Xref: utzoo comp.edu:1158 comp.misc:2377 misc.headlines:3082 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!purdue!sxr From: sxr@cs.purdue.EDU (Saul Rosen) Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.misc,misc.headlines Subject: Re: Atanasoff: Forgotton Father of the Computer Keywords: ISU, Mauchley, Atanasoff, Mollenhoff, Berry, ABC Message-ID: <4071@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> Date: 11 May 88 21:40:52 GMT References: <1071@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM> <4859@june.cs.washington.edu> Sender: news@cs.purdue.EDU Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University Lines: 23 To: jmatrow@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM Subject: Re: Atanasoff: Forgotton Father of the Computer Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.misc,misc.headlines In-Reply-To: <1071@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM> Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University Cc: Bcc: Most people who study the history of computing consider Eckert and Mauchly to be the inventors of the large-scale electronic digital computer. Atanasoff deserves a great deal of credit for what he did, but his effort to build a very special purpose electronic computer was not successful, and he and Berry abandoned the effort at the beginning of World War II. The ENIAC patent claims were too broad, and the judge would not allow them, but he did rule that Eckert and Mauchly were the inventors of the ENIAC. The ENIAC was the first successful attempt to build a large electronic computer, and it succeeded on a really grand scale. Atanasoff deserves some credit and glory, but not nearly as much as some people want to give him. He deserves a long footnote in the history of computing, mostly because he knewand encouraged Mauchly.