ECKERT, J. (JOHN ADAM) PRESPER, JR.

(b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 9 April 1919;

d. Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 3 June 1995), electrical engineering, computer engineering.

J. Presper Eckert is best known for his role as chief engineer in the project that created the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) at the University of Pennsylvania during World War II. Later he helped establish one of the first American computer companies and oversaw technical development of its first commercial computers.

Upbringing and Education . Eckert was the only child of a prominent Philadelphia real estate developer, John Eckert, and Ethel Hallowell Eckert. His parents valued education highly, and he attended the prestigious private William Penn Charter School. He also traveled extensively with his family both in the United States and abroad, visiting all forty-eight contiguous states, Alaska, and many major foreign cities. He showed a strong interest in electronics from an early age, tinkering with radios and phonographs. In addition to his formal schooling, he worked on electronics projects with staff at the Franklin Institute and at Philo Farnsworth’s television laboratory.

Initially Eckert aspired to study electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but his father convinced him instead to enroll at the business-orientated Wharton School at the nearby University of Pennsylvania. Eckert was accepted at Wharton in 1937 but found it unsuited to his interests and transferred to the university’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering. Its dean, Harold Pender, had recently been recruited from MIT, and was striving to increase the Moore School’s standing as a national research center. While only a middling student, Eckert continued his self-directed tinkering on the side. He also assisted his electronics professor and mentor, Carl Chambers, with consulting projects. Eckert remembered that Chambers “really indoctrinated me with being as careful as I was in designs. I did some circuit design for him, and he always had me test it for all the variations possible” (Eckstein, 1996, p. 38).

In 1941 Eckert graduated and considered offers from Philco and RCA Laboratories, but elected instead to stay at the Moore School to begin graduate education and serve as a teaching assistant. One of his first assignments was as a laboratory supervisor in a summer course the Moore School was conducting for the military. There he met a colleague who became a lifelong partner, John Mauchly, a physics professor at nearby Ursinus College.

The Development of ENIAC . Mauchly, then thirty-four, and Eckert, twenty-two, spent hours talking about scientific and engineering topics. Both had a fascination with different ways to use the speed of electronic circuits to improve measurement and calculation. Mauchly was soon hired by the Moore School as an instructor, and Eckert became involved in a variety of projects. Most notable was time he spent on a Moore School contract with the MIT Radiation Laboratory for a switching amplifier. He experimented with timing equipment for a moving-target indicator (MTI) and developed a device called a mercury delay line, which used acoustic wave patterns in mercury to store and measure the intervals between signal pulses. He would return to the idea later in his career.

Eckert also worked with the Moore School’s differential analyzer, a specialized piece of equipment used to compute solutions to differential equations. Developed by Vannevar Bush at MIT, the differential analyzer was a complex and intricate analogue device consisting of numerous gears, wheels, and shafts that were carefully selected and adjusted to solve each new problem. Pender had convinced the military to buy one for the Moore School, and even before Pearl Harbor, staff there were cooperating with the U.S. Army’s Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL) in computing firing tables. Eckert joined a group working with the analyzer and began trying to improve its performance with electronic components. With his assistance, the team added photocells, more than four hundred vacuum tubes, generators, and server motors that dramatically improved both the speed and the performance of the analyzer.

As requirements for more and faster computations grew, staff continued to consider other innovations. In August 1942, Mauchly dictated a memorandum describing an “electronic computor [sic]” that would be more accurate than the differential analyzer and far faster than either it or hand calculating with desktop calculators. The idea grew in part out of ongoing discussions with Eckert about electronic circuits and components. Mauchly submitted the memorandum to the Moore School deans, but they were unimpressed and failed to act on it. Mauchly remained enthusiastic about the idea, however, and brought it up again in discussions with Lieutenant Herman Goldstine, a PhD mathematician who served as the liaison between the BRL and the Moore School. By the spring of 1943, Goldstine was convinced that Mauchly’s idea for an all-electronic computer should be considered seriously. Unfortunately, no one could locate the original memorandum proposing the computer that Mauchly had written six months earlier. It was re-created from notes.

On 9 April 1942, a formal meeting was convened with Mauchly, Eckert, the research director of the Moore School, Goldstine, and the director of the BRL. It was Eckert’s twenty-third birthday. He later remembered that even as the meeting was going on, he and Mauchly were writing the technical appendices backing up the proposal. The plan was approved, and the Moore School soon began Project PX: to design and construct what became known as ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. Originally the plan was for a machine containing around five thousand tubes and costing $150,000. Before the project was completed, however, the number of tubes had grown to eighteen thousand and the cost to $400,000. ENIAC would also require seventy thousand resistors, ten thousand capacitors, six thousand switches, and fifteen hundred relays, and would fill a room 9.1 meters (30 feet) wide by 15.2 meters (50 feet) long. The expansion was due to new requirements from the army, which insisted on having a machine that could solve a wide range of problems.

Although Goldstine had convinced the army to support the idea for ENIAC, others were skeptical. Doubts had begun with the Moore School’s own dean. Leading scientists in the National Defense Research Committee, the organization designed to coordinate all university research and development during the war, did not support the idea. Most critics pointed to the growing complexity of the circuitry and the propensity of vacuum tubes to fail. By one naive calculation, if the mean life of a tube was around three thousand hours, then there would be a tube failure every ten minutes.

Making ENIAC work would require engineering genius. Eckert supplied it. While Mauchly had the overall vision for ENIAC and contributed innovations to programming it, Eckert oversaw the detailed hardware design. He specified circuits and wiring plans. He carefully tested each type of tube, and made sure that it would be powered at levels that would give it maximum life. Goldstine later wrote,

Eckert fully understood at the start, as perhaps none of his colleagues did, that the overall success of the project was to depend entirely on a totally new concept of component reliability and on utmost care in setting up criteria for everything from quality of insulation to types of tubes. Eckert’s standards were the highest, his energies almost limitless, his ingenuity remarkable, and his intelligence extraordinary. It was Eckert’s omnipresence that drove everything forward at whatever cost to humans including himself.” (1972, pp. 153–154)

Although designed to meet a wartime emergency, ENIAC was not completed until after the war. It debuted with a formal dedication on 15 February 1946. The army proclaimed it a “new machine that is expected to revolutionize the mathematics of engineering and change many of our industrial design methods” (U.S. War Department). Well before the gala announcement, however, the ENIAC designers knew their machine, while a major step forward, had severe weaknesses. Their view was amplified and extended in the summer of 1944 during several visits from the famous mathematician John von Neumann, who became very interested in the development of computers. With his involvement and support, the ENIAC group won army approval for a new project, PY, to create EDVAC, or an Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer. Two critical innovations underlay the new project. The first was mercury delay lines, which could be used to store numbers in the machine, vastly extending its storage capability. This grew from Eckert’s previous work on mercury storage for the MIT project. The second— made possible by the first—was the simple but fundamental idea of stored programs: the computer’s storage device would be used to hold both the instructions of a program and the numbers on which it operated. The specific originator of this idea is disputed. It is likely that once the possibility of extensive storage became realistic, several of those involved in the discussion conceived it independently. But unquestionably von Neumann’s involvement catalyzed the idea, and he went on to articulate it most clearly in his famous “First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (1945).” In retrospect, it has become recognized as a foundational document of computer science.

The ENIAC Patent Dispute . Besides considering technical improvements in ENIAC in 1944, Eckert and Mauchly also began thinking seriously about the commercial applications of the work they had been doing. In September 1944 Eckert wrote to his Moore School colleagues that he and Mauchly planned to apply for a patent on the ENIAC. Although some would later claim they had been left out of the application, at the time all agreed that the patent application should be in Eckert’s and Mauchly’s names. The school was also agreeable to the application, but insisted that patent rights be assigned to the university. Eckert and Mauchly balked, saying they should retain the rights. After a bitter fight, the university finally accepted their position, and in March 1945, let the two men retain the rights. But the issue was not over. A year later, soon after ENIAC was dedicated to the public, the Moore School clarified its patent policy and now insisted that any future patent rights of researchers had to come to the university. By this time, with the war over, Eckert and Mauchly were already considering other career possibilities, and the new policy became a determining factor. They both refused to sign and resigned from the university. While both had several job possibilities, they decided they should take a bold step. In March 1946, they established the Electronic Control Company, the first commercial computer company in the United States.

Even after the departure of Eckert and Mauchly from the Moore School, the ENIAC patent dispute lived on. The application was finally filed on 26 June 1947, but the patent, U.S. Patent 3,120,606, was not finally granted until 4 February 1964. At that time, the rights were owned by Sperry Rand, where Eckert then worked. When the company began trying to collect royalties on the patent, some firms, such as International Business Machines (IBM), reached negotiated settlements. Honeywell Corporation, in contrast, decided to challenge the patent, and filed suit in 1967. A trial finally began in 1971, and ran until 13 March 1972. In a dramatic conclusion, Judge Earl R. Larson ruled the ENIAC patent invalid. While he noted many findings, he gave two primary reasons. First he concluded that Mauchly had not conceived his idea independently, but had derived it from knowledge of the work of John V. Atanasoff at Iowa State University. Atanasoff had developed an electronic computing device in the late 1930s, and Mauchly had visited him for four days in June 1941. Although Mauchly argued that this interaction was not the source of his idea, the judge ruled against him. The judge also concluded that there had been substantial public disclosure before the patent was filed. One example was the gala ENIAC announcement in February 1946.

While some believed the judge’s decision rightly accorded Atanasoff credit for his pioneering work, Eckert and Mauchly both thought the ruling robbed them of due recognition for their role in creating ENIAC and launching the American computer industry. Eckert never accepted that Atanasoff should be known as some sort of “forgotten father” of the digital computer.

Creating a Computer Company . In the postwar period, there was little venture capital available to finance start-up companies, and no established market for digital computers. When creating their computer company, Eckert and Mauchly had to start small and continually struggle to finance company operations. Their first customer was the

U.S. Census Bureau, which had received $300,000 from the U.S. Army Ordnance Department to develop a computer. Although some Census Bureau reviewers were lukewarm about the plans of Eckert and Mauchly, the bureau issued a $75,000 contract to the Electronic Control Company in September 1946 to conduct research on mercury delay storage units for computer use. Given that ENIAC had cost $400,000, this was a paltry sum. The expectation was that the project could develop into a larger contract for a full computer. Eckert and Mauchly were now envisioning a general purpose computer that could be used by many organizations, which they would soon call UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer).

In December 1947, the two incorporated their company and renamed it the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company. Funding from the Census Bureau would not keep them afloat, especially as they added employees, so they continually sought new customers. Over the next several years, they succeeded in selling their proposed UNIVAC to the Prudential Life Insurance Company and the ACNielsen Company. They also negotiated a contract for a special purpose computer, the BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer), with the Northrop Aircraft Company. BINAC first ran in February 1949, and was arguably the first successful stored computer in the United States. It was not fully a success, however, as it was delivered more than a year late. Northrop was never able to run the computer reliably once it had been transferred to them.

Building UNIVACs . The company was more successful with UNIVACs. Again, development took longer than expected. The first UNIVAC was released to the Census Bureau on 31 March 1951. Because of delays and cost escalation, Prudential and Nielsen ultimately canceled their contracts. However, other government agencies and private companies bought machines. In all, forty-six UNIVACs were produced. The most famous was serial number 5, which was sold to the Atomic Energy Commission and installed at the University of California Radiation Laboratory. In 1952 the CBS television network used it to predict the outcome of the presidential election between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower. On election night, with only 3.4 million votes counted, the computer predicted a landslide for Eisenhower: forty-three states to only five. The prediction was so lopsided that CBS decided not to air it, but the computer turned out to be close. Eisenhower won by thirty-nine states to nine, with a total of 61.5 million votes cast.

Throughout the development of the UNIVAC, Eckert had been the acknowledged technology leader of his company, inspiring his coworkers. One of them, Herman Lukoff, later remembered “Shift work didn't mean anything to Pres; he worked all shifts. He was there whenever anyone else was, working on the nagging problems of the moment. The only way his poor wife, Hester, got to see him was by coming in during the evening and idly standing by” (1979, p. 101).

Although Eckert and Mauchly had produced the first successful business computer in the United States, they were not themselves successful businessmen. They grossly underestimated both the cost of developing their products and the time required. Their company remained in financial difficulty. The problem was finally solved when the Remington Rand Company, a major producer of office equipment, bought the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company on 1 February 1950. In 1952 Remington Rand also acquired Engineering Research Associates, another fledgling computer company, and thus became one of the leading computer companies in the United States. Other mergers would follow. It was Remington Rand who successfully negotiated cancellation of the Prudential and ACNielsen contracts, and substantially increased the price of subsequent UNIVACs. In 1955, Remington Rand merged with Sperry Gyroscope to form Sperry Rand, and in 1986, that company joined with Burroughs Corporation to form the Unisys Corporation.

In the mid-1950s, it seemed that Remington Rand was poised to take the lead in the new business of computer development, but the company was unable to turn a profit with computers. Not until the early 1960s did the computer division make money, and by that time, Remington Rand was being overshadowed in the market by rival IBM. Although Sperry Rand remained in IBM’s shadow, it gradually became a successful computer company. In contrast, other firms that entered the business in the 1950s gave up after years of major losses.

Eckert’s Legacy . Mauchly left Remington Rand in 1959 to form a consulting firm, Mauchly Associates. Eckert, however, stayed with the company. He served as director of engineering, 1950–1955; vice president and director of commercial engineering, 1955–1959; vice president and executive assistant to the general manager, 1959–1963; and vice president and technical advisor to the president, 1963–1982.

Eckert published few technical papers during his career. His most important contribution was “A Survey of Digital Computer Memory Systems,” which appeared in the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1953. In the article he summarized the range of memory devices then being used or explored for use in computer systems. They ranged from vacuum tubes, such as were employed in ENIAC, to ferromagnetic cells, which would form the foundation of magnetic core memories. Eckert gave special attention to delay-line memories, which he had personally pioneered. The article makes clear, however, that he knew other techniques would soon surpass what could be done with delay-line systems.

A better measure of Eckert’s technical expertise is his patents. He was issued ninety during his career: twenty-nine to him personally, ten jointly with Mauchly, and fifty-one jointly with other inventors. The topics ranged from electronic circuits, to memory systems, to printers. Patent 2,629,827, for example, was the first patent Eckert and Mauchly received on the ideas inherent in the mercury delay memory system. Clearly Eckert saw patents as more important to his legacy as an engineer than publications.

Eckert was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1967. In 1968 he was awarded the National Medal of Science “for pioneering and continuing contributions in creating, developing, and improving the highspeed electronic digital computer” (National Science Foundation Internet page). He fully retired in 1989, and died of leukemia in 1995. In 1986, after noting the remarkable progress in computer development over four decades, he penned his own wry epitaph. “The ENIAC was built as a system that has led directly to today’s computers,” he said. “I look back at the scenario and ask you to consider the following question: How would you like to see your life’s work end up on a tenth of a square inch of silicon?” (1986).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WORKS BY ECKERT

“A Survey of Digital Computer Memory Systems.” Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 41 (October 1953): 1393–1406. Reprinted in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 20, no. 4 (1998): 15–28.

“The ENIAC.” In A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, edited by N. Metropolis, J. Howlett, and Gian-Carlo Rota. New York: Academic Press, 1980.

“The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.” Computer Museum Report 16 (Summer 1986). Available from http://www.ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/TheCompMusRep/TCMR-V16.html#ENIAC.

Allison, David K. “Transcript of an Interview with J. Presper Eckert.” Development of the ENIAC interviews, Smithsonian Videohistory Collection, Record Unit 9537. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, DC. Available from http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/comphist/eckert.htm.

OTHER SOURCES

Allison, David K. “The ENIAC.” Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 63 (1999): 15–17.

Brainerd, John G. “Genesis of the ENIAC.” Technology and Culture 17 (1976): 482–488.

Burks, Alice R., and Arthur W. Burks. The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988. A polemical account that argues the case for Atanasoff as inventor of the computer.

Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspray. Computer: A History of the Information Machine. New York: Basic, 1996. This overview puts ENIAC in context.

Eckstein, Peter. “J. Presper Eckert.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 18 (1996): 25–44.

Goldstine, Herman. The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Gray, George. “Univac I: The First Mass-Produced Computer.” Unisys History Newsletter5 (2001).

Lee, J. A. N. “J. Presper Eckert, 1919–1995.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing17, no. 3 (1995): 3–5.

Lukoff, Herman. From Dits to Bits: A Personal History of the Electronic Computer. Portland, OR: Robotics, 1979. A memoir that gives the flavor of working with Eckert.

McCartney, Scott. ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World’s First Computer. New York: Walker, 1999. A lively journalistic account, but one that should be used with care.

Moore School of Electrical Engineering and United States, Army, Ordnance Dept. A Report on the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). Philadelphia: Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1946. This report, part of the documentation of the original ENIAC project, is the best available source on its technical structure, set-up, and operations.

National Science Foundation. “The President’s National Medal of Science: Recipient Details: J. Presper Eckert, Jr.” Available from http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details cfm?recip_id=115.

Norberg, Arthur. Computers and Commerce: A Study of the Technology and Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand, 1946–1957. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.

Stern, Nancy. From ENIAC to UNIVAC: An Appraisal of the Eckert-Mauchly Computers. Bedford, MA: Digital, 1981.

University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania. “Guide to the ENIAC Trial Exhibits Master Collection, 1864–1973 [1938–1971 bulk].” Available from http://www.archives.upenn.edu/faids/upd/eniactrial/eniac.html. This collection at the University of Pennsylvania is the best single source for researching the massive documentation related to the ENIAC patent trial.

U.S. War Department. “Ordnance Department Develops All-Electronic Calculating Machine.” Press release, 15 February 1946. Available from http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/comphist/pr1.pdf.

von Neumann, John. “First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (1945).” Reprinted in The Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers, edited by Brian Randell. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982.

David K. Allison