Awards for Atanasoff

Atanasoff did gain recognition. however. Even before the 1973 court ruling, in 1970, Bulgaria gave him the Order of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, its highest scientific award.

He was inducted into the Iowa Inventors Hall of Fame in 1978, was awarded the Computer Pioneer Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) in 1981 and in was presented with the United States National Medal of Technology, the highest U.S. honor conferred for achievements related to technological progress.

Was the ABC the First Computer?

It is clear that the ABC was an early attempt at a digital computer, but despite the court ruling that some claim that it was not the first such machine because it was never finished and working. Atanasoff claimed that this was irrelevant because it was enough to demonstrate that his ideas were workable. However, this just puts him in the position of having reinvented Babbage's ideas rather than actually building the first machine. The best evaluation of the ABC is that it was a collection of digital components rather than a complete system.

The key question is whether or not ENIAC was derived from the ABC, as the legal ruling states. The confusing factor here is whether or not Mauchly told Atanasoff of his work on digital computers at the time of their first meeting on 14 June 1941. Mauchly certainly wrote a letter in 1940, i.e. before the trip to see the ABC, about a digital design he was working on, but Atanasoff claims that Mauchly did not mention any such project.

Atanasoff and Mauchly were also at odds about what happened at the meeting. Atanasoff claimed that Mauchly "expressed joy" at seeing parts of the ABC work out some simple arithmetic. Mauchly stated,

"I found that although he used valves and did do it relatively cheaply he lost most of the advantage because he wasn't doing it fast."

Mauchly also claimed that Atanasoff couldn't make flip flops work reliably and the flip flop was the main component in the ENIAC.

The difference in viewpoint over the visit is striking. Atanasoff said Mauchly was fascinated. Mauchly said it was a waste of time. Whatever the truth, it is likely that both Atanasoff and Mauchly had good cause to regret the short visit for many years.

Working Replica

 The Original ABC

The original ABC was dismantled when the Iowa State College converted the basement it occupied to classrooms, and the only item to be salvaged was a single memory drum. However, in 1997 researchers from Ames Laboratory, located on the Iowa State campus, constructed a working replica at a cost of $350,000.

Replica ABC

Related Articles

14 June 1941 - Date of a Significant Meeting

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