Atanasoff-Berry Computer
Mathematician and physicist John Atanasoff, looking for ways to solve equations automatically, took a drive to clear his thoughts in 1937. At a Mississippi River roadhouse he jotted on a napkin the basic features of an electronic computing machine.
Atanasoff’s linear equation-solver, built with graduate student Clifford Berry, could solve a variety of problems but was not programmable.
ENIAC: The First Electronic Computer. Until it Wasn’t.
Being the first electronic computer involved more than bragging rights. It involved money.
ENIAC’s inventors filed for patents in 1947. They were finally issued in 1964, and patent-holder Sperry Rand sought royalties from competitors.
Honeywell and CDC objected, citing prior work by John Atanasoff, who conceived an electronic computer in 1937 and built it in 1939-1942. Significantly, ENIAC inventor John Mauchly had visited Atanasoff in 1941.
In 1967 the dispute landed in court. The ruling, recognizing Atanasoff’s earlier work, revoked Sperry’s patents. So, one of history’s key inventions is owned by…nobody.