The man who invented the computer : the biography of John Atanasoff, digital pioneer / Jane Smiley.
Material type:
TextEdition: First editionDescription: 246 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cmISBN: 0385527136; 9780385527132Subject(s): Atanasoff, John V. (John Vincent) | Sperry Rand (Corporation) -- History -- 20th century | Computer scientists -- United States -- Biography | Inventors -- United States -- Biography | Physicists -- Iowa -- Biography | College teachers -- Iowa -- Biography | Electronic digital computers -- History -- 20th century | Patents -- United States -- History -- 20th century | Intellectual property -- United States -- History -- 20th centuryGenre/Form: Biography. | History. | Biographies. DDC classification: 004.092 | B LOC classification: QA76.2.A75 | S64 2010Summary: One night in the late 1930s, in a bar on the Illinois-Iowa border, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State University, after a frustrating day performing tedious mathematical calculations in his lab, hit on the idea that the binary number system and electronic switches, combined with an array of capacitors on a moving drum to serve as memory, could yield a computing machine that would make his life easier. Then he went back and built the machine. It worked, but he never patented the device, and the developers of the far-better-known ENIAC almost certainly stole critical ideas from him. But in 1973 a court declared that the patent on that Sperry Rand device was invalid, opening the gates to the computer revolution. Biographer Jane Smiley makes the race to develop digital computing as gripping as a real-life techno-thriller.--From publisher description.
| Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martha's Vineyard High School Library | 921/ATA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 39844500000449 |
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| 921/ASH A hard road to glory : | 921/ASH A hard road to glory : | 921/AST Fred Astaire / | 921/ATA The man who invented the computer : | 921/AUD This strange wilderness : | 921/BABBAGE Charles Babbage and the engines of perfection / | 921/BAK Josephine Baker / |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-232) and index.
One night in the late 1930s, in a bar on the Illinois-Iowa border, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State University, after a frustrating day performing tedious mathematical calculations in his lab, hit on the idea that the binary number system and electronic switches, combined with an array of capacitors on a moving drum to serve as memory, could yield a computing machine that would make his life easier. Then he went back and built the machine. It worked, but he never patented the device, and the developers of the far-better-known ENIAC almost certainly stole critical ideas from him. But in 1973 a court declared that the patent on that Sperry Rand device was invalid, opening the gates to the computer revolution. Biographer Jane Smiley makes the race to develop digital computing as gripping as a real-life techno-thriller.--From publisher description.
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