John Vincent Atanasoff
Invented the Atanasoff-Berry Computer
Who was? - John Vincent Atanasoff
John Vincent Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, New York on Oct. 4th 1903. He was of French, Bulgarian, and Irish heritage. While he was an infant, his grandfather was killed by Ottoman forces during the Bulgarian April Uprising. John completed his formal education in 1930 by earning his Ph.D in Theoretical Physics from University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was a straight A student and had many offerings of teaching fellowships, notably from Harvard.
What did he do?
John used a Mechanical Monroe Calculator to write his Doctoral Thesis. He made a new type of computer for the time because of how hard it was to use the Monroe Calculator, he needed a faster method of computation. Around 1936 he invented an analog calculator for analyzing surface geometry, this needed more mechanical tolerance for more accurate equations, so he pushed to make digital options. With a grant of $650 around 1939, and the help of his graduate student Clifford Berry, they prototyped the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) by November of that year. During the winter of 1938 on a drive to Rock Island, Illinois he conceived most of the operative principles of the ABC. The ABC had no central CPU, but was instead designed to be an electronic device with vacuum tubes for digital computation. It had a type of memory that was similar to the DRAM memory used today.
What did he do after he made the Atanasoff–Berry Computer?
After Atanasoff made his computer he was was testified at trial for the Eckert–Mauchly patent. After this was resolved and World War 2 erupted, Atanasoff developed seismographs and microbarographs for long-range explosive detection. Atanasoff visited Bulgaria twice in 1975 and 1985 where he was warmly welcomed and was made a honorable citizen.
Citations;
“John Vincent Atanasoff.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Nov. 2016, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Vincent_Atanasoff.
“John Vincent Atanasoff Biography.” John Vincent Atanasoff Biography, Iowa State University, jva.cs.iastate.edu/jvabio.php.