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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
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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
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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.