Imagine toiling away for hours to solve complex mathematical equations by hand – looking up logarithm tables, calculating products, reducing fractions – just to fill a chalkboard with a morass of numbers. Before computers, this tedious manual number-crunching plagued engineers, scientists, mathematicians, and students alike. Yet buried in such mundane mathematical work was the genesis of ideas that would spawn the computer revolution.
John Vincent Atanasoff was one such unlikely computing pioneer. As a professor teaching integral and differential equations classes at Iowa State University in the 1930s, Atanasoff empathized with his students forced to spend days grinding through long calculations. This monotony sparked Atanasoff to conceptualize a radical machine to accelerate such repetitive arithmetic – setting him on a path toward building the world’s first electronic digital computer.
Revolutionizing Computing with the Atanasoff-Berry Computer
In 1937, Atanasoff drafted his ideas for a calculating machine alongside graduate student Clifford Berry. His design integrated several unprecedented concepts to bring computing into the electronic age. By 1941, the duo had built the machine, known as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (or ABC), which demonstrated four revolutionary firsts in computing:
- Binary Data: The ABC represented all data using only two states – 1 and 0 – now known as the binary system underlying all modern computers. Atanasoff realized that unlike decimal numbers requiring 10 symbols (0–9), using just two symbols would simplify electronics.
- Digital Electronics: The ABC was among the first computing attempts to perform all calculations electronically instead of mechanically. Atanasoff implemented binary logic using vacuum tubes, starting the era of digital electronics.
- Computing Unit Separation: Atanasoff separated the computing and memory functions into two independent units. Unlike previous computers, his structure enabled running programs without human intervention by having dedicated processing hardware.
- Capacitor Memory: Instead of mechanical parts, the ABC stored data electronically using capacitors for its 1130-bit memory – an ancestor for computer memory units.
These breakthrough concepts proved Atanasoff’s ABC was far ahead of other experimental computing devices built until then using slow, analog mechanisms. Atanasoff created the first fully automated, electronic, digital computer powered to solve 29 equations simultaneously. As one of the earliest programmable, self-contained computing machines, it set the template for the rapid pace of digital innovation in subsequent decades.
| Specification | Atanasoff-Berry Computer |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
| Computing Speed | 60 multiplications/minute |
| Power | 175 Watts |
| Logic Technology | Vacuum tubes |
| Memory | Capacitors (1130 bits) |
| Size | 800 sq ft area |
The ABC’s Ideas Shape Early Computers
While the ABC was modest in scale and short-lived, its revolutionary electronic architecture earned recognition as a landmark in computing history. Most importantly, its technical DNA would reemerge just a few years later in the prominent ENIAC – the first general-purpose electronic computer that thrust computing into the popular spotlight in 1946.
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer Public Domain Image via Wikipedia
ENIAC co-creator John Mauchly had actually visited Atanasoff in 1941 to look at the ABC during its development. In the aftermath, Mauchly allegedly adapted major design elements he learned from seeing the ABC, like binary counting and computing with vacuum tubes, into building ENIAC.
The two machines shared notable technical similarities as early electronic computers built for numerical calculations. However, ENIAC advanced them further – using a faster computing speed, expanded program capacity, and the ability to dynamically alter stored programs. Coupled with aggressive marketing by its developers, ENIAC would steal the historical spotlight as the ‘first computer’, relegating Atanasoff’s foundational work largely to obscurity for decades.
Vindicating Atanasoff’s Legacy in the Great Patent Dispute
The lack of recognition Atanasoff received evoked a sense of injustice given ENIAC‘s debts to his pioneering ABC. This controversy boiled over publicly in 1967 when a federal court ruling dismissed ENIAC‘s patents after concluding it was directly derived from Atanasoff‘s prior concepts.
The ‘Great Patent Dispute’ sought to settle conflicting claims between different groups over inventing the modern computer. At its core was defining whether Atanasoff should be historically credited as the inventor of electronic digital computing that later innovators built upon.
For Atanasoff, the motives went beyond pride to prevent his ideas from being commercially exploited without due acknowledgment.
"The computer was not conceived all at once by any one man. It grew slowly, steadily over the years, many men making contributions to the field." – John Vincent Atanasoff
The marathon 6-week trial scrutinized technical minutia, including diagrams, dates, and correspondence between the conflicting parties. Ultimately, it ruled definitively that Mauchly illicitly incorporated Atanasoff’s techniques from the ABC, invalidating ENIAC‘s patents.
While the decision came too late to impact commercial fortunes tied to early computers, it crucially vindicated Atanasoff‘s legacy as the inventor of the electronic digital computer. ENIAC grew famous as the first prominent computer, but the court affirmed Atanasoff‘s ABC constituted the very first electronic computer ever built.
Wartime Innovations for the Army and Navy
Though Atanasoff pioneered modern computing, his talents spanned various scientific domains critical to US military applications during World War II and the Cold War eras. His rare expertise at this intersection of computing, physics, acoustics, munitions, and aerospace repeatedly put him at the frontier of classified defense projects.
John Vincent Atanasoff Public Domain Image via Wikimedia Commons
After creating the ABC, Atanasoff joined the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in 1942 leading the Acoustics and Mine Projection divisions. His team developed sonar systems to hunt submarines and ultrasonic proximity fuses causing missiles to detonate when reaching their target. These innovations proved vital in protecting Allied ships and aircraft against German U-boats and magnetic mines.
Atanasoff later served as Chief Scientist for the Army Field Forces where he worked on artillery rocket systems and specialized bomb fuses. His designs enabled rockets and bombs to activate explosively only under exact conditions to maximize destructive effects.
In 1951 Atanasoff returned to lead the Navy Fuse Program directing research on advanced guidance systems for missiles and rockets. His designs increased their accuracy substantially during testing. Though much of this work remains classified, such critical contributions to multiple military branches exemplified Atanasoff’s afterlife inventing beyond birthing modern computing.
Successful Tech Entrepreneurship with his Company
Beyond his decorated public service, Atanasoff also forged a career as a successful private technology entrepreneur. He launched the Ordnance Engineering Corporation in 1952 alongside business partner David Beecher. The company specialized in highly technical military projects suited to Atanasoff‘s niche expertise, like designing aerospace instrumentation and testing naval weapons.
Headquartered in Maryland, the company enjoyed steady growth as Cold War tensions expanded defense spending. By 1956, just four years since founding Ordnance Engineering Corp, Atanasoff and Beecher sold their firm to aerospace giant Aerojet General Corporation. The deal earned the founders a substantial payout while keeping Atanasoff in charge of Aerojet‘s Atlantic Division. His continued leadership of sensitive defense contracts reflected the immense respect Atanasoff commanded within the scientific community.
Over his lifetime, Atanasoff held over 30 patents across computing, acoustics, optics, and munitions. Though he retired from Aerojet in 1961, Atanasoff consulted privately until his death at age 91, constantly innovating across his fields of expertise.
Atanasoff‘s Personal Life
Away from his professional endeavors, Atanasoff also maintained an active personal life. He married his college sweetheart, Lura Meeks, while both attended Iowa State in 1926. They started a family after Atanasoff completed his Ph.D., having three children together – Elsie, Joanne and son John.
The couple ultimately divorced in 1949, at which point Lura relocated to Colorado with their children. That same year, Atanasoff remarried Alice Crosby who had worked in the personnel department at Iowa State while he taught there. Alice provided steadfast support and companionship to Atanasoff as he entered the pinnacle of his inventing career over the next decade between his decorated military service, founding his company, and the pivotal patent dispute ruling.
Outside work and family, Atanasoff nurtured wide-ranging interests especially in the arts. He enjoyed activities like painting abstract pieces reflecting his mathematical mindset alongside playing clarinet in community bands. Atanasoff pursued intellectual curiosity until his death at age 91 in 1995. While illness plagued his final years, he continued reading four newspapers daily to stay informed on scientific breakthroughs and global affairs.
Atanasoff‘s lifetime contributions across computing, engineering, physics earned him prestigious accolades like the U.S. National Medal of Technology, Order of the People‘s Republic of Bulgaria, and Iowa‘s highest civilian award. Yet despite such high honors, his fame waned over time compared to computing legends like Alan Turing or Silicon Valley icons like Steve Jobs who contributed immense financial successes later. However, historians revere Atanasoff as an under-appreciated genius whose pioneering ABC computer concept catalyzed the digital revolution powering innumerable facets of life today.
Atanasoff‘s Legacy: Recognizing Overlooked Computing Pioneers
Computing devices have evolved unimaginably from John Vincent Atanasoff‘s times into a cornerstone of the modern economy. Today, the industry that germinated from Atanasoff‘s primordial ideas around electronic computing amounts to over $500 billion annually powering everything from mobile phones to artificial intelligence algorithms.
Yet tracing the origins of such pervasive digital technologies leads back to the unheralded work of computing pioneers in academia working on seemingly mundane calculations. Atanasoff and his ABC computer unlocked pioneering concepts that accelerated computing capabilities far faster than ever envisioned. His foundational insights around electronic, binary computing set the blueprint driving exponential leaps in processing speeds over subsequent decades.
However, Atanasoff struggled for years against obscurity before later court decisions cemented his legacy as computing‘s forgotten father. His tale highlights the under-recognized contributions of many scientists whose revolutionary ideas fuel incredible technological progress while their names remain unfamiliar. Appreciating such little-known pioneers allows us to fully comprehend the scope of conceptual leaps underpinning the digital conveniences powering our daily lives. The next time we instantly process complex data or rapidly analyze facts enabled by cheap computing, we should pause to remember the earlier dreamers in starkly different times who made such computational abilities possible through their forgotten feats of ingenuity.