Inventor Name
Atanasoff, John V.
Repository
Iowa State University Library
Ames, IA. 50011-4120
http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/collections/index.html
Physical Description
20.16 linear ft. (42 document boxes)
Summary
This collection contains biographical records, correspondence from colleagues, friends, and students, business records relating to the Aerojet Corporation, invention records which detail Atanasoff's fascination with computing, and other more practical needs, research and publications, legal records, language study records, and printed materials. Preferred Citation: John Vincent Atanasoff Papers, RS 13/20/51, University Archives, Iowa State University Library. John Vincent Atanasoff was born in 1903 in New York State. He graduated with a B.S. (1921) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida, an M.S. (1926) in mathematics from Iowa State College, and a Ph.D (1930) in theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin. He was an Assistant (1930-1936) and Associate (1936-1942) Professor of Mathematics at Iowa State. While in Ames, with graduate student, Clifford Berry, Atanasoff developed the ABC Computer. The patent was never completed, and Atanasoff left Ames during World War II to work in Washington, D.C. Atanasoff worked for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory through 1951, and then started his own company, which was later purchased by Aerojet Corporation. Although the ABC was never patented, it was part of a major court case in the 1960s and 1970s, between Honeywell, Inc. and Sperry Rand. The judge determined that the ENIAC computer was based in ideas established by Atanasoff in the ABC. Atanasoff received numerous awards including the National Medal of Technology (1990). He died in 1995.
Finding Aid
http://www.lib.iastate.edu/arch/rgrp/13-20-51.html