Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer by Clark R. Mollenhoff, and: The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story by Alice R. Burks, Arthur W. Burks

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 199 many were drawn to computing machinery by the practical need to carry out computations. The early history of the electronic computer has, quite naturally, received more scholarly attention than have the developments of the last two or three decades; books by Paul Ceruzzi, Herman Goldstine, and Michael Williams are among the best accounts of the early history. The rapid pace of developments in computing—even events of this decade, such as the introduction of the Osborne in 1981, may seem distant—makes treatment of the recent history, as in Slater’s book, particularly welcome. Frederik Nebeker Dr. Nebeker is a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the American Philosophical Society, where he is writing a history of geophysics. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with the effect of computers on meteorology. Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer. By Clark R. Mollenhoff. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1988. Pp. xv + 274; illustrations, bibliography, appendixes, index. $24.95. The First Electronic Computer: The AtanasoffStory. By Alice R. Burks and Arthur W. Burks. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988. Pp. xii + 387; illustrations, bibliography, appendix, index. $30.00. In the late 1930s, John V. Atanasoff, a new professor of mathemat­ ics and physics at Iowa State College, abandoned his efforts to build analog devices for doing complex calculations. He began working on what he described as a “computing machine proper”—what we now call a digital computer. Atanasoffbased the machine on electricity and electronics, devised a “regenerative” memory using condensers, and used a binary system to compute by direct logical action rather than an analog approach. With the help of Clifford E. Berry, his graduate assistant, Atanasoff built a prototype to solve differential equations. In 1941, John W. Mauchly, a visiting physics professor from a Pennsylvania college, examined the computer and a thirty-five-page document explaining its principles. The document had been used to obtain funding and was to be the basis of a patent application. But the war intervened and the patent claim was never pursued by Iowa State. By 1942, Atanasoff was working for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington; in 1946, ENIAC was unveiled, and shortly afterward, Mauchly and his assistant J. Presper Eckert, applied for a number of ENIAC-related patents. Atanasoff knew of these develop­ ments and apparently even suspected that Mauchly used information from his Iowa visit. Nevertheless, it was not until he became involved in corporate attempts to break the Mauchly-Eckert patents (which had 200 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE been sold to Remington Rand, later Sperry Rand) that Atanasoff saw an opportunity for receiving credit for his contribution to the development of computing. In a suit between Honeywell and Sperry Rand, a U.S. districtjudge ruled in 1973 that Mauchly “derived” ideas claimed in the Mauchly-Eckert patents from his visit to Atanasoff thirty years earlier. The “first electronic computer” was not the ENIAC built by Mauchly and Eckert: it was the ABC (Atanasoff Berry Computer) built by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. Clark R. Mollenhoff’s Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of Computing and Alice R. Burks and Arthur W. Burks’s The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story intend to correct a historical record that might have denied Atanasoff credit for his achievements. Mollenhoff emphasizes the personal details of Atanasoff’s life. The account is a colorful human-interest story, establishing key events and actors, but marred by oversimplifying the characters in the tale. Atanasoff is depicted as a noble scientist who “plays by the rules” of science rather than seeking fame and fortune. Mauchly, on the other hand, is a wicked pirate taking advantage of another man’s genius and modesty. Atana­ soff is a quick introduction to the Atanasoff-Mauchly issues. It does not present, however, the technical and legal details in depth: for Mollenhoff, the court decision settled the priority dispute. In contrast, Burks and Burks do not expect their readers to be persuaded merely by the court decision. They conduct a new trial in Atanasoff’s defense for the benefit of historians and members of the computer community, focusing on the technical details of inventions and prior work by both Atanasoff and Mauchly. With ample...