ENIACA Secret War Initiative Becomes An Engineering Marvel

IXDS5503: Media History and TheoryLindsey Wilson College

Professor, Jason OcchipintiMay 1, 2015

By: Venus M. Popplewell

Government bureaucracy was tabled on December 7, 1941 when Japan

attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and America officially entered

World War II. The government turned to the intellectual forces in the

mathematics and science departments at American universities to employ

the forefront concepts in engineering. Shipbuilding, aircraft production,

bomb and weapon development needed to be efficient and revolution-

ary to unsettle the Germans. Scientists were given a full portfolio of re-

sources and money to accomplish the objectives of the wartime effort.

The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, known as the

ENIAC, was the world’s first programmable, all electronic, general-pur-

pose digital computer. It was commissioned by Army Ordnance to com-

pute World War II ballistic firing tables. “The ENIAC ushered in a new

era of startling scientific innovation” (Weik, 1961). ENIAC was her-

alded in the press as a “giant brain” and could calculate 5000 opera-

tions per second, faster than any device yet invented. ENIAC was the

prototype from which most other modern computers evolved (Weik,

1961). However, the ENIAC is shrouded in controversy due to patent

disputes at the hand of its inventor.

Victory at any cost was the primary motivation for the explosion of engineering innovation during the 1940s.

ENIACA Secret War Initiative Becomes An Engineering Marvel

1

Conception and DevelopmentThe idea of a huge computing

machine was in the air long be-

fore the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

“In late 1939, Harvard professor

Howard Aiken was building the

Mark I, a giant calculator. At

Bletchley Park in England, cryp-

tographers would oversee the

construction of a special-purpose,

code-breaking machine called

Colossus” (Levy, no date).

Several years before Colossus in

the U.K., a German scientist

named, Konrad Zuse, built a

giant, programmable, computer

called the Z3 – it was destroyed

during WWII. In the late 1930s,

an Iowa State professor by the

name of John V. Atanasoff began

work on his own calculating ma-

chine. With the help of a gradu-

ate student named Clifford Berry,

they built “ABC” (Atanasoff-Berry

Computer). ABC was single pur-

pose, not totally electronic, and

slower than a rotary calculator. It

never completely worked as envi-

sioned (Martino, 2009).

The Army Ordnance Department

had the responsibility for the de-

sign, development, procurement,

storage and issue of all combat

material and munitions for the

Army. Upon the outbreak of the

war in Europe, one of the first

tasks of the Ordnance Depart-

ment was to seek improvement in

mechanical aids to computation

(Weik, 1961). It was known the

Moore School of Engineering at

the University of Pennsylvania

had a differential analyzer that

could calculate ballistic computa-

tions that was larger than any-

thing the Army had at its

disposal. “Therefore one of the

first steps taken was to award the

University of Pennsylvania with a

contract by the Ordnance Depart-

ment for the utilization of this de-

vice” (Weik, 1961).

Lieutenant Herman H. Goldstine,

a Reserve Officer of the Ord-

nance Department was assigned

to duty at the Moore School as a

supervisor of computational and

training activities. In the early

part of 1943, Goldstine and pro-

fessor J.G. Brainerd brought to

the Ordnance committee an out-

line of the technical concepts un-

derlying the development of a

fully electronic, digital computing

machine. The outline had been

prepared by professor Dr. John

W. Mauchly and a graduate stu-

dent named J. Presper Eckert. It

detailed the technical and mathe-

matical specifications of the

ENIAC (Weik, 1961).

Like others whose work required

tedious calculations, John

Mauchly wanted to invent a ma-

chine to do them for him. Ac-

cording to Isaacson (2014) in

late 1940, he confided in some

friends that he hoped to pull to-

gether enough information to

make a digital electronic com-

puter. “We are now considering

construction of an electrical com-

puting machine,” he wrote (p.

65). In December of that same

J. Presper Eckert Jr. Dr. John W. Mauchly

2

year, “Mauchly happened to

meet John Atanasoff, setting off a

series of events followed by years

of disputes over Mauchly’s

propensity to gather information

from different sources” (Isaacson,

2014, p. 65). In June 1941,

Mauchly visited Atanasoff’s home

in Iowa to inspect the ABC calcu-

lation machine he was develop-

ing. Atanasoff had developed a

partly operational machine that

could be constructed inexpen-

sively. Mauchly was impressed

but uninspired. “I thought his ma-

chine was very ingenious, but

since it was in part mechanical,

involving rotating commutators for

switching, it was not by any

means what I had in mind,”

Mauchly remembered (Isaacson,

2014, p. 67).

As Mauchly was preparing to

leave Iowa, he received news

that he had been accepted into

an electronics development

course at the University of Penn-

sylvania. During the summer of

1941, Mauchly got the chance to

work with the differential ana-

lyzer at the Moore School of Engi-

neering and wrote to Atanasoff,

“The question in my mind is this:

is there any objection, from your

point of view, to my building

some sort of computer which in-

corporates some of the features of

your machine?” (Isaacson, 2014,

p. 70). The ‘computer’ in which

Mauchly was referring, would

eventually become the ENIAC.

“The issue of what inspirations

Mauchly gleaned during his visit

with Atanasoff in Iowa” would

turn into a legal dispute that

would last for more than ten years

(p. 82).

J. Presper Eckert Jr. was the in-

structor of Mauchly’s electronics

course at the University of Penn-

sylvania. Eckert was a 24-year-

old engineering genius and

graduate assistant. He was de-

scribed as “undoubtedly the best

electronics engineer in the Moore

School” (Winegrad and Akera,

1996).

By the end of 1941, Mauchly

was teaching physics at Penn and

sharing his vision of a computing

machine with Eckert. Mauchly

convinced Eckert to join him in his

quest to develop a fully inte-

grated, all electronic computing

machine that could be applied to

any mathematical problem. On

June 5, 1943, the military com-

The ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer)

John Atanasoff Clifford Berry

3

mission on the new computer

began (Weik, 1961).

“The proposed work was to

last six months and cost

$61,700--a vast underestima-

tion, it would turn out, of both

time and money. ENIAC

wouldn't be tested internally

for two and a half years at a

final cost of $487,000. De-

spite the overruns, however, it

was an engineering marvel”

(Kanellos, 2006).

“The ENIAC contained 17,468

vacuum tubes, along with 70,000

resistors, 10,000 capacitors,

1,500 relays, 6,000 manual

switches and 5 million soldered

joints. It covered 1,800-square-

feet of floor space, weighed 30

tons and consumed 160 kilowatts

of electrical power” (Bellis, no

date). Numbers were “stored” in

electrons and not on paper tape

or punch cards as its predeces-

sors. According to Martino

(2009) the ENIAC worked at an

electronic speed of 5000 opera-

tions per second. It had no mov-

ing parts and most importantly,

the next operation could proceed

immediately without waiting for

paper tapes or human interven-

tion. Its first programs included a

study of the feasibility of the hy-

drogen bomb.

Programming and thePublic DemonstrationSix technicians were largely re-

sponsible for working the mathe-

matical equations and

programming functions of the ma-

chine. Jean Jennings, Marlyn

Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty

Snyder, Frances Bilas and Kay

McNulty were female mathemati-

cians recruited to run calculations

for the ENIAC. They were called

“computers” and their jobs ini-

tially entailed switching around,

by hand, the cables and switches

of the ENIAC. Because these jobs

were considered an extension of

clerical work, they were filled by

women, as was the practice of

the day. According to Isaacson

(2014), “at first the programming

seemed to be routine, perhaps

even menial. But what the women

of ENIAC soon showed, and the

men later came to understand,

The Women of ENIAC

4

was that the programming of a

computer could be as significant

as the design of its hardware.”

The war ended in August of

1945. The ENIAC wasn’t com-

pleted until November of that

same year. Because the ENIAC

was being used for atom bomb

calculations and other classified

tasks, it was kept secret until Feb-

ruary 15, 1946 when the Army

and Penn scheduled a gala un-

veiling for the public and press

(Isaacson, 2014). The unveiling

of the ENIAC made the front

page of the New York Times

under the headline ‘Electronic

Computer Flashes Answers, May

Speed Engineering’ (Isaacson,

2014). Using instructions written

by the female programmers, the

ENIAC demonstration impressed

onlookers by computing a set of

missile trajectory calculations

within 15 seconds – a task that

would have taken human ‘com-

puters’ several weeks to accom-

plish (Isaacson, 2014). The men

celebrated their success and were

lauded by the press. Neither the

Army, nor the University of Penn-

sylvania recognized the female

programmers. It would be

decades before their pioneering

contributions to the discipline of

computer programming and soft-

ware would be brought to public

awareness.

The Influence of theENIAC and the Patent DisputeAlthough the war was over, the

ENIAC was still put to work by

the military doing calculations for

weather predications, cosmic-ray

studies, thermal ignition, random-

number studies, wind tunnel de-

sign and continued work on the

design of the hydrogen bomb.

Acclaimed scientist and engineer

Dr. John Von Neumann, who was

instrumental in the Manhattan

Project, made several modifica-

tions to the ENIAC in 1948. He

added a converter code to en-

able serial operations. This hard-

ware alteration would improve

the programming difficulties

ENIAC would encounter when it

would run programs concurrently

(Bellis, no date).

“The ENIAC led the computer

field during the period 1949

through 1952 when it served

as the main computation work-

horse for the solution of the

scientific problems of the na-

tion. It surpassed all other ex-

J. Presper Eckert Jr. (front, left) and Dr. John Mauchly (middle) working in the ENIAC room with unidentified programmers.

5

isting computers put together

whenever it came to problems

involving a large number of

arithmetic operations. It was

the major instrument for the

computation of all ballistic ta-

bles for the U.S. Army and Air

Force” (Weik, 1961).

The ENIAC embodied almost all

the components and concepts of

today’s high-speed, electronic digi-

tal computers. Its designers con-

ceived what has now become

standard circuitry. Historians ac-

knowledge that other computers

came earlier – the Z3, Colossus

and controversially, the Atanasoff-

Berry (ABC) Computer. But ENIAC

arguably accomplished something

more important. “It sparked the

imagination of scientists and indus-

trialists” (Kanellos, 2006).

Regrettably, the dispute over the

ENIAC patent soured the memo-

ries of many people associated

with the ENIAC project and other

efforts. Patents were a fickle topic

during those days with many in-

ventors scrambling to legitimize

their ideas. Eckert and Mauchly

applied for a patent in 1947 for

their work on ENIAC. The patent

system is a slow process and it

wasn’t granted until 1964. By that

time, the patent rights had been

sold to Sperry Rand Corporation.

Due to pressure by large compa-

nies to enforce licensing fees, a

legal investigation began into the

concept development of the

ENIAC. The mission was to upend

the Eckert-Mauchly patent by

showing that their ideas were not

original (Isaacson, 2014, p. 82).

The issue went to trial in 1971.

Mauchly proved ineffective as a

witness for the ENIAC defense,

pleading poor memory. By con-

trast, Atanasoff was very convinc-

ing – with confidence and

documentation he described how

he had conceived and built the

ABC (Isaacson, 2014, p. 82). The

trial lasted nine months. The

Atanasoff-Berry Computer was

judged to be “prior art” by the

court in 1973, thereby rendering

invalid the ENIAC patent as filed

by Eckert and Mauchly” (Wine-

grad and Akera, 1996). Accord-

ing to Isaacson (2014) “the case

did not determine, even legally,

who should get what proportion of

the credit for the invention of the

modern computer” (p. 82). It sim-

ply gave Atanasoff credit on the

basis of technicalities.

“Atanasoff may have won a

point in court, but he went

back to teaching and we went

on to build the first real elec-

tronic programmable comput-

ers,” Eckert later pointed out

(Isaacson, 2014, p. 85).

When the historic contributions of

the ENIAC are considered, it may

be less important that it is classi-

fied as the world’s “first” all elec-

tronic, general-purpose and fully

programmable computer. What

may be more important is what the

patent dispute revealed – a culture

of collaboration in innovation, fos-

tered by John Mauchly. From the

Female programmers of the ENIAC

6

beginning, his plan was to pull to-

gether the ingenious ideas of his

colleagues to develop a new inno-

vation of his own. The influence of

the Mauchly’s approach and ulti-

mately the ENIAC, can be found

at the heart of almost every major

innovation of the digital revolution.

Life altering inventions like the per-

sonal computer, the microchip, the

transistor and the Internet began

as creative work, ultimately draw-

ing from many sources to become

the indispensable tools we use

today. Isaacson (2014) qualifies

this ideology by saying, “Only in

storybooks do inventions come like

a thunderbolt, or a light bulb pop-

ping out of the head of a lone in-

dividual in a basement or garret

or garage” (p. 85).

ENIAC's design pointed boldly to

the future, incorporating concepts

and innovations that went well be-

yond those developed by earlier

researchers and inventors. The ma-

chine was eventually transferred to

Aberdeen Proving Ground in

Maryland on July 29, 1947. It

was in continuous operation at Ab-

erdeen until 11:45 p.m. on Octo-

ber 2, 1955 when a lightening

strike shut the machine down for-

ever. For a decade, ENIAC may

have run more calculations than

all mankind had done up to that

point.

ENIAC was dismantled piece-by-

piece and at the encouragement

of John Von Neumann, parts of

the machine are preserved at the

Smithsonian Institution in Washing-

ton, D.C. (Weik, 1961). Today,

only about 10 panels of the total

40 from the ENIAC still exist.

Eckert and Mauchly eventually left

the University of Pennsylvania to

start EMCC (Eckert-Mauchly Com-

puter Company). The objective of

the company was to design, build

and market commercial comput-

ers. Their first true commercial

computer was called the UNIVAC

(for UNIversal Automatic Com-

puter). Ultimately, 46 UNIVAC

machines were built and delivered

to the ARMY, Navy and Air Force.

The fundamental design of the

UNIVAC was largely attributed to

the revolutionary technological

contributions of the ENIAC – of

which, there was only one.

Dr. John Mauchly with programmer, Jean Jennings

7

ENIACA Secret War Initiative Becomes An Engineering Marvel

8

Bibliography

Bellis, M. (no date) Ever Read the History of the ENIAC Computer?. Available at: http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/Eniac.htm (Accessed: 1 May 2015)

Isaacson, W. (2014) The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital

Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster Issacson, W. (2014) ‘The Women of ENIAC’, FORTUNE.COM (October), pp. 160–165 Kanellos, M. (2006) ENIAC: First computer makes history. Available at: http://www.zdnet.com/article/eniac-

first-computer-makes-history/ (Accessed: 1 May 2015) Levy, S. (no date) The Brief History of the ENIAC Computer. Available at:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-brief-history-of-the-eniac-computer-3889120/?no-ist (Accessed: 1 May 2015)

Martino, R. L. (2009) Innovation and Economic Growth: Lessons from the Story of ENIAC. Available at:

http://www.fpri.org/articles/2009/04/innovation-and-economic-growth-lessons-story-eniac (Accessed: 1 May 2015)

Weik, M. H. (1961) The ENIAC Story. Available at: http://ftp.arl.mil/mike/comphist/eniac-story.html

(Accessed: 30 April 2015) Ordnance Ballistic Research Laboratories Winegrad, D. and Akera, A. (1996) ENIAC’s 50th Anniversary: The Birth of the Information Age -- A Short

History of the Second American Revolution. Available at: http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v42/n18/eniac.html (Accessed: 1 May 2015)

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Photography Compliments:

http://www.computerhistory.org -- (pp. 4, 5, 6, 7)

http://www.history-computer.com -- (p. 2)

http://www.maximumpc.com -- (p. 4, The Women of ENIAC)

http://pilgrimgram.com -- (cover photo)

http://teaching.msa.maryland.gov -- (p. 1, WWII image)

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