John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995), American physicist, inventor, the father of the first digital computer was born on 4 October 1903 in a family of Bulgarian immigrants in Hamilton, New York State. He studied at the Iowa State University, and received his PhD degree from Madison University.

Between 1937 and 1942 Atanasoff and Clifford Berry, a former fellow student of his, designed the Atanasoff?Berry Computer (ABC) that solely consisted of electronic units, and was used to solve systems of linear equations. The prototype of the machine was demonstrated to a small circle of experts in December 1939. Although patent procedures were started, patenting was never completed.

Today ABC is considered to be the first (electronic) computer in the modern sense. It is interesting enough that after various patent disputes over the right of priority, it was only in 1973 that an American court decision established this fact.

The original model of the ABC worked with 25-bit words, the enhanced variant worked with 50-bit words using a binary number system. A drum based on capacitors constituted the fifty-word storage unit. The result of input data entered on punched card was recorded or burnt as spots on cards.

Further development was discontinued with the onset of World War II. Atanasoff drew IBM’s attention to ABC, but received a response stating that the company giant had no intention to ever enter the field of electronic computers. It was only in 1948 that interest (by others than IBM) was expressed in ABC, which had been dismantled by that time.