by Roger Munns
The Associated Press
AMES, Iowa--The first electronic computer was finished in 1942, when its creator at Iowa State University was called up for the war effort. Another one at the University of Pennsylvania, funded by the military, was finished in 1945.
For decades, the ENIAC goliath in Philadelphia got the credit for being first, creating generations of hard feelings that officials of the two universities say they're finally trying to soothe.
John Atanasoff and research assistant Clifford Berry built the Atanasoff-Berry Computer at Iowa State, where researchers are now building a replica. The original was cannibalized.
Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania wants to switch on a portion of the much better known ENIAC early next year in celebrations marking half a century of change caused by the computer.
But neither side is tweaking the other these days.
"We want to make it clear, this is not dueling replicas," said scientist Delwyn Bluhm at Iowa State. "We're trying to work it out with them. These are two tremendous inventions, it just happens that the Atanasoff machine was slightly first."
And that's where the controversy lies.
Delayed recognition
It took more than 30 years for Atanasoff to receive recognition for a machine using vacuum tubes that could solve equations containing 29 variables.
The machine was the first to separate processing from memory and to use the binary number sytem in electronic computing, according to researcher Allan Mackintosh, in a 1988 article for Scientific American magazine.
Atanasoff left Iowa State to work for the U.S. Navy Ordnance Laboratory in Washington, where he became an expert on mines and was chief of the acoustics division until 1949. He later formed the Ordnance Engineering Co., which became part of Aerojet General Corp. in 1956. He holds 32 patents for a variety of electrical and mechanical devices.
For decades, credit for inventing the computer went to the Penn team of John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert who built the ENIAC--the Electronic Numerial Integrator and Computer.
It was used to calculate trajectories for artillery shells and was useful until the late 1950s. Most of it is now displayed at the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History in Washington. The rest of ENIAC, a 20-foot bank of tubes, is displayed at Penn.
In 1990, bits of the Atanasoff machine were added at the Smithsonian; the accompanying marrative credits Atanasoff and Berry with building the first electronic computer.
Challenge in court
Acknowledgement of Atanasoff's contribution came in a court case.
The former sperry Rand Corp. bought the ENIAC patent and started charging royalties. Honeywell Inc. refused to pay and challenged the patent in 1967.
The trial in Minneapolis showed that the ENIAC was derived from information tanasoff had shared with Mauchly in the early 1940s and that Mauchly had seen the ABC in action. Mauchly, who said both during and after the trial that he learned nothing from Atanasoff, has since died.
However, on October 19, 1973, federal District Judge Earl R. Larson ruled that the ENIAC was derived from Atanasoff and that the patent was invalid. Sperry did not appeal.
Iowa State, smarting from the mistake of not pursuing a patent itself, has done its best to honor Atanasoff, now 90 and ailing. Researchers are hunting for parts to build a replica.
"It's important that one of the most important intellectual developments of mankind occurred here, in the middle of a cornfield, not on one of the coasts," said George Strawn, director of ISU's computation center.
Steve Brown, assistant dean for external affairs at Penn and coordinator of the ENIAC celebration, said it's time to put the dispute to rest.
"We say right out that the ENIAC was built on the shoulders of giants; that's how advances are made in science," he said. "The court case created some horrendous bad feelings; we'd like to get beyond that. We'd like to recognize the Atanasoff contribution."
Brown said that on February 14, 1996, assuming the Smithsonian gives permission, the university's portion of ENIAC will be switched on and given figures to add.
Although olive branches are being extended by both sides, Atanasoff backers still feel snubbed.
"I snidely said at the last planning session, if they (Pennsylvania officials) really want to be authentic, they should steal the idea for building a replica and then not give us credit," ISU's John Gustafson said.