johne@astroatc.UUCP (Jonathan Eckrich) (04/27/88)
The following artical was taken from the May, 1988 issue of The Iowa Stater, a publication of Iowa State University. The typos are mine. Who really invented the electronic digital computer? Clark Mollenhoff knows; most Iowa Staters know. It's John Vincent Atanasoff. Mollenhoff and most Iowa Staters also know that Atanasoff is not the houshold name it should be. Atanasoff invented the electronic digital computer while he was a professor at Iowa State in the late 1930s. His invention made possible the computer age and the modern technological age. His contribution ranks with those of Edison, Wright, and Ford. Despite a federal court decision in 1973 identifying him as the inventor, Atanasoff has been a forgotten person in computer history. Mollenhoff, professor of journalism at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA., and former Pulitzer Prize winning national reporter for The Des Moines Register, first became involved in the Atanasoff story in 1973 as Washington, D.C., bureau chief for the Register. After attending a celebration at ISU commemorating the 10th anniversary of the historic court decision, he decided to correct the historical injustice. He began writing a book. That book, Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer, has been published by ISU press. Public sale will officially commence at a special celebration for Atanasoff on Saturday, May 7 (Veishea weekend at ISU). (Note: Veishea is ISU's homecomming celebration.) In the book, Mollenhoff offers the complete story of the invention of the electronic digital computer and the unusual tale of its long-unacknowledged inventor. It also includes a myterious death of Clifford Berry, who, as a graduate student, helped Atanasoff build the machine, later named the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). Berry died in 1969, shortly after he had documented the creation of the device for a book on computer history. Mollenhoff also recounts the six-year court battle between Honeywell Inc. and Sperry Rand Corp. in which Atanasoff's role in the invention of the electronic digital computer was redicovered. As a result of Atanasoff's testimony and personal records, the court voided a patent of the famous ENIAC computer and identified Atanasoff as the inventor. Among the questions Mollenhoff answers in the book are: How did Atanasoff conceive the first electronic digital computer? How did John Mauchly aquire the concepts for use in the ENIAC, the first patented electronic computer? Why was Atanasoff's computer not recognized by his contemporaries? How did Mauchly become known as the inventor of the electronic computer? Why was Atanasoff silent for so long? "The facts - including the relevance of a 200-mile drive in the night and the presents of Mauchly as a house guest of Atanasoff - constitute a riveting look at genius, ambition and the birth of the computer age," the publishers note. Several events are planned at ISU Veisea Weekend to recognize Atanasoff, who earned his MS from Iowa State in 1926 and who was a physics and mathematics professor here from 1925 to 1939. Mollenhoff and Atanasoff will hold a book signing at the University bookstore in the ISU Memorial Union Friday, May 6, and a press conference will be held Saturday afternoon, May 7, in the Union to announce public sale of the book. Atanasoff will be Grand Marshall of the Veisea Parade Saturday morning. A graduate of Drake University Law School, Mollenhoff won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting while working for the Des Moines Register as investigative reporter and Washington, D.C., correspondent, positions he held for more than 35 years. The book, which contains more than 50 historic photographs, is available from ISU press, 2121 S. State Ave., Ames, Iowa 50010; phone (515) 292-0140. Cost for the hard bound book is $24.95 plus $1.50 postage and handling ($2.50 for orders outside The United States). Mastercard and Visa are accepted. -- Jon Eckrich | Eat Cheese or Die! (rutgers, ames)!uwvax!astroatc!johne | ihnp4!nicmad!astroatc!johne N1000M, 1948 Stinson 108-3 i12av8