GoKawiilAs you are reading this post, you are almost certainly looking at a computer … a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone. As I look around my shared workspace, I can see, without moving from my desk, 6 computers besides my own as well as a slew of smartphones. This is simply the world in which we live.
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), first general purpose electronic computer (invented at Penn, 1946, by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert), Ms. Coll. 925, box 205, folder 4
But the world in which John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert were living in the early 1940s had no computers. The ENIAC, which they invented during the World War II years was from their imagination. Combined with math, engineering, and science knowledge and a pure will to solve problems, they created something utterly new. It is mind boggling when you really stop and think about it.
In 1982, Joel L. Shurkin wrote, “rarely have so few people altered the world as much as [ENIAC’s] inventors, yet gained so little for having done so,” (page 33). And yet, while Mauchly and Eckert absolutely gained less than they should have, they continued to innovate and developed no less than three unique computers (BINAC, first electronic stored-program computer ever sold commercially; EDVAC, first modern computer designed from the ground up to store both instructions and data in its internal memory; and UNIVAC, the first commercial electronic computer). Mauchly added one more computer, the Skeduflo, to his portfolio after he started his own company, Mauchly Associates. In an article following his death in 1980, it was stated that Mauchly “unlocked the secrets that spawned an industry which will continue to change our world in remarkable ways” (Sperry/UNIVAC News, volume 4, number 4, page 1).
Skeduflo, computer in a suitcase UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer), Ms. Coll. 925, box 172, Folder 9 EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), Ms. Coll. 925, Box 205, Folder 3 BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer), Ms. Coll. 925, Box 205, Folder 1
In a controversial move, I am going to say that while the ENIAC was revolutionary and a pivotal moment in the history of computing, my favorite part of John Mauchly’s papers is not the material related to the ENIAC, but instead is the material related to the UNIVAC and especially from the UNIVAC Applications and Research Center (UARC), which Mauchly headed from 1953 to 1959, and which was “devoted to creating better methods of using the new equipment and exploring novel applications,” (Sperry UNIVAC Sphere, vol. 10, no. 1, 1980 January).
Today we take computers for granted … when faced with a problem, we think, how can a computer solve the problem faster and more accurately than a human slogging away. Even when creating the ENIAC, that is what Mauchly and Eckert did … they needed to compute World War II ballistic firing tables and they knew, in their hearts and brains (not because it had been done before), that a computer could make that happen.
Are Computers Newsworthy? Written in 1951 with additions in 1955, Ms. Coll. 925, box 170, folder 20
What I love about Mauchly’s role in UARC is that he did the opposite. Instead of looking to computers to solve problems, Mauchly looked for problems that could be solved by computers. He used every ounce of imagination, creativity, thoughtfulness, and ingenuity to show the world that computers were newsworthy; that businesses, governments, and institutions should invest in them; and that computers were the future. He had a bird’s eye view on what was necessary, what was possible, and what he needed to do to help things along. Because of this environment of innovation and ingenuity, Mauchly and his colleagues were enormously productive … records from this time period fill dozens of record center boxes and feature enormous progress in the development of the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) the world’s first general purpose commercial computer able to handle a wide variety of applications. At the same time, the team that Mauchly assembled was a driving force in the field of programming—Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was one such pioneer in computer programming and her work helped pave the way for modern data processing.
Meet the Computer Industry’s “First Citizens,” Ms. Coll. 925, Box 172, Folder 9
... continue reading