Obituary
John Vincent Atanasoff is known as the father of the computer. With the help of one of his students ... View MoreJohn Vincent Atanasoff is known as the father of the computer. With the help of one of his students Clifford E. Berry, in Iowa State College, during the 1940s, he created the ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) that was the first electronic digital computer. John Vincent Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, New York on October 4th, 1903. His father Ivan Atanasoff was born in a country village named Boiajik, in Bulgaria. Ivan Atanasoff's parents were killed in 1876 in the Bulgarian war against the Turkish slavery when he was 1 year old. 12 years later in 1889 he immigrated in United States with his uncle. In USA, they arrived in Ellis Island where his last name was changed to Atanasoff. There he married a mathematics schoolteacher Iva Lucena Purdy, who was the mother of John Vincent Atanasoff. Together they had 9 more children. After John Vincent Atanasoff was born, his father accepted a position as a senior electrical engineer in Osteen, Florida and later they moved in Brewster, Florida. This was the place where John Vincent completed grade school and started to get first understanding of the various electricity concepts. At 9 years he was fixing broken electricity wires in his home, which was the first house with electricity they lived so far.John Vincent Atanasoff was a very good student. He was also interested in various sports and especially in baseball. Overall, his school years were normal until the day when his father bought a new Dietzgen slide rule for his work. Atanasoff was fascinated by this mathematical tool. He quickly learned how to use it and was really amazed how he was able to get correct results using the rule. Not later after this, he became very interested in the mathematics behind the rule and at 9 years, he started to study trigonometric functions and logarithms. With the help of his mother, he read various mathematic books for collage students. He quickly became familiar with differential equations and other fairly difficult mathematical concepts. His mother introduced the young boy to the number systems based on a different number than 10. This is how he first learned about the base-two number system. In 1919 the Atanasoff's family moved to a farm in Old Chicora, Florida. This is where he entered into the Mulberry high school. He completed the entire school course, with concentration in science and mathematics, in two years with straight A's. And he already knew that he wanted to study theoretic physics. After this, in 1921 he was accepted in the University of Florida in Gainesville. However, the university didn't offer a specific program in theoretic physics and Atanasoff signed for electrical engineering degree. In 1925 he graduated, again with straight A's, with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering. Although, offered a various scholarships from some of the best schools in the country, including Harvard University, the 22 years than old John Vincent Atanasoff, decided to accept the offer from the Iowa State College, which was famous with its engineering and science programs. This was where, later he invented the first digital computer in the world. During his master's in the university, John had a very busy schedule. He was working towards his degree and in the same time he was teaching two undergraduate courses in mathematics. However, he found time to meet with Lura Meeks, who soon after his graduation became his wife. In June 1926 John graduated from the Iowa State College with Masters of Science in mathematics. He accepted an offer from the university to teach mathematics. At first, his wife was teaching in a school in Montana, but soon she quit her job and moved back to Ames. So in 1929 their first child was born, a daughter called Elsie. Later, they had 2 more children, a boy and a girl. After Elsie was born, they moved to Madison, Wisconsin where John was taking his doctorate in theoretical physics. During his work on his final thesis, "The Dielectric Constant of Helium" Atanasoff had his first experience with serious computing. He was working with Monroe calculator, which was one of the best calculators at that time, but still it gave him a really hard time and he had to spend hours performing various calculations. It was this experience that made Atanasoff to think strongly in the course of developing a better computing machine. So after he received his Ph.D. in 1930, he accepted an offer from the Iowa State College as an assistant professor in mathematics and physics, and the family moved back to Ames. In the university, Atanasoff started to make various experiments with vacuum tubes and radio signals as well as various electronic devices and was really determined to develop an advanced computing machine. In the mean time he was promoted to an associate-professor in physics and mathematics. In the following years Atanasoff continued to examine various mathematical devices and he classified them into two groups: analog and digital devices. The main problem that the inventor found was that the analog devices were slow and their accuracy was dependent upon the performance of all the parts in them. Around year 1937 John was still obsessed with the computer problem he was trying to solve. As the story in various sources tells including the Iowa State Collage archives:"...in the winter months of 1937. One night, frustrated after many discouraging events, he got into his car and started driving without destination. Two hundred miles later, he pulled onto a roadhouse in the state of Illinois. Here, he had a drink of bourbon and continued thinking about the creation of the machine. No longer nervous and tense, he realized that this thoughts were coming together clearly. He began generating ideas on how to build this computer! After receiving a grant of $650 from Iowa State College in March 1939, Atanasoff was ready to embark in this exciting adventure. To help him accomplish his goal, he hired a particularly bright electrical engineering student, Clifford E. Berry. From 1939 until 1941 they worked at developing and improving the ABC, Atanasoff-Berry Computer, as it was later named." In 1942 John Atanasoff was called on duty and he started a defense related position in the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington, as a theoretical physicists. There, he was working on various projects related to mines disarming, underwater bombs, rockets commanding, etc. Because of the long separation during World War II, Atanasoff and his wife were divorced in 1949 and in the same year John married Alice Crosby. In the period between 1942 and 1966, most of the scientist work was related to the Dynamics of the See Vessels. He holds patents to over 30 different devices some of them like a device for capturing and recording seismic sound waves, a post office sorting system, automated systems for package preparation and others. After a long sickness Atanasoff died on June 15 1995, in his home in Maryland.In 1997 a project to develop a fully functional replica of the ABC, with a $350,000 budget, was completed in the Ames Laboratory, located in the Iowa State Collage. Right now, it can be seen on display on the first floor of the lobby of the Durham Center for Computation at Iowa State University. This is also where, most of the archives related to the development of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, are held. There are many pictures, videos and a lot of information as well as a full documentation of the court trial led to the final decision that indeed it was the ABC - the first computer in the world.
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