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The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer by Jane Smiley
lisa_mc's review against another edition
3.0
Think of “the first computer” and you probably think of the Eniac, that room-filling contraption, all lights and wires, that had less overall computing power than now comes in a $10 digital watch.
The Eniac is generally considered the first computer, but author Jane Smiley again turns her hand to nonfiction to tell a different story about the invention of the computer.
John Atanasoff, the son of immigrants, had the mind of a mathematician and the sense of an inventor from childhood. A precocious student, he went into physics and earned a doctorate at 26. But the complicated calculations necessary for much of his work took up an inordinate amount of time and effort, so he began to think about, and work on, a machine that would perform these functions accurately and quickly.
At the same time, Alan Turing in England — best known for his work as an Enigma codebreaker — and Konrad Zuse in Germany were working on calculating machines of their own. And others in the U.S. had projects of varying degrees of similarity in the works.
Atanasoff’s machine was uniquely innovative, and though he shared information about it with others, he didn’t realize his ideas were being stolen. He pressed Iowa State College, where he was employed, to patent his machine, but the college never filed the paperwork. The inventors of the Eniac went on to patent their creation.
However, a lawsuit that culminated in a federal court decision in 1973 invalidated the Eniac patent, saying that the machine “derived that subject matter from one Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff.” After the decision, the world of computing opened up, and then exploded into what we know today.
This story is involved and complicated — a “peculiar and tortured path,” as Smiley puts it — with lots of people, and the author does a good job of helping us keep all the facts and the characters straight. Plus, the book is filled with fascinating facts, and the technical details are explained in such a way that they are clear to non-techies but don’t feel “dumbed down.”
The writing feels a little flat sometimes, perhaps because Smiley is pulling in information from numerous sources and having to simplify complex concepts and systems (there are more detailed explanations in the appendices). But overall, the book is an interesting look at the origins of what has become an indispensable part of our society.
http://www.kansas.com/2011/01/02/1655742/who-really-invented-the-computer.html#ixzz1Ah8Ws6bZ
The Eniac is generally considered the first computer, but author Jane Smiley again turns her hand to nonfiction to tell a different story about the invention of the computer.
John Atanasoff, the son of immigrants, had the mind of a mathematician and the sense of an inventor from childhood. A precocious student, he went into physics and earned a doctorate at 26. But the complicated calculations necessary for much of his work took up an inordinate amount of time and effort, so he began to think about, and work on, a machine that would perform these functions accurately and quickly.
At the same time, Alan Turing in England — best known for his work as an Enigma codebreaker — and Konrad Zuse in Germany were working on calculating machines of their own. And others in the U.S. had projects of varying degrees of similarity in the works.
Atanasoff’s machine was uniquely innovative, and though he shared information about it with others, he didn’t realize his ideas were being stolen. He pressed Iowa State College, where he was employed, to patent his machine, but the college never filed the paperwork. The inventors of the Eniac went on to patent their creation.
However, a lawsuit that culminated in a federal court decision in 1973 invalidated the Eniac patent, saying that the machine “derived that subject matter from one Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff.” After the decision, the world of computing opened up, and then exploded into what we know today.
This story is involved and complicated — a “peculiar and tortured path,” as Smiley puts it — with lots of people, and the author does a good job of helping us keep all the facts and the characters straight. Plus, the book is filled with fascinating facts, and the technical details are explained in such a way that they are clear to non-techies but don’t feel “dumbed down.”
The writing feels a little flat sometimes, perhaps because Smiley is pulling in information from numerous sources and having to simplify complex concepts and systems (there are more detailed explanations in the appendices). But overall, the book is an interesting look at the origins of what has become an indispensable part of our society.
http://www.kansas.com/2011/01/02/1655742/who-really-invented-the-computer.html#ixzz1Ah8Ws6bZ
lizmart88's review against another edition
2.0
Thus was an interesting biography of a largely unknown man who greatly contributed to the technology that changed the world. I enjoyed the description of his life and understanding what made him tick. Jane smiley does an amazing job of explaining incredibly complex processes in a way that any layman can understand. However, the latter half of the book detailing the legal procedures and patent wars drags on unnecessarily. But, if you want a good description of how early computers worked, overviews of all the major characters (Turing, Von Neumann, Mauchly), and an understanding of how computers started, this is certainly a decent book.
heroman's review against another edition
4.0
It's been a bit. So I'll take a bit to get back into the gear of reviewing books. For now, I'll try some bullet points for a review style.
-Good focus on our title person, John Atanasoff. I got a good amount of prose in learning how he dealt with his situation.
-Some focus on Alan Turing. I got perturbed by learning about the fallout from his Homosexuality being revealed.
-Some disjointed focus on other people, particularly Mauchly and Suze. I don't know how I would write the autobiography. But I think I would like to learn more about Mauchly and Suze.
-The viewpoints felt disjointed in some places. Particularly since I was in the middle of reading one section. And then I was introduced to Suze, a guy who tried to work on his take on a computer.
Thank you to Jane Smiley for being around. I'm going to see what else I can learn about different people who tried to interpret the idea of a calculating machine.
-Good focus on our title person, John Atanasoff. I got a good amount of prose in learning how he dealt with his situation.
-Some focus on Alan Turing. I got perturbed by learning about the fallout from his Homosexuality being revealed.
-Some disjointed focus on other people, particularly Mauchly and Suze. I don't know how I would write the autobiography. But I think I would like to learn more about Mauchly and Suze.
-The viewpoints felt disjointed in some places. Particularly since I was in the middle of reading one section. And then I was introduced to Suze, a guy who tried to work on his take on a computer.
Thank you to Jane Smiley for being around. I'm going to see what else I can learn about different people who tried to interpret the idea of a calculating machine.
mssarahmorgan's review
4.0
Not just the story of the man who invented the computer but also of other people who invented computers secretly from spare parts in Nazi Germany or to break codes in wartime England and could never speak about their work...or stole the idea for the computer and succeeded in taking all the credit...now I just need to find a book that explains how we got from room-filling calculating machines to this iPad.
lieslindi's review
3.0
So far (p. 28) Smiley has asserted a couple of head-scratchers: "The measurement required by an analog calculator would be replaced by counting. Since this is similar to the way a child counts on his fingers, this came to be known as digital calculation."
This is more the early cross-pollination that led to computers rather than the biography of a single man; the title is misleading but the book is interesting so that's okay.
This is more the early cross-pollination that led to computers rather than the biography of a single man; the title is misleading but the book is interesting so that's okay.
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