John Vincent Atanasoff was an ambitious physicist, inventor and engineer whose pioneering early computer set the blueprint for the digital world we live in today. Yet few know his name or pivotal role in computing history. Read on for the fascinating biography of this overlooked genius!
Born in 1903 in New York state, Atanasoff always excelled in math and science as a child. He blazed through school and college at breakneck pace, earning his Ph.D. in physics by age 27.
After being hired as a professor at Iowa State University, this technology whiz spent the 1930s tinkering with calculating machines in a small basement lab. Motivated to help his students solve complex math problems, he created the world‘s first electronic digital computer prototype in 1939.
Built with Clifford Berry, this groundbreaking device known as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (or ABC) introduced several innovations that were far ahead of its time. It could solve difficult equations that were impossible via manual methods back then.
Unfortunately Atanasoff failed to patent this pioneering invention and it was soon forgotten. Yet his creative concepts directly inspired all future digital computers, as I‘ll explain shortly!
First, let me tell you more about the remarkable life story and lesser-known achievements of this computing visionary…
A Young Prodigy with Insatiable Curiosity
On October 4, 1903, John Vincent Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, New York to an electrical engineer father and a teacher mother. His parents had four other children, with John being the eldest.
According to his father Ivan‘s memoirs, John displayed great intellectual curiosity even as a toddler. He loved to take apart and reassemble various mechanical devices to understand how they worked.
Ivan himself was an ambitious inventor with his family roots tracing back to Bulgaria. He spent years trying to create an improved battery before eventually moving the family to Florida for a new business venture when John was 6 years old.
Young John spent his free time devouring books covering varied scientific topics. This ranged from physics and chemistry to geography and even relativity theory!
He continued to experiment extensively with electrical devices much to his mother‘s chagrin. His parents however encouraged his interest in math and supported his accelerated academic advancement.
Thanks to both his innate talent and enthusiasm for learning, John breezed through school rapidly. By age 15, he had already completed both primary and secondary schooling. He then went straight into a Bachelor‘s program at the Iowa State College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts (now Iowa State University).
There John built his first computer-like invention as a student project with the plan to patent it. Unfortunately his device which aimed to solve equations using an electrical charge mechanism had major flaws.
Ultimately he had to abandon plans to patent it after taking expert advice. But this early failure only fueled Atanasoff‘s fascination with using machines to automate complex mathematical calculations.
Now let‘s fast forward to the next key phase of his life which would lead to his pioneering computing breakthrough…
Teaching Job Sets Stage for Pioneering Breakthrough
Fresh out of college with a Bachelor‘s degree in Electrical Engineering, Atanasoff was hired as assistant professor of Physics and Mathematics at Iowa State University in 1926. He was just 23 years old when he started teaching there!
Atanasoff proved quite popular as a teacher and continued his own education in parallel. He earned his Masters in Math in 1926 and Doctorate degree in Theoretical Physics from University of Wisconsin in 1930.
However by the mid-1930s, one aspect of teaching began frustrating Atanasoff greatly. His students would often spend countless hours performing tedious manual calculations to solve elaborate equations for their thesis projects.
For complex problems with multiple variables, such manual number crunching could take days or even weeks of painstaking work prone to errors! Even simple mistakes would require redoing everything from scratch.
Atanasoff realized such repetitive calculations were an ideal job for a computing machine rather than humans. This could not only eliminate boring manual work for his students but also speed up mathematical and scientific research tremendously.
Spurred by this goal, Atanasoff began actively envisioning, sketching and ultimately building a specialized digital calculating device right at Iowa State University.
Let‘s now dive into the game-changing computing project which would make him a pioneer…
Partnering with Student to Invent the ABC
Starting in 1935, Atanasoff spent a couple years experimenting with various calculator-like machine ideas to automate equation solving. Most of these early designs involved intricate gear systems and punch card mechanisms.
By 1937, his ideas had evolved into a more ambitious plan to build a fully electronic machine capable of solving complex algebraic equations. Unlike earlier attempts, this design would rely solely on electronics and not mechanical gears/parts.
Atanasoff recruited Clifford Berry, one of his most promising graduate students, to turn this idea into an actual working prototype.
For the next two years, the duo spent all their free time holed up in a small basement room trying to make Atanasoff‘s digital computing vision a reality. They tackled numerous engineering and physics problems that came up, working late into the night after their regular teaching duties.
Finally by 1939, the two had created a modest but functional digital electronic calculator comprising over 1,200 vacuum tubes and capacitors along with punch card inputs. Though far from aesthetically pleasing, this strange-looking prototype worked!
Officially dubbed the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), it specialized in solving linear equations with up to 29 variables. This may not sound groundbreaking to us today in an age where even our smart phones can crunch billions of calculations.
But you have to understand absolutely nothing remotely like the ABC existed in those days. State-of-the-art calculating aids back then were purely mechanical tools like the slide rule. Electronic computers were still over a decade away!
I‘ll explain why their achievement was so pioneering shortly. But first, here is a quick recap of what the ABC could and could not do:
ABC Computer Capabilities:
- Used only electronics (no gears or moving parts)
- Stored data in binary form using capacitors
- Had separate processing and memory units
- Could solve up to 29 linear equations simultaneously
- Output solutions printed on paper punch tapes
Limitations:
- Was not programmable or general purpose
- Could not be used for other calculation tasks
- Lacked security features and self-checking ability
- Prone to dust interference and hardware failures
Now let‘s analyze how this seemingly basic calculator introduced several trailblazing ideas…
Pioneering Concepts Way Ahead of their Time
You‘re probably wondering what was so revolutionary about the ABC computer John Vincent Atanasoff built.
After all it was extremely limited in application being only designed for a very narrow set of algebraic calculations. It didn‘t even resemble what we think of as a computer today.
However within its primitive design lay several advanced concepts that the computing world was completely unfamiliar with back in 1939!
Here were some firsts the ABC introduced:
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First fully electronic computer: All calculating functions were carried out electronically using vacuum tubes instead of mechanical/electromechanical relays or gears. This made it faster and more reliable than existing electro-mechanical machines.
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Binary architecture: It represented all data as series of base-2 digits (1s and 0s) rather using decimal digits. This binary approach would become the standard for all future digital computers.
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Electronic memory: Data was stored electronically using capacitors rather than physical punch cards. This was the earliest form of digital memory that did not rely on mechanical systems.
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Separation of computing and memory: Unlike calculating machines of the era that combined processing and storage, Atanasoff segregated these into separate units thus introducing the earliest memory banks.
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Parallel processing: The ABC could analyze multiple variables simultaneously unlike sequential serial processing employed then. This parallel architecture opened the door for faster computing.
In summary, it pioneered the key principles of electronic logic, binary math and computing/memory separation that characterize modern computers even now.
Atanasoff himself summed it up nicely:
"I have designed an electronic computing machine that will make mathematical calculations at high speed. Mathematics is a field which needs machines like this."
Unfortunately our pioneering inventor here failed to patent his revolutionary ideas at the time. So the ABC‘s innovations went largely unnoticed even within the scientific community.
Let‘s find out what happened next…
Pivot to Military Innovations During WW2
Shortly after completing the ABC prototype in 1939, Atanasoff left academia to join the Naval Ordnance Laboratory once WW2 broke out. He would spend the next decade working on advanced military projects.
Here John got to flex his physics and engineering expertise on things like new armor plating for battleships, acoustic sensors to counter torpedo attacks and rocket-powered artillery shells.
After the war ended, Atanasoff continued rapid-fire innovations – this time for the Army on things like radar-guided shells. He rose quickly to key roles like Chief Scientist advising top generals.
Though his work remained classified, one thing was clear – this guy was an inventing dynamo when focused on practical real-world problems!
Unfortunately his absence from academia caused the ABC computer to be forgotten by the larger world. Let‘s see what happened there…
The Lost Inventor: ABC‘s Legacy Forgotten
With the inventor himself no longer associated with it, Iowa State decided to dissemble their pioneering ABC prototype in late 1942. The space was apparently needed by the military for bomber research.
The ABC machine was soon broken apart with bits and pieces likely getting reused, replaced or dumped altogether!
For his part, Atanasoff remained too occupied with urgent wartime projects to actively follow up on preserving the ABC‘s legacy during those years.
Its not like he forgot about it though – he did patent a specialized follow-up invention in 1941 based on ABC‘s computing approach. But that patent filing focused only on the processing system‘s physics rather than the computer‘s overall logic/architecture.
So while he retained proof of his early computing ideas, the pioneering ABC device itself faded into obscurity as WW2 raged on.
But the story doesn‘t end there…this was just Act I with plenty more twists left!
The Scientist Who Came In From The Cold
In 1949, Atanasoff left promising Navy career opportunities to join a small company called The Naval Ordnance Laboratory.
But why would anyone leave a prestigious military leadership role at the peak of their career for an unknown private firm?
To solve that mystery, we need to rewind five years back to 1944…
That year, Atanasoff was approached out of the blue by an ambitious scientist named John Mauchly.
Mauchly claimed he was conducting his own electronic computing research and requested to see the ABC machine based on a paper Atanasoff had published earlier.
Since the ABC no longer existed physically at that time, Atanasoff generously shared his complete technical notes and ideas with Mauchly during a four-day brainstorming session.
What he didn‘t realize then was Mauchly‘s intentions to appropriate those ideas!
Starting in 1946, Mauchly went on to launch multiple commercial computer ventures through which he obtained patents for designs suspiciously similar to Atanasoff‘s.
In fact one of Mauchly‘s early computing partners claimed he specifically described Atanasoff‘s influence during their patent filing process.
But it was only when Mauchly‘s team won the lucrative contract for building pioneering UNIVAC I in 1951 that Atanasoff decided to come out of the cold.
He was done watching someone else take credit and run away with his life‘s work for their profit!
And so began Act II with an epic legal drama…
Bittersweet Vindication: Long Patent Battle
In 1967, Atanasoff was asked to be an expert witness in a high stakes federal court case between computer company Honeywell and its rival Sperry Rand (started by Mauchly & his partner Presper Eckert).
The case contested the very legitimacy of the ENIAC patent that launched Mauchly‘s career and fortune.
Atanasoff provided extensive testimony on how all of Mauchly‘s ideas directly stemmed from mimicking his earlier ABC innovations dating back to 1939. This was corroborated by multiple former colleagues of both men.
After a lengthy 135 day trial costing millions of dollars, the final ruling in 1973 invalidated Mauchly‘s ENIAC patent as being derivative of Atanasoff‘s work. Atanasoff was officially declared the inventor of the electronic digital computer!
This bittersweet vindication came very late considering Atanasoff had already moved on to other successful ventures by then. Not to mention how his youthful ABC achievement that sparked it all had faded into oblivion years ago.
Nonetheless he was finally hailed as a bonafide computer pioneer, even if most people still haven‘t heard of him!
Let‘s wrap up with a quick look at his later years…
Post-Verdict Years: Awards Galore Before Death
Although the 1973 court judgment ruled in his favor, it did not directly translate to any patents or financial windfall for Atanasoff at that late stage.
Nonetheless, the enormous publicity it generated as one of the largest patent trials in U.S. history brought him much deserved fame.
Atanasoff was invited to prestigious conferences to recount his computing pioneering days from the 1930s. Multiple books and articles were written about his work at Iowa State that had sparked the digital computing revolution.
He was showered with major awards highlighting his early innovations – some even coming from White House!
Despite entering his 80s, John continued dabbling in a range of inventions around optimized semiconductor designs and geomagnetic research.
But his greatest impact had already long passed…though largely unbeknownst to the outside world for over three decades!
John Vincent Atanasoff died in 1995 after a prolonged illness. Fittingly, the remains of this child of a Bulgarian immigrant were buried in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Though his key achievement – the Atanasoff-Berry Computer – had been dismantled decades ago and its all-electronic design long obsolete, its pioneering concepts continued living at the heart of modern computing.
Binary architecture, electronic logic circuits, digital storage and parallel processing…all emerged from ABC‘s innovations that were far ahead of their time back in 1939!
So even if you haven‘t heard of him before, hopefully now you can appreciate why Atanasoff is considered the often overlooked genius who quietly kickstarted the digital revolution!