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 ENIAC:
The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer
The first programmable computer looked nothing like your PC. It
was the size of a three-bedroom apartment, weighed 30 tons, and
cost nearly half a million dollars to build-and $650 an hour to
run. But in 1945, this behemoth was the cutting edge in technology,
and a herald of the digital age to come.
Now a book tells the little-known story of this machine and the
men who built it-as well as the secrecy, controversy, jealousy,
and lawsuits that surrounded it-in a compelling real-life techno-thriller.
ENIAC is the story of John Mauchly and Presper Eckert, the
men who built the first digital, electronic computer. Their three-year
race to create the legendary ENIAC is a compelling tale of brilliance
and misfortune that has never been told before.
The author, Scott McCartney, is a staff writer for the Wall Street
Journal. He uncovered new documents and long-forgotten records that
bring new clarity to the story. The result is a book that not only
entertains and educates, but also clarifies the much-debated origins
of the computer and brings some redemption for those unjustifiably
stripped of proper credit.
From the Inside Flap
"For all his genius, John Von Neumann is not, as he is often credited,
the true father of the modern computer. That honor belongs to two
men, John Mauchly and Presper Eckert, who 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. As
Scott McCartney chronicles in memorable detail, the team they led
constructed a behemoth that occupied 1,800 square feet and weighed
30 tons. They overcame problems as banal as finding wire that rats
wouldn't eat and as complex as linking the 18,000 vacuum tubes that
powered their machine. Today ENIACs entire capacity would sit on
an integrated circuit the size of a lapel pin, yet without ENIAC,
such technological advancements might not have occurred.
In the wake of their triumph, Mauchly and Eckert would be shadowed
by personal tragedies and professional setbacks that are as absorbing
as their invention is fascinating. They built the famous UNIVAC
machine and formed the world's first computer company, only to be
outflanked and outfinanced by IBM and other emerging competitors.
They filed a patent on ENIAC and would spend the next twenty-five
years defending their inventions against a host of claims.
Based on original interviews with surviving participants and the
first study of Mauchly's and Eckert's personal papers, ENIAC is
a vital contribution to the history of technology. Even in today's
rough-and-tumble, high-tech world, it remains a stunning cautionary
tale".
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