John Mauchly

John Mauchly was an American computer scientist (although the term did not yet exist when he did his most consequential work). His major accomplishments were:

• Creating and running the ENIAC project, the first general-purpose electronic computing device.
• Thereby convincing people generally that electronic computing devices were feasible, desirable, and useful. (The prior classified Colossus device in the UK had convinced insiders there of that, but knowledge of it was limited, although it generated numerous descendants, starting with the Manchester Baby and Manchester Mark I.)
• With a team including J. Presper Eckert and John von Neumann, he co-designed the EDVAC, whose design document was the inspiration for most of the first generation of computers; almost all computers now are its descendants.
• With his co-worker, J. Presper Eckert, he founded the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, from which several important manufacturers descended (among them Remington Rand, which acquired EMCC; Remington Rand also acquired ERA, and the group produced even more important descendants, including CDC).
• That organization produced the UNIVAC I, the first commercially available computer in the US.

John Mauchly's role in the ENIAC produced two related controversies, which diligent research has only partially cleared up. Unfortunately, the whole controversy led to a great deal of division and ill-will; much of the computer world was divided into two vehemently-opposed camps, the 'Atanasoff' camp, and the 'Mauchly/Eckert' camp, which fairly bitterly disputed to whom should go the credit for 'inventing the computer'. This was most unfortunate, as the machines of Atanasoff and Mauchly and Eckert both were major steps along the path from Babbage to modern computers; the struggle over credit has led to both sides not getting the recognition they both really do deserve.

Further reading

• Herman H. Goldstine, The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann, Princeton University, Princeton, 1972
• Nancy Stern, From ENIAC To UNIVAC: An Appraisal of the Eckert-Mauchly Computers, Digital Press, Bedford, 1981
• Arthur Lawrence Norberg; Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand; MIT Press, Cambridge, 2005
• Nancy Stern, "John William Mauchly: 1907-1980", Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 2, Number 2, 1980, pp. 100-103
• Kathleen Mauchly, "John Mauchly's Early Years", Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 6, Number 2, 1984, pp. 116-138 - contains detail on his work before his visit to Atanasoff
• Alice Rowe Burks, Arthur W. Burks, The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1988 - Appendix B contains a lengthy and careful analysis of Kathleen Mauchly's article (above)

External links

• John Mauchly - oral history interview at the American Institute of Physics
• John William Mauchly - biography at the IEEE Computer Society History Committee; contains an excellent bibliography
• John William Mauchly 1907-1980 - biography at the National Academy of Engineering
• J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly - biography at the Lemelson Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology