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Title: Jane Smiley: Author of The Man Who Invented the Computer
Added: Apr 2, 2011
Author: ComputerHistory
Duration: 81:54
Description:
[Recorded: January 27, 2011]One night in the late 1930s, in a bar on the Iowa-Illinois border, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State University, after a frustrating day in his lab performing tedious mathematical calculations, hit on a revolutionary idea. He realized that the binary number system and electronic switches, combined with an array of capacitors on a moving drum to serve as memory, could yield a computing machine that would make his life and the lives of other similarly burdened scientists easier. Then he went back and built the machine. It worked. The whole world changed. Why don't we know the name of John Atanasoff as well as we know those of other computer pioneers like Alan Turing and John von Neumann? Atanasoff never secured a patent for his early device, and a number of the concepts he pioneered were incorporated into the breakthrough ENIAC computer that evolved into the legendary UNIVAC. But in 1973 a court declared that the patent on the Sperry Rand UNIVAC was invalid, opening the intellectual property gates to the computer revolution. In this lecture, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jane Smiley discusses the fascinating man who beat the world's greatest minds in the quest to develop the first true digital computing machine.
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Channel: Tech
Tags: computer history museum john atanasoff jane smiley iowa state university bulgaria abc eniac book invention breakthrough revolutionary univac turing
computer history museum john atanasoff jane smiley iowa state university bulgaria abc eniac book invention breakthrough revolutionary univac turing
Youtube Comments: 17
mafbbb Says:
Apr 3, 2011 - This is the history of my love, computing!
gerjaison Says:
Apr 3, 2011 - It seem when everyone had a drink, they all come up with a brilliant ideas!
kenny9525 Says:
May 6, 2011 - ENGLISH MAN INVENTED THE COMPUTER , AND ENGLISH MAN INVENTED HTML AND HE IS THE BOSS TO DAY OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB YOU CANT BEET THE BRITISH
vankataable Says:
Oct 15, 2011 - Sorry, but Atanasov is Bulgarian, not English and he invented the first computer so dont waste your caps-lock for nothing.
PinkGlitterStar3 Says:
Oct 27, 2011 - John is Bulgarian, dumbass. -.-
kenny9525 Says:
Nov 1, 2011 - you wont to go back to school ,dum arse hooooooooooole
PinkGlitterStar3 Says:
Nov 2, 2011 - Are you fucking retarded or what?! John created the first computer!
kenny9525 Says:
Nov 2, 2011 - your a nob
kenny9525 Says:
Nov 2, 2011 - charles babbagewas an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer.Considered a "father of the computer",[3] Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.[4] Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991,
kenny9525 Says:
Nov 4, 2011 - Colossus was the world's first . programmable electric computer, Colossus and its successors were used by British codebreakers, during worl war 2 Colossus was designed by engineer tommy flowers. The prototype, Colossus Mark 1, was shown to be working in December 1943 and was operational by February 1944. tommy flowers was not allowed, to promote the computer after the war it was kept a secret till the 1970s
RattlingHeads Says:
Nov 12, 2011 - Atanasoff is widely known, hailed and the subject of national pride in Bulgaria for having invented the computer. However, no one has really heard of other computer scientists who also drastically helped shape the modern computer, nor of Clifford Berry or that Atanasoff being a Bulgarian is disputable, as he was born in the USA and had never visited Bulgaria, as far as I know.
xanderbg1 Says:
Jan 20, 2012 - Atanasoff visited Bulgaria in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
xanderbg1 Says:
Jan 20, 2012 - Atanasoff is half Bulgarian, but nobody can deny that if it wasn't for the US environment, he would have invented it. Regards from Bulgaria
Desmaad Says:
Apr 3, 2011 - Atanasoff looked bored and uninterested.