Editing Atanasoff–Berry computer (section)

==Patent dispute==
On June 26, 1947, [[J. Presper Eckert]] and [[John Mauchly]] were the first to file for patent on a digital computing device ([[ENIAC]]), much to the surprise of Atanasoff. The ABC had been examined by John Mauchly in June 1941, and Isaac Auerbach,<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://purl.umn.edu/104351 |title=Oral history interview with Isaac Levin Auerbach |first=Isaac L. (Isaac Levin) |last=Auerbach |date=1 October 1992 |website=umn.edu |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref> a former student of Mauchly's, alleged that it influenced his later work on ENIAC, although Mauchly denied this.<ref>{{Citation | last = Shurkin | first = Joel N. | title = Engines of the Mind | publisher = Pocket Books | year = 1985 | edition = Reprint edition (1 Aug. 1985) | pages = [https://archive.org/details/enginesofmindhis00shur/page/280 280–299] | isbn = 978-0671600365 | url = https://archive.org/details/enginesofmindhis00shur/page/280 }}</ref> The ENIAC patent did not issue until 1964, and by 1967 [[Honeywell]] sued [[Sperry Rand]] in an attempt to break the ENIAC patents, arguing that the ABC constituted [[prior art]]. The [[United States District Court for the District of Minnesota]] released its judgement on October 19, 1973, finding in ''[[Honeywell v. Sperry Rand]]'' that the ENIAC patent was a derivative of John Atanasoff's invention.

Campbell-Kelly and Aspray conclude:{{sfn|Campbell-Kelly|Aspray|1996|p=86}}
{{Blockquote|The extent to which Mauchly drew on Atanasoff's ideas remains unknown, and the evidence is massive and conflicting. The ABC was quite modest technology, and it was not fully implemented. At the very least we can infer that Mauchly saw the potential significance of the ABC and that this may have led him to propose a similar, electronic solution.}}

The case was legally resolved on October 19, 1973, when U.S. District Judge Earl R.&nbsp;Larson held the ENIAC patent invalid, ruling that the ENIAC derived many basic ideas from the Atanasoff–Berry computer. Judge Larson explicitly stated:
{{Blockquote|Eckert and Mauchly did not themselves first invent the automatic electronic digital computer, but instead derived that subject matter from one Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff.}}

[[Herman Goldstine]], one of the original developers of ENIAC wrote:<ref>Herman Goldstine, "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", 1972; pp.&nbsp;125–126.</ref>
{{Blockquote|Atanasoff contemplated storing the coefficients of an equation in capacitors located on the periphery of a cylinder. He apparently had a prototype of his machine working "early in 1940". This machine was, it should be emphasized, probably the first use of vacuum tubes to do digital computation and was a special-purpose machine.

This machine never saw the light of day as a serious tool for computation since it was somewhat premature in its engineering conception and limited in its logical one. Nonetheless it must be viewed as a great pioneering effort. Perhaps its chief importance was to influence the thinking of another physicist who was much interested in the computational process, John W. Mauchly. During the period of Atanasoff's work on his linear equation solver, Mauchly was at Ursinus College, a small school in the environs of Philadelphia. Somehow he became aware of Atanasoff's project and visited him for a week in 1941. During the visit the two men apparently went into Atanasoff's ideas in considerable detail. The discussion greatly influenced Mauchly and through him the entire history of electronic computers.}}