There’s been a controversy in the computing world when discussing what was the first computer invented.
For years, the accepted pioneer of the digital age was the ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, perhaps because tale became media frenzy associated with improvement was one worthy for tabloids and tv.
As World War II was coming to a close, the Army had run less than mathematicians and were willing to recruit women. Six women were accepted function with on “Project PX” at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering, under John Mauchly and L. Presper Eckert. The women’s job ended up program firing tables and ballistic trajectories using ENIAC. Their work laid the groundwork for computer programming. The completed machine was unveiled on Feb. 14, 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania. The military had funded the cost of almost $500,000. It occupied about 1,800 square feet and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighing almost 50 a whole lot. It is widely considered to be the first computer invented, considering its highly functional status while using late 1950s.
However, its “first” status was challenged in court when Rand Corp. bought the ENIAC patent and started charging royalties. Honeywell Incorporated. refused to pay and challenged the patent in 1967. It was learned that Mauchly, one of the many leaders of the Project PX at the University of Pennsylvania, had seen an early prototype of a device being built at the Iowa State College called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.
Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and new product idea graduate student Cliff Berry began development on the ABC in 1937 and it continued to be developed until 1942 at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University). Eventually, it could solve equations containing 29 variables.
In 1973, U.S. Federal Judge Earl R. Larson released his decision how do you patent an idea the ENIAC patent by Mauchly and Eckert was invalid along with the ABC was the first computer found. However, the ABC was never fully functional, so the best selling opinion to the present day has the ENIAC as the first electronic computing machine. The Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History in Washington displays most from the remains of the ENIAC, alongside pieces of the ABC.
However, there’s another twist to this tale. The most rudimentary computer is an electric device designed to accept data, perform prescribed mathematical and logical operations and display the results. Germany’s Konrad Zuse created what was basically the first programmable calculator in the mid-1930s in his parent’s living room. Zuse’s Z1 had 64-word memory and a clock speed of 1 Hz. Programming the the Z1 required the user how to pitch an idea to a company insert tape towards a punch tape reader and then receive his results any punch tape dispenser – making it possibly the first computer invented.
