ENIAC, the Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer
John Mauchly and Presper Eckert designed and built the first digital, electronic computer. The story of their three-year race to create the legendary ENIAC and their three-decade struggle to gain credit for it has never been told and is a compelling tale of brilliance and misfortune. Mauchly and Eckert met by chance in 1941 at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Engineering. They soon developed a revolutionary vision: to use electricity as a means of computing - in other words, to make electricity "think." Ignored by their colleagues, in early 1943 they were fortuitously discovered and funded by the U.S. Army, itself in urgent need of a machine that could quickly calculate ballistic missile trajectories in wartime Europe and Africa.
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LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - gmicksmith - LibraryThing
This work is about the world's first programmable, digital computer. It is a lively account about computer pioneers. The work deals more with the personalities in the foibles of computing invention ... Read full review
LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - Stbalbach - LibraryThing
The computer emerges from the fog of history without an origin. Ask anyone who invented the computer and few could say, and for good reason because it's complicated. Yet there is no doubt that the ... Read full review