John Mauchly was an American physicist who, with J. Presper Eckert, proposed and built ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania under a 1943 Army contract for artillery firing tables, completed in 1945. Mauchly had visited John Atanasoff's laboratory at Iowa State in 1941 and seen the Atanasoff-Berry Computer running, a visit that later federal litigation found had shaped ENIAC's design.
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Co-designed ENIAC, one of the earliest general-purpose electronic computers.
Invented
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
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1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Invented: The Computer
The same 1973 ruling against Eckert's ENIAC patent applies equally to Mauchly's own claim: the court found Mauchly's 1941 visit to John Atanasoff's laboratory, where he saw the Atanasoff-Berry Computer running, had shaped ENIAC's subsequently patented design, and it invalidated the patent on that basis.
A dissenting reading, from Honeywell, Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp. (1973)Honeywell, Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp. (1973), 1973
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