away working for the Navy. But he had kept his
research papers.
He later said he "wasn't possessed with the idea I had invented the
first computing machine. If I had knovn the things I had in my
machine, I would have kept going on it."
The Atanasoff prototype finally was recognized as the father of modern
computing when, in a patent infringement case Sperry Rand brought
against Honeywell, a federal judge voided Sperry Rand's patent on the
ENIAC, saying it had been derived from Dr. Atanasoff's invention.
It was "akin to finding a new father of electricity to replace Thomas
Edison," said a writer on the computer industry. The decision made
news in the industry, but Dr. Atanasoff, by this time retired,
continued to live in relative obscurity in Frederick County.
Later, in 1988, two books about his work were published: "The First
Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story," by Alice R. Burns and
Arthur W. Burns, and "Atanasoff, Forgotten Father of the Computer," by
Clark R. Mollenhoff. Other articles were published in the Annals of
the History of Computing, Scientific American and Physics Today.
In 1990, President George Bush acknowledged Dr. Atanasoff's pioneering
work by awarding him the National Medal of Technology.
John Vincent Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, N.Y. He was an electrical
engineering graduate of the University of Florida and received a
master's degree in mathematics from Iowa State University, where he
taught for 15 years. He received a doctorate in physics from the
University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Atanasoff left Iowa State in the early 1940s to become director of
the underwater acoustics program at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at
White Oak, now the Naval Surface Weapons Center, where he worked
largely with mines, mine countermeasures and depth charges.
He participated in the atomic weapons tests at Bikini Atoll after
World War II and became chief scientist for the Army Field Forces, at
Fort Monroe, Va., in 1949. He returned to the ordnance laboratory
after two years to be director of the Navy Fuze programs, and in 1952
he began his own company, Ordnance Engineering Corp.
That company was sold to Aerojet Engineering Corp. in 1956, and Dr.
Atanasoff was named a vice president. After he retired in 1961, he was
a consultant and continued to work in computer education for young
people. He also developed a phonetic alphabet for computers.
His honors included the Navy's Distinguished Civilian Service Award,
five honorary doctorates, the Computer Pioneer Medal of the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Holley Medal of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Distinguished
Achievement Citation of Iowa State University. He was a member of the
Iowa Inventors Hall of Fame. Dr. Atanasoff, whose father was born in
Bulgaria, also was awarded Bulgaria's highest science award and was a
member of the Bulgarian Academy of Science.
He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Mu Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi
honorary societies and the Cosmos Club.
Dr. Atanasoff's marriage to Lura Meeks Atanasoff ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Alice Crosby Atanasoff of Monrovia; three
children from his first marriage, Elsie A. Whistler of Rockville,
Joanne A. Gathers of Mission Viejo, Calif., and John V. Atanasoff II
of Boulder, Colo.; four sisters; three brothers; 10 grandchildren; and
seven great-grandchildren.
See also (New) biography.
_________________________________________________________________
Atanas Parashkevov, June 1995.
Forwarded by Jay Yantchev.
Formatted for the World Wide Web and hyperlinks added by Jonathan
Bowen.
* Virtual Museum of Computing
_________________________________________________________________
John V. Atanasoff: Obituary
June 1995
_________________________________________________________________
John V. Atanasoff, 91, who invented the first electronic computer in
1939 and later saw others take credit for his discovery, died of a
stroke June 15 at his home in Monrovia, Md.
Dr. Atanasoff, whose pioneering work ultimately was acknowledged
during lengthy patent litigation in the 1970s, never made money off
his invention, which was the first computer to separate data
processing from memory. It heads the family tree of today's personal
computers and mainframes.
Two other scientists, J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly, drew on
Dr. Atanasoff's research. In the mid-1940s, they were the first to
patent a digital computing device, which they called the ENIAC
(electronic numerical integrator and computer). They said they had
worked out the concept over ice cream and coffee in a Philadelphia
restaurant. For many years, they were acclaimed as the fathers of
modern computing.
But a court battle 20 years ago between two corporate giants,
Honeywell and Sperry Rand, directed the spotlight to Dr. Atanasoff. He
said the idea in fact, had come to him over bourbon and water in a
roadhouse in Illinois in 1937. He was out on a drive from Iowa State
University, in Ames, where he taught mathematics and physics, and had
stopped to think about the computing devices he had been working on
since 1935.
He needed a machine that could do the complex mathematical work he and
his graduate students had been trying on desk calculators. He and two
others at Iowa State already had build an analog calculator called a
laplaciometer, which analyzed the geometry of surfaces.
It was that evening in the tavern, he said, that the possibility of
regenerative memory and the concept of logic circuits came to him. The
machine he envisioned was different from anything conceived before.
It would be electronically operated and would use base-two (binary)
numbers instead of the traditional base-10 numbers. It would have
condensers fro memory and a regenerative process to preclude loss of
memory from electrical failures. It would use direct logical action
for computing rather than the counting system used in analog
processes.
Within months, he and a talented graduate student, Clifford Berry, had
developed a crude prototype of an electronic computer. Although it
used a mechanical clock system, the computing was electronic. It had
two rotating drums containing capacitors, which held the electrical
charge for the memory. Data were entered using punch cards. For the
first time, vacuum tubes were used in computing. The project, which
cost $1,000, was detailed in a 35-page manuscript, and university
lawyers sent a copy to a patent lawyer.
The next year, Mauchly, a physicist at Ursinus College, near
Philadelphia, whom Dr. Atanasoff had met at a conference, came to see
Dr. Atanasoff's work. Mauchly stayed several days at the Atanasoff
home, where he was briefed extensively about the computer project and
saw it demonstrated. He left with papers describing its design.
That same year, Dr. Atanasoff tried to interest Remington Rand in his
invention, saying he believed it could lead to a "computing machine
which will perform all the operations of the standard tabulators and
many more at much higher speeds," but the company turned him down.
Years later, it would eagerly seek his assistance.
Dr. Atanasoff had hoped to file a patent for his computer, but he was
called away to Washington at the start of World War II to do physics
research for the Navy. And there were complications with Iowa State,
which held rights to his work but had discontinued efforts to secure a
patent.
By the time the computer industry was off and running, Dr. Atanasoff
was involved with other areas of defense research and out of touch
with computer development. The Iowa State prototype had been
dismantled while he was away working for the Navy. But he had kept his
research papers.
He later said he "wasn't possessed with the idea I had invented the
first computing machine. If I had knovn the things I had in my
machine, I would have kept going on it."
The Atanasoff prototype finally was recognized as the father of modern
computing when, in a patent infringement case Sperry Rand brought
against Honeywell, a federal judge voided Sperry Rand's patent on the
ENIAC, saying it had been derived from Dr. Atanasoff's invention.
It was "akin to finding a new father of electricity to replace Thomas
Edison," said a writer on the computer industry. The decision made
news in the industry, but Dr. Atanasoff, by this time retired,
continued to live in relative obscurity in Frederick County.
Later, in 1988, two books about his work were published: "The First
Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story," by Alice R. Burns and
Arthur W. Burns, and "Atanasoff, Forgotten Father of the Computer," by
Clark R. Mollenhoff. Other articles were published in the Annals of
the History of Computing, Scientific American and Physics Today.
In 1990, President George Bush acknowledged Dr. Atanasoff's pioneering
work by awarding him the National Medal of Technology.
John Vincent Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, N.Y. He was an electrical
engineering graduate of the University of Florida and received a
master's degree in mathematics from Iowa State University, where he
taught for 15 years. He received a doctorate in physics from the
University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Atanasoff left Iowa State in the early 1940s to become director of
the underwater acoustics program at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at
White Oak, now the Naval Surface Weapons Center, where he worked
largely with mines, mine countermeasures and depth charges.
He participated in the atomic weapons tests at Bikini Atoll after
World War II and became chief scientist for the Army Field Forces, at
Fort Monroe, Va., in 1949. He returned to the ordnance laboratory
after two years to be director of the Navy Fuze programs, and in 1952
he began his own company, Ordnance Engineering Corp.
That company was sold to Aerojet Engineering Corp. in 1956, and Dr.
Atanasoff was named a vice president. After he retired in 1961, he was
a consultant and continued to work in computer education for young
people. He also developed a phonetic alphabet for computers.
His honors included the Navy's Distinguished Civilian Service Award,
five honorary doctorates, the Computer Pioneer Medal of the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Holley Medal of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Distinguished
Achievement Citation of Iowa State University. He was a member of the
Iowa Inventors Hall of Fame. Dr. Atanasoff, whose father was born in
Bulgaria, also was awarded Bulgaria's highest science award and was a
member of the Bulgarian Academy of Science.
He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Mu Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi
honorary societies and the Cosmos Club.
Dr. Atanasoff's marriage to Lura Meeks Atanasoff ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Alice Crosby Atanasoff of Monrovia; three
children from his first marriage, Elsie A. Whistler of Rockville,
Joanne A. Gathers of Mission Viejo, Calif., and John V. Atanasoff II
of Boulder, Colo.; four sisters; three brothers; 10 grandchildren; and
seven great-grandchildren.
See also (New) biography.
_________________________________________________________________
Atanas Parashkevov, June 1995.
Forwarded by Jay Yantchev.
Formatted for the World Wide Web and hyperlinks added by Jonathan
Bowen.
* Virtual Museum of Computing
_________________________________________________________________
John V. Atanasoff: Obituary
June 1995
_________________________________________________________________
John V. Atanasoff, 91, who invented the first electronic computer in
1939 and later saw others take credit for his discovery, died of a
stroke June 15 at his home in Monrovia, Md.
Dr. Atanasoff, whose pioneering work ultimately was acknowledged
during lengthy patent litigation in the 1970s, never made money off
his invention, which was the first computer to separate data
processing from memory. It heads the family tree of today's personal
computers and mainframes.
Two other scientists, J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly, drew on
Dr. Atanasoff's research. In the mid-1940s, they were the first to
patent a digital computing device, which they called the ENIAC
(electronic numerical integrator and computer). They said they had
worked out the concept over ice cream and coffee in a Philadelphia
restaurant. For many years, they were acclaimed as the fathers of
modern computing.
But a court battle 20 years ago between two corporate giants,
Honeywell and Sperry Rand, directed the spotlight to Dr. Atanasoff. He
said the idea in fact, had come to him over bourbon and water in a
roadhouse in Illinois in 1937. He was out on a drive from Iowa State
University, in Ames, where he taught mathematics and physics, and had
stopped to think about the computing devices he had been working on
since 1935.
He needed a machine that could do the complex mathematical work he and
his graduate students had been trying on desk calculators. He and two
others at Iowa State already had build an analog calculator called a
laplaciometer, which analyzed the geometry of surfaces.
It was that evening in the tavern, he said, that the possibility of
regenerative memory and the concept of logic circuits came to him. The
machine he envisioned was different from anything conceived before.
It would be electronically operated and would use base-two (binary)
numbers instead of the traditional base-10 numbers. It would have
condensers fro memory and a regenerative process to preclude loss of
memory from electrical failures. It would use direct logical action
for computing rather than the counting system used in analog
processes.
Within months, he and a talented graduate student, Clifford Berry, had
developed a crude prototype of an electronic computer. Although it
used a mechanical clock system, the computing was electronic. It had
two rotating drums containing capacitors, which held the electrical
charge for the memory. Data were entered using punch cards. For the
first time, vacuum tubes were used in computing. The project, which
cost $1,000, was detailed in a 35-page manuscript, and university
lawyers sent a copy to a patent lawyer.
The next year, Mauchly, a physicist at Ursinus College, near
Philadelphia, whom Dr. Atanasoff had met at a conference, came to see
Dr. Atanasoff's work. Mauchly stayed several days at the Atanasoff
home, where he was briefed extensively about the computer project and
saw it demonstrated. He left with papers describing its design.
That same year, Dr. Atanasoff tried to interest Remington Rand in his
invention, saying he believed it could lead to a "computing machine
which will perform all the operations of the standard tabulators and
many more at much higher speeds," but the company turned him down.
Years later, it would eagerly seek his assistance.
Dr. Atanasoff had hoped to file a patent for his computer, but he was
called away to Washington at the start of World War II to do physics
research for the Navy. And there were complications with Iowa State,
which held rights to his work but had discontinued efforts to secure a
patent.
By the time the computer industry was off and running, Dr. Atanasoff
was involved with other areas of defense research and out of touch
with computer development. The Iowa State prototype had been
dismantled while he was away working for the Navy. But he had kept his
research papers.
He later said he "wasn't possessed with the idea I had invented the
first computing machine. If I had knovn the things I had in my
machine, I would have kept going on it."
The Atanasoff prototype finally was recognized as the father of modern
computing when, in a patent infringement case Sperry Rand brought
against Honeywell, a federal judge voided Sperry Rand's patent on the
ENIAC, saying it had been derived from Dr. Atanasoff's invention.
It was "akin to finding a new father of electricity to replace Thomas
Edison," said a writer on the computer industry. The decision made
news in the industry, but Dr. Atanasoff, by this time retired,
continued to live in relative obscurity in Frederick County.
Later, in 1988, two books about his work were published: "The First
Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story," by Alice R. Burns and
Arthur W. Burns, and "Atanasoff, Forgotten Father of the Computer," by
Clark R. Mollenhoff. Other articles were published in the Annals of
the History of Computing, Scientific American and Physics Today.
In 1990, President George Bush acknowledged Dr. Atanasoff's pioneering
work by awarding him the National Medal of Technology.
John Vincent Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, N.Y. He was an electrical
engineering graduate of the University of Florida and received a
master's degree in mathematics from Iowa State University, where he
taught for 15 years. He received a doctorate in physics from the
University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Atanasoff left Iowa State in the early 1940s to become director of
the underwater acoustics program at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at
White Oak, now the Naval Surface Weapons Center, where he worked
largely with mines, mine countermeasures and depth charges.
He participated in the atomic weapons tests at Bikini Atoll after
World War II and became chief scientist for the Army Field Forces, at
Fort Monroe, Va., in 1949. He returned to the ordnance laboratory
after two years to be director of the Navy Fuze programs, and in 1952
he began his own company, Ordnance Engineering Corp.
That company was sold to Aerojet Engineering Corp. in 1956, and Dr.
Atanasoff was named a vice president. After he retired in 1961, he was
a consultant and continued to work in computer education for young
people. He also developed a phonetic alphabet for computers.
His honors included the Navy's Distinguished Civilian Service Award,
five honorary doctorates, the Computer Pioneer Medal of the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Holley Medal of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Distinguished
Achievement Citation of Iowa State University. He was a member of the
Iowa Inventors Hall of Fame. Dr. Atanasoff, whose father was born in
Bulgaria, also was awarded Bulgaria's highest science award and was a
member of the Bulgarian Academy of Science.
He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Mu Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi
honorary societies and the Cosmos Club.
Dr. Atanasoff's marriage to Lura Meeks Atanasoff ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Alice Crosby Atanasoff of Monrovia; three
children from his first marriage, Elsie A. Whistler of Rockville,
Joanne A. Gathers of Mission Viejo, Calif., and John V. Atanasoff II
of Boulder, Colo.; four sisters; three brothers; 10 grandchildren; and
seven great-grandchildren.
See also (New) biography.
_________________________________________________________________
Atanas Parashkevov, June 1995.
Forwarded by Jay Yantchev.
Formatted for the World Wide Web and hyperlinks added by Jonathan
Bowen.
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But then again, we could go back to about 2600BC when the Dust Abacus was
invented. It was free (used dust on the ground) and could store the
information until the wind blew!!!!!!!!!!!<BIG GRIN> It could also have been
SILICON CHIPS (if used in the sand on a
beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)<BIGGER GRIN>
Pat
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