by Jane Smiley
11 “I was in such a mental state”: Mollenhoff, p. 157.
12 “When I finally came to earth”: Burton, pp. 34–35.
13 “For fifteen days I strove”: Andreasen, p. 43.
14 “The changes of travel”: Ibid., p. 44.
15 “most of the time that we speak”: Ibid., p. 78.
16 “I would hypothesize”: Ibid.
17 “I chose small condensers”: Mollenhoff, p. 35.
Chapter Four
1 “I … was of the opinion”: Zuse, p. 38.
2 “It is not true”: Ibid., p. 55.
3 “We did not dare”: Burton, p. 100.
4 “It could just add and subtract”: Ibid., p. 102.
5 “The idea would be”: Hodges, p. 141.
6 “should interfere as little as possible”: Leavitt, p. 136.
7 “I was in Berlin”: Flowers, “D-Day at Bletchley Park,” pp. 81–82.
8 “Thomas Harold Flowers”: “Tommy Flowers—Technical Innovator,” http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1010070.
Chapter Five
1 “was the right person”: Hodges, p. 181.
2 “the geese who laid”: Roberts, p. 348.
3 “by the end of 1939”: Ibid., p. 37.
4 “What do you mean”: Zuse, p. 58.
5 “performed flawlessly”: Ibid., p. 61.
6 “It was a jaw-dropping accomplishment”: Gustafson, personal communication, April 5, 2010.
7 “Available were unskilled”: Zuse, p. 65.
8 “What should I be doing now?”: McCartney, p. 30.
9 “used vacuum tube circuits”: Ibid., p. 36.
10 “would send problems over”: Gustafson, interview, February 22, 2010.
11 “masked the unnerving sound”: McCartney, p. 41.
12 “If you’re going to come”: Ibid., p. 42.
13 “Is there any objection”: Burton, pp. 126–27.
14 “Our attorney has emphasized”: Ibid., p. 128.
15 “Notorious for his idiosyncrasies”: Wansell, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212910/How-Britain-drove-greatest-
genius-Alan-Turing-suicide-just-gay.html.
16 “Before the war”: Hodges, pp. 214–15.
17 “the operation of fifteen U-boats”: Ibid., p. 222.
Chapter Six
1 “his unusual imagination”: Burton, p. 134.
2 “an electronic device”: Ibid., p. 138.
3 “None of us had much confidence”: McCartney, p. 51.
4 “size, destinations, and departure times”: Roberts, p. 367.
5 “The Admiral at Halifax”: Hodges, p. 261.
6 “they found their outlook”: Ibid., p. 251.
7 “A machine could be designed”: McCartney, p. 48.
8 “Eckert acquired some mice”: Ibid., p. 76.
9 “He looked Atanasoff in the eye”: Burton, p. 144.
10 “We had a tube fail”: Randall, http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/108568/Q_A_A
_lost_interview_with_ENIAC_co_inventor_J._Presper_Eckert.
11 “Even as I was putting it together”: Zuse, p. 71.
12 “So, of course, when after weeks or months”: Ibid., p. 76.
13 “hardly anyone could imagine”: Ibid., p. 77.
14 “If Aiken and my father had had revolvers”: Welch, http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/TheCompMusRep/TCMR-V12.html.
15 “Despite the fact”: Copeland et al., p. 2.
16 “Colossus was a special-purpose machine”: Flowers, “Colossus,” p. 96.
17 “When I came to put them together”: Roberts, p. 469.
18 “Hitler had sent Field Marshall Rommel”: Flowers, “D-Day at Bletchley Park,” p. 80.
19 “The result was a defeat”: Ibid.
20 “even up to 26 June”: Roberts, p. 470.
21 “If I had … spent the war interned”: Flowers, “D-Day at Bletchley Park,” p. 82.
22 “It is regretted that it is not possible”: Good and Timms, http://www.ellsbury.com/tunny/tunny-000.htm.
23 “You’d be working on a problem”: I. J. Maskell, http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?TommyFlowers.
24 “Flowers received very little remuneration”: Ibid.
Chapter Seven
1 “More steerage-class Jewish families”: Macrae, p. 42.
2 “he was one grade below me”: Marton, p. 41.
3 “Before he finished high school”: Macrae, p. 71.
4 “He joined in class pranks”: Ibid., p. 41.
5 “From all over the globe”: Marton, p. 64.
6 “by his first question”: Macrae, p. 281.
7 “an internal summary of their work”: McCartney, p. 118.
8 “Johnny grabbed other people’s ideas”: Macrae, p. ix.
9 “The primary memory would be fairly small”: Ibid., p. 309.
10 “Dr. Schreyer was able”: Zuse, p. 79.
11 “Today when I look back”: Ibid., pp. 87–88.
12 “Hitler is said to have replied”: Ibid., p. 81.
13 “The stairway was too narrow”: Ibid., p. 92.
14 “For fourteen days we fled along the front”: Ibid., p. 93.
15 “go over to the Americans”: Ibid., p. 94.
16 “And when the Allied troops”: Ruland, Von Braun, “Mein Leben fur die Rahmfahrt,” quoted in Zuse, p. 94.
17 “a large computing machine”: Zuse, p. 97.
18 “This environment did anything”: Ibid., p. 103.
19 “although we could have taken over”: Ibid., p. 108.
20 “the innovation and progressiveness”: Ibid., p. 109.
21 “With no administrative or executive powers”: Flowers, “Colossus,” p. 83.
22 “exacerbated, and … even provoked”: Flowers, “Colossus,” p. 83.
23 “almost as big a deal”: Gustafson, personal communication, April 6, 2010.
24 “supplied detailed circuit design”: Copeland, “Colossus and the Rise of the Computer,” p. 109.
25 “The code he suggests is”: Hodges, p. 352.
26 “It is clear that”: Gustafson, personal communication, April 2010.
27 “were widely at variance”: Hodges, p. 353.
Chapter Eight
1 “all people who wish to continue as employees”: McCartney, p. 160.
2 “Well, the record is clear”: Stern, interview with Irven Travis, p. 18.
3 “perfect[ing] them in more detail”: McCartney, p. 138.
4 “Mauchly was a dreamer”: Burton, p. 160.
5 “Mauchly was assigned the patent work”: Cox, interview, February 22, 2010.
6 “It was one room in a Victorian building”: Copeland, “Colossus and the Rise of the Modern Computer,” p. 111.
7 “The Sixth Army Group”: Colley, p. A27.
8 “every [press] release”: Clark, p. 26.
9 “the university [of Manchester]”: Hodges, p. 406.
10 “that his decision was influenced”: Copeland, et al., p. 187.
11 “with the Russians”: Marton, p. 183.
12 “all those sitting around”: Macrae, p. 333.
Chapter Nine
1 “had met with the Pentagon”: McCartney, p. 147.
2 “The application was broad and unfocused”: Ibid., p. 148.
3 “the Princestitute”: Macrae, p. 299.
4 “People thought he was walking away”: Cox, interview, February 22, 2010.
5 “He could not handle a screwdriver”: Macrae, p. 371.
6 “I have a great deal of affection”: Kaplan, interview with John Atanasoff, August 28, 1977, p. 13.
7 “In many ways”: Hodges, p. 438.
8 “transformed his body”: Wansell, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212910/How-Britain-drove-greatest-genius-Alan-Turing-suicide–just-gay.html.
Chapter Ten
1 “became paranoid”: Cox, interview, February 22, 2010.
2 “There may have been similar systems”: Eckert, “A Survey of Digital Memory Systems,” Journal of t
he Institute of Radio Engineers, October 1953, reprinted in Burton, p. 165.
3 “he had heard rumors”: Mollenhoff, p. 83. 157 “If you will help us”: Burton, p. 165.
4 “Now in the United States”: Zuse, p. 114.
5 “still did not completely trust”: Ibid., p. 115.
6 “screaming in horror”: Rhodes, personal communication, April 2010.
7 “I did not want to spend the rest of my life”: Kaplan, interview with John Atanasoff, August 28, 1977, p. 19.
8 “Retirement mellowed Atanasoff very little”: Burton, p. 175.
9 “At Harvard they were still completely convinced”: Zuse, p. 116.
10 “We had exactly a half an hour”: Ibid., p. 121.
11 “Many a night”: Ibid., p. 122.
12 “An electrical computing machine”: “Machine Remembers,” Des Moines Tribune, January 15, 1941, reprinted in Mollenhoff, p. 163.
13 “An interesting sidelight”: Ibid., p. 99.
14 “I am not sure what Dr. Atanasoff told you”: Clifford Berry, quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 99.
15 “left him in substantial pain”: McCartney, p. 206.
16 “When I told a physician what I knew”: Berry, p. 361.
17 “huge impact on Atanasoff”: Cox, interview, February 22, 2010.
18 “Atanasoff-Berry Computer”: R. K. Richards, Electronic Digital Systems (New York: Wiley, 1966), quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 103.
19 “The ancestry of all electronic digital systems”: Richards, Electronic Digital Systems (New York: Wiley, 1966), quoted in Burton, p. 181.
20 “Studying Atanasoff’s memorandum”: Mollenhoff, p. 111. 172 “If I had known”: Burton, p. 190.
Chapter Eleven
1 “I just wasn’t sophisticated enough”: Robert Mather, quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 118.
2 “I’m not sure we could have reconstructed the ABC”: Gustafson, personal communication, April 2010.
3 “a rather delightful fellow”: Sam Legvold, quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 119.
4 “The center portion of this letter”: Mollenhoff, p. 120.
5 “that when you got into administrative work”: Ibid., p. 126.
6 “had practically accused me of plagiarizing”: Mauchly, quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 126.
7 “Dr. Mauchly came to Ames”: Mollenhoff, p. 127.
8 “Do you contend that I read the book?”: Mauchly, Dodds, and Atanasoff, quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 127.
9 “The 827 patent”: Ibid., p. 128.
10 “Our lawyers don’t want me to remember anything”: Ibid., p. 130.
11 “Mr. Dodds, in the face”: Ibid., p. 129.
12 “that Dr. Mauchly was”: Atanasoff quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 131.
13 “perform all kinds”: Ibid., p. 138.
14 “He made a huge mistake”: Ibid., p. 187.
15 “little computing device”: McCartney, p. 187.
16 “boiled down to”: Ibid., p. 189.
17 “I’m thinking about the condensers”: Mollenhoff, p. 158.
18 “the box would then yield”: Ibid.
19 “He seemed to follow in detail”: Atanasoff, quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 165.
20 “Immediately after commencement here”: Mauchly, quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 167.
21 “computing machines may be conveniently classified”: Ibid., p. 191.
22 “consumed over 135 days”: Ibid., p. 201.
23 “that there is no difference”: Honeywell, Inc., quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 203.
24 “Between 1937 and 1942”: Section 3 of Judge Earl Larson’s opinion in Honeywell, Inc. vs. Sperry Rand Corp., et al., October 19, 1973, section 4, quoted in Mollenhoff, pp. 265–67.
25 “as a result of this visit”: Ibid., section 18, quoted in Mollenhoff, p. 267.
26 “work on the ENIAC”: Ibid., p. 213.
Chapter Twelve
1 “In the 1980s”: Epstein, http://www.k9ape.com/publicservice/Who%20Invented%20The%20Computer.html.
2 “Scott struggles hard on the Atanasoff saga”: JBartik, http://www.amazon.com/ENIAC-Triumphs-Tragedies-Worlds-Computer/product-reviews/0425176444/ref=cm_cr_pr_ink_next_5?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&pageNumber=5&sortBy=%20bySubmissionDateDescending.
3 “Jean Bartik was a fountain of information”: McCartney, p. 253.
4 “Vincent … wants me to walk”: Iva Atanasoff, quoted in Burton, p. 266.
5 “One fourth of the time”: Ibid.
6 “I hear them”: John Atanasoff, quoted in Burton, p. 268.
7 “Atanasoff’s principles”: Arthur Burks and Alice Rowe Burks, quoted in Burton, p. 257.
8 “for his invention of”: Citation, 1990 Medal of Technology, quoted in Burton, p. 269.
9 “The ABC replica took three years”: Gustafson, interview, February 22, 2010.
10 “Mauchly was the only person”: Cox, interview, February 22, 2010.
Bibliography
Books
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Burks, Alice Rowe. Who Invented the Computer? Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2003.
Burks, Alice R., and Arthur W. Burks. The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989.
Burton, Tammara. World Changer. Sofia, Bulgaria: Tangra Tannakra Publishers, 2006.
Clark, Lloyd. Anzio: The Friction of War; Italy and the Battle for Rome 1944. London: Headline Review, 2006.
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Copeland, B. Jack, et al., eds. Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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Atanasoff, J. V., and A. E. Brandt. “Application of Punched Card Equipment to the Analysis of Complex Spectra.” Journal of the Optical Society of America 26 (1936): 83–85.
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Interviews and Personal Communications