Who Invented the Computer?: The Legal Battle That Changed Computing History by Alice Rowe Burks, Douglas R. Hofstadter (Foreword by)

From the Publisher

In 1973, Federal District Judge Earl R. Larson issued a ruling in a patent case that was to have profound and long-lasting implications for the dawning computer revolution. Against all expectations, the judge ruled against Sperry Rand Corp., which claimed to hold the patent on the first computer - dubbed the "ENIAC" - and was demanding huge royalties on all electronic data-processing sales by Honeywell Inc. and other large competitors. The judge came to the conclusion that in fact the ENIAC was not the first computer but was a derivative of an obscure computer - called the ABC - which had been developed in the late thirties by a largely unknown professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State University, named John V. Atanasoff.

Who did invent the "automatic electronic digital computer" at issue in Judge Larson's courtroom? Was it John Mauchly and Presper Eckert, whose ENIAC was unveiled to the world in 1946? Or was it John Atanasoff, whose ABC was resurrected decades later to play a crucial role in the multimillion-dollar lawsuit?

Who Invented the Computer? centers on this crucial trial, arguing that Judge Larson correctly evaluated the facts and made the right decision, even though many in the computing community have never accepted Atanasoff as the legitimate inventor of the electronic computer. Author Alice Rowe Burks critically examines the testimony and the evidence and challenges the judge's critics to look at the proceedings and show how he could have reached any other decision.

Publishers Weekly

In 1941, physicist John Mauchly visited his colleague John Atanasoff at Iowa State University for a few days, during which they discussed the computer Atanasoff was working on, later called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). Within five years, Mauchly would be celebrated as one of the men responsible for the ENIAC, often referred to as the first computer. Thirty years later, what happened during that visit would become the core of a lengthy patent case and grist for countless speculative articles. Was the ENIAC based on the ABC? In 1973, Judge Earl L. Larson ruled in Atanasoff's favor, effectively declaring him the inventor of the computer as we know it. Among aficionados of the history of computing, there's widespread feeling that Larson blew the call, and it is this perception that Burks is intent on demolishing. Exhaustively citing the trial transcript as well as the conflicted reaction of the computing community, the author amply demonstrates Atanasoff's credibility and Mauchly's evasiveness about that meeting. She also persuasively demonstrates the manifold leap forward the ABC represented. In a way, Burks's account is undermined by the sheer strength of her case: most readers will be entirely convinced after only a couple of chapters. However, this thorough treatment of an important subject is invaluable. Photos. (Feb.) Forecast: People who avidly read the various publications the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) puts out will doubtless become immersed in the wealth of detail Burks presents. But those who can't distinguish a vacuum tube from a light bulb will probably find this methodical and often technical work daunting. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details

• ISBN: 1591020344
  
• ISBN-13: 9781591020349
• Format: Hardcover, 415pp
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Pub. Date: January 2003

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents