The Man Who Invented the Computer

Nonfiction, Computers, General Computing, Reference, Biography & Memoir, History, Modern, 20th Century
Cover of the book The Man Who Invented the Computer by Jane Smiley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jane Smiley ISBN: 9780385533720
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication: October 19, 2010
Imprint: Doubleday Language: English
Author: Jane Smiley
ISBN: 9780385533720
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication: October 19, 2010
Imprint: Doubleday
Language: English

From one of our most acclaimed novelists, a  David-and-Goliath biography for the digital age.

One night in the late 1930s, in a bar on the Illinois–Iowa border, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State University, after a frustrating day performing tedious mathematical calculations in his lab, hit on the idea 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 Alan Turing and John von Neumann? Because he never patented the device, and because the developers of the far-better-known ENIAC almost certainly stole critical ideas from him. But in 1973 a court declared that the patent on that Sperry Rand device was invalid, opening the intellectual property gates to the computer revolution.

Jane Smiley tells the quintessentially American story of the child of immigrants John Atanasoff with technical clarity and narrative drive, making the race to develop digital computing as gripping as a real-life techno-thriller.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

From one of our most acclaimed novelists, a  David-and-Goliath biography for the digital age.

One night in the late 1930s, in a bar on the Illinois–Iowa border, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State University, after a frustrating day performing tedious mathematical calculations in his lab, hit on the idea 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 Alan Turing and John von Neumann? Because he never patented the device, and because the developers of the far-better-known ENIAC almost certainly stole critical ideas from him. But in 1973 a court declared that the patent on that Sperry Rand device was invalid, opening the intellectual property gates to the computer revolution.

Jane Smiley tells the quintessentially American story of the child of immigrants John Atanasoff with technical clarity and narrative drive, making the race to develop digital computing as gripping as a real-life techno-thriller.

More books from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Cover of the book Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book Me Times Three by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book Boo by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book The City and the Pillar by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book Wayne and Ford by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book A Bridge Between Us by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book Black Trials by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book A Heart So White by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book The God of Hell by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book Defending Billy Ryan by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book A Good Forest for Dying by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book Keeping an Eye Open by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book The People's Tycoon by Jane Smiley
Cover of the book The Stolen Child by Jane Smiley
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy