Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Eniac: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Eniac: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer [Hardcover]

Mccartney Scott (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --   -- --
Paperback --   -- --

Product Details

Product Description

From Amazon

Today's computers are fantastically complex machines, shaped by innovations dreamt up by hundreds of engineers and theorists over the last several decades. Does it even make sense, then, to ask who invented the computer? McCartney thinks so, and in ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer, he's written a compelling answer to the question, crediting two relatively unsung Pennsylvanians with what is arguably the most significant invention of the century.

McCartney's heroes are Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and as he makes clear, there are those who might question the choice. Nobody doubts the pair designed and built ENIAC, the world's first fully electronic computer and a watershed in the history of computing. But for years the importance of their contribution, made during World War II and sponsored by the U.S. Army, has been downplayed. The brilliant John von Neumann's subsequent theoretical papers on computer design have made him the traditional "father of modern computing." And Eckert and Mauchly later even lost the patent on their machine when it was claimed that another early experimenter, John Atanasoff, had given them all the ideas about ENIAC that mattered.

But McCartney's meticulously researched narrative of Eckert and Mauchly's careers--covering the thrilling three years of ENIAC's construction and the frustrating decades of little recognition that followed--sets the record straight. He carefully weighs Atanasoff's claims and gives von Neumann the credit he earned for advancing computer science, but in the end he leaves no room for doubt: if anyone deserves to be remembered for inventing the computer, it's the two men whose tale he has told here so engagingly. --Julian Dibbell

From Publishers Weekly

This account of how an engineer barely out of college and a physicist with dreams of predicting the weather, conceived and built the world's first computer. But it tells a great story, and Wall Street Journal staff writer McCartney (Defying the Gods: Inside the New Frontiers of Organ Transplants) makes a strong case that J. Presper Eckert, the engineer, and John Mauchly, the physicist, deserve better treatment from posterity than they have received. His narrative of the conception and construction in the mid-1940s of the giant ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) centers on the lives and work of these two unlikely collaborators, who met by chance in an engineering course. Funding for the project was tied directly to the war effort and an army desperate for fast number crunching. Among McCartney's controversial claims is that the "von Neumann architecture" for stored-program machines, the basis for all computers, did not originate with German ?migr? John von Neumann but rather with the ENIAC duo. The feuds and legal battles that dominate the second half of the book as various corporations battle for trade secrets and patents will be of interest mainly to buffs, though the unsuccessful struggles of Eckert and Mauchly to make a profit in the postwar shadow of IBM are poignant. McCartney offers excellent documentation, interesting asides (the world's first computer programmers were all women) and real drama as the team races to complete the apartment-sized, vacuum tube-powered ENIAC before the war's end. Doubleday Select Bookclubs special selection; author tour; audio rights to Blackstone. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Product Description

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

43 Reviews
5 star:
 (22)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (7)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The true history of a computer, April 22 2011
By 
Dr. Bojan Tunguz (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Eniac: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer (Hardcover)
It is hard to imagine today, when there is literally a computer in each pocket in a form of a smartphone, that digital computers are a relatively recent development in the course of human history. They have more than anything else in the past fifty years changed the way we live and communicate with each other, the way we entertain ourselves, and have touched almost every aspect of our lives in ways that we have increasingly come to take for granted. And yet it is ironic that almost no one would be able to tell you who invented the computer. This is in a marked contrast with many other technological inventions that have changed the modern civilization. Almost any kid could tell you who invented the steam engine, the cotton gin, the automobile, the telephone, the airplane, the light bulb or the radio. For better or for worse, all of those inventions have particular name or two associated with them. Unfortunately, because of the series of historical misfortunes, the true inventors of the first functioning digital computer ENIAC are hardly household names. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly were the minds behind this WWII seminal effort, and even had the patent to the computer to their credit for a while, but due to a series of historic misfortunes and legal wrangling lost that piece of prestige.

This book goes a long way towards righting that wrong. It is well researched and replete with details of the effort that led to the construction of ENIAC, with many interesting and amusing anecdotes. It paints a very humane and sympathetic picture of Eckert and Mauchly, all with their characteristic human foibles and weaknesses. And yet, Scott McCartney is not entirely opposed to the fact that no single individual ultimately benefited from the invention of the computer. To him at least this was the reason why the huge advances in computer industry were possible in such a short span of time.

Ultimately, this is a very readable and enjoyable book, with a lot of important historical insight.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars How general purpose digital computing came to be!, Jun 2 2003
By 
Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Eniac (Paperback)
An old saying begins by saying that success has many fathers. There are many now who claim to have built digital general purpose computers before ENIAC and I am not qualified to adjudicate their claims. However from all the claims made from all kinds of sources, it appears that no one else is either. Because of the unimaginable effect digital computing has had on the world culture and economy there is just too much emotion, pride, and politics to let anyone's claim to priority stand unchallenged. Even the courts have tortured the facts to invalidate the ENIAC patent in order to avoid an IBM - Sperry monopoly. Those pesky ends justifying questionable means yet one more time.

Some of the "computers" claiming priority to ENIAC were actually electro-mechanical calculators, specific purpose (rather than general purpose) devices, or analog rather than digital computing devices. This makes them not what ENIAC was. The British Colossus was indeed a digital computer. But it was used in top-secret code breaking and wasn't publicly known until 1970 and therefore didn't impact the course of development of computing. What does first mean in this case?

I wish this book would be read by everyone - especially students. It tells several important stories. First, there is the almost forgotten story of ENIAC and the two men who designed and built her. They were John Mauchly and Pres Eckert. What they did in developing a general purpose digital computer in ENIAC and then EDVAC and finally with UNIVAC, changed the course of computing forever. The story of Mauchly and Eckert should be remembered no matter what the many others claiming to be the fathers of success might claim.

The book also tells the tale how technology developed with paper tape, punch cards, magnetic tape, digital memory, calculating with gears versus vacuum tubes, and all that other early technical history that so many of us find fascinating. I mean, contemplating how 1,800 square feet of computing power with 17,000 tubes improved calculating speeds by over 300 times is just cool to contemplate. Now, the ENIAC's power is just a spec on a present day CPU made of silicon.

Then there is the cautionary tale of how these men really had success slip away from them for a variety of reasons. There is much to learn here. Some of it was personal jealousy by people you will meet reading the book. Some of it was sheer politics including institutions like Penn and RCA that could have been at the forefront of computer science but didn't see the vision early enough. Some of it was a lack of business savvy on the part of Mauchly and Eckert. And sometimes the ball just bounces in funny ways that work against you. Life is funny that way.

But history should work through all the facts and the story should draw good and proper lines from what was to what is. Just as others traveled to the Western Hemisphere before Columbus, but his voyages opened the age of exploration and just as others had cars before Ford, but it was he who put the world on wheels, it was Mauchly and Eckert who opened the age of digital computers through ENIAC and this is a great telling of the story.

It is a very fast read and very worthwhile.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A simple, yet elegant approach to tell the Eniac's story., Aug 12 2001
By 
Marc Kerins (Wyomissing, PA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Eniac (Paperback)
A very easy read, that almost forces you to read the whole thing in one or two sittings. I've always been fascinated with early computing and this book satisfied my curiousity about the ENIAC. I've heard multiple accounts of who invented what, but after finishing this book I feel I know the whole story.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
› Go to Amazon.com to see all 53 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars 
 
 		 Most recent customer reviews











Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject



















i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?