ENIAC

The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer

By: Scott McCartney

Narrated by: Adams Morgan

Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

For all his genius, John von Neumann was not, as he is generally credited, the true father of the modern computer. That honor belongs to the two men - John Mauchly and Presper Eckert - who built the world's first programmable computer, the legendary ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). Mauchly and Eckert, who met in 1941, developed a revolutionary vision: to make electricity "think." Funded by the U.S. Army, the team they led constructed a behemoth - weighing 30 tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes and miles of wiring - that blazed a trail to the next generation of computers that quickly followed, and in the process ignited a controversy over ownership that exists to this day. After their groundbreaking achievement, Mauchly and Eckert were shadowed by personal tragedies and professional setbacks as their accomplishment was laid claim to by others. They formed the world's first computer company, the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, but were quickly outdistanced by IBM.

Based on original interviews with surviving participants and the first study of Mauchly and Eckert's personal papers, ENIAC is a dramatic human story and a vital contribution to the history of technology, and it restores to the two inventors the legacy they deserve.

©1999 by Scott McCartney (P)1999 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Fascinating history...

Everyone who assumes that von Neumann invented the computer (as I once thought) really owes it to themselves and the true inventors a listen to this fascinating retelling of the tale. Not overly "geeky," but not overly simplified either, this (audible) book finds the right balance to fill in the missing pieces of the invention of the computer. The *only* criticism that I have of the reading is the author's raised pitch when reading quotes from women. It sounds silly and somewhat demeaning, and isn't necessary to get the quote across. Otherwise the reader articulates well and is easy on the ears.

excellent book on history and ideas of computing

Except for the first dozen minutes that repeat what we all know about the computers of today, the rest of the book is a fascinating account of the background, the people, and the critical events in the early days of computing. I have never seen a more complete and comprehensive account of how the science, the technology, the engineering, the war effort, and most interestingly, the people came together to give birth to ENIAC. I learned for the first time the commercial efforts after the invention and before the dominance of IBM. Except for the beginning part, I find the content highly informative not only because of the detailed account of historical events but also because of the description of many of the early technical problems and solutions. As a college professor teaching computer science, I highly recommend this book for any one who is interested in learning the history and the basic elements of computing.

Good overview of how computers came to be

This is an outstanding title, so long as you understand what it does & what it doesn't focus on. This is a book that is more about the personalities involved in inventing the first "general purpose" computer, and the business aspects; and less about the technicalities associated with that computer. The author does a very good job making you feel what it was like to be there, the stresses & the frustrations & the triumphs of the inventors. The author also shows how inventing something that is memorable decades later is more about business than it is about fundamental innovation. Without the money, contacts, marketing organization & so forth, the computer would not have come to be, or at least as soon as it came to be. It turns out that the inventors did not have any of these attributes, but those who came after them (in competition with them, patent-wise) did.
The narration of this book is also outstanding.

Not as advertised or expected, but informative

This is an interesting book on the early history of the modern electronic computer. The main flaw as I see it is that the story of ENIAC is largely outlined in the first third of the book. The rest of the slender tome goes on to detail the extended battles over patent rights. Plenty of print is spent on the creators' battles with themselves, the marketplace, and the powers that seemed to conspire to deny them their proper place in computing history well after ENIAC was retired. I have read only a little heretofore about the intellectual property battles detailed in the book. The author clearly has written the book to take up the cause of Mauchley and Eckert as not only the driving force behind ENIAC, but to laud them as the actual inventors of the modern electronic computer. I'm not inclined to argue - I was just more interested in the actual history and capabilities of the ENIAC itself, and apparently that wasn't worth the whole of the book. Even later, as the author and the inventors move on to found the "world's first computer company" and struggle to create the more powerful successor the UNIVAC, McCartney seems more interested in detailing Mauchley and Eckert's poor business decisions, deteriorating personal lives, and extended legal battles rather than expounding on what UNIVAC could do and how much better it was than ENIAC. Having said that, I did enjoy the book and found it quite interesting. I very much liked how the author detailed the various hurdles the ENIAC team faced and how they overcame them. I apreciated how he put the efforts to build the ENIAC into the context of the ebb and flow of the 2nd World War. The U.S. Army funded the development of ENIAC and it's demands, yoked to the innovative solutions of Mauchley and Eckert, created systems and architectures that literally launched the computer age. Strange Note: The narrator actually reads the footnotes for the book - making a modest listen even shorter!

Short but very interesting

I was hoping to hear even more about this history. The quality of the audio wasn't as good as other audible books, but I loved the content.

ENIAC

the author seems very close to favoring Mauchley and Eckert. This shades the entire story. ABC was the first.

Errors turn a fascinating subject into a bore

The combination of the reader's limited expressive range and the focus of the book on personalities instead of technologies, plus the glaring technical errors of the author made this a bore. My favorite: right after a section where the author goes on at length about Eniac being the first programmable computer, he then notes how remarkable it was that the team didn't hire any experienced programmers to work on the project but trained people from scratch. Where, exactly, did the author think the builders of the FIRST programmable computer would find experienced programmers? The Future? Sheesh...

Too low tech

Not enough actual technical content. Too dumbed down for normies. Why must everything be dumbed down?

It makes the volume and speed controls useless

The sentences vary so much in speed and volume that it makes it difficult to listen.

This is about litigation

I was deeply disappointed. I expected to know about the ups and downs of the technological experience of building this landmark machine. Instead, I mostly heard of lawsuits, greed, libel and vexation. I should have known better.