Oral history interview with J. Presper Eckert, Kathleen Mauchly, James McNulty, and William Cleaver, 1980 Jan. 23.

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Oral history interview with J. Presper Eckert, Kathleen Mauchly, James McNulty, and William Cleaver, 1980 Jan. 23.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/63297207

The interviewees describe their experiences at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering in the 1940s. Eckert outlines disputes he and John Mauchly had with the University administration over the assignment of patent rights to the ENIAC, and disputes over other issues with John G. Brainerd, the first director of the ENIAC project. Eckert and McNulty share their views on John von Neumann's influence on the ENIAC and EDVAC projects. The group discusses the Honeywell vs. Sperry Rand litigation and the judgement against Eckert and Mauchly's patent claim to the electronic digital computer. They uniformly dispute the court's finding in favor of John V. Atanasoff's contribution.

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University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

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SNAC Resource ID: 7885776

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Related Entities

There are 11 Entities related to this resource.

Sperry Rand Corporation

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rz38hg (corporateBody)

There are two epochs in the history of computing: before the completion of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (known as the ENIAC), and after. While there are several controversies about the development of the ENIAC and its immediate successors, there is nearly universal agreement on three points: the ENIAC was the watershed project which convinced the world that electronic computing was not merely possible, but practicable; it was a masterpiece of electrical engineeri...

Honeywell Inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cr9tjb (corporateBody)

The Multics operating system was developed at MIT's Project MAC in cooperation with Bell Laboratories and General Electric beginning in 1964. It was written in PL/I, a high level programming language, and designed to adapt to future needs. When Honeywell took over General Electric's computer section it marketed Multics as a commercial product. From the description of Multics records, 1965-1982. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 63295362 From the gui...

Cleaver, William

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w405h2 (person)

Von Neumann, John, 1903-1957

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v69kqh (person)

John (Johann) Louis von Neumann (1903-1957) was born in Budapest and showed early signs of being a child prodigy. He entered the University of Budapest in 1921, but also attended the University of Berlin and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology before obtaining a degree in chemical engineering in 1925. He earned his Doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Budapest in 1927. After graduation, he worked at the University of Berlin before becoming a visiting professor to Princeton from ...

Moore School of Electrical Engineering

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t76h79 (corporateBody)

The catalyst which advanced electrical engineering and the computer beyond the differential analyzer and to the ENIAC was the demands of the Army during the 1930s and particularly the Second World War. The practical need which the differential analyzer could not solve effectively was the preparation of firing tables and charts which showed how to aim artillery accurately. Too many people and too much time were required to prepare these tables. The federal government was willing to f...

McNulty, James G.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62n7c23 (person)

Mauchly, Kathleen,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62c17vq (person)

Stern, Nancy B.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t72nh1 (person)

Brainerd, John G. (John Grist), 1904-1988

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tf200h (person)

There are two epochs in the history of computing: before the completion of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (known as the ENIAC), and after. While there are several controversies about the development of the ENIAC and its immediate successors, there is nearly universal agreement on three points: the ENIAC was the watershed project which convinced the world that electronic computing was not merely possible, but practicable; it was a masterpiece of electrical engineeri...

Atanasoff, John V. (John Vincent)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64q8xcf (person)

Inventor of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. From the description of Oral history interview with John V. Atanasoff, 1985 March 19. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 62685206 Inventor of the first electronic digital computer. J.V. Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, New York in 1903, and graduated from the University of Florida in 1925 with a B.S. in electrical engineering. He began graduate studies in mathematics at Iowa State College in 1925....

Eckert, J. Presper (John Presper), 1919-1995

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61j9grq (person)

Moore School of Electrical Engineering personnel in the 1940s. From the description of Oral history interview with J. Presper Eckert, Kathleen Mauchly, James McNulty, and William Cleaver, 1980 Jan. 23. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 63297207 Co-designer of the ENIAC, EDVAC, BINAC, and UNIVAC computers. From the description of Oral history interview with J. Presper Eckert, 1975. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record i...