Honeywell, Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp.
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''Honeywell, Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp., et al.'', 180 U.S.P.Q. 673 ( D. Minn. 1973) (Case 4-67 Civil 138, 180 USPO 670), was a landmark U.S. federal court case that in October 1973 invalidated the 1964 patent for the
ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...
, the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computer. The decision included: that the ENIAC inventors had derived the subject matter of the electronic digital computer from the Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC), prototyped in 1939 by
John Atanasoff John Vincent Atanasoff, , (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was an American physicist and inventor from mixed Bulgarian-Irish origin, best known for being credited with inventing the first electronic digital computer. Atanasoff invented the ...
and
Clifford Berry Clifford Edward Berry (April 19, 1918 – October 30, 1963) helped John Vincent Atanasoff create the first digital electronic computer in 1939, the Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC). Biography Clifford Berry was born April 19, 1918, in Gladbr ...
; gave legal recognition to Atanasoff as the inventor of the first electronic digital computer; and put the invention of the electronic digital computer in the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
.


Dispute origins

The case was a combination of two separate lawsuits: one brought by Sperry Rand Corporation and its holding company Illinois Scientific Developments against
Honeywell Corporation Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance mat ...
in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
charging Honeywell with patent infringement and demanding royalties, and a countersuit filed in Minneapolis, Minnesota by Honeywell charging Sperry Rand with
monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
and fraud and seeking the invalidation of the
ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...
patent, alleged to be infirm. Both suits were filed on May 26, 1967, with Honeywell filing just minutes earlier, a fact that would later have tremendous bearing on the case. The trial was presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Earl R. Larson between June 1, 1971, and March 13, 1972, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a jurisdiction decided when
D.C. Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...
Chief Judge
John Sirica John Joseph Sirica (March 19, 1904 – August 14, 1992) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the trials stemming from the Watergate scandal. ...
ruled that Honeywell had won the May 26 race to file the suit in court. Attorneys for Sperry Rand wanted the case to be tried in Washington, D.C., a district perceived to be friendlier to the rights of patent holders; by contrast, Honeywell was at the time the largest private employer in Minnesota. The plaintiff's final 500-page brief in the case was filed September 30, 1972. Chief among the disputes ''Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'' was to resolve were: * The legality of a 1956 patent-sharing agreement between Sperry Rand and IBM (itself born out of patent litigation), which was contended to represent an illegal collusion in violation of antitrust laws. * The enforceability and validity of the patent for the
ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...
filed by its inventors J. Presper Eckert and
John W. Mauchly John William Mauchly (August 30, 1907 – January 8, 1980) was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first com ...
, a patent which by that time had come to be held by Sperry Rand Corporation through a series of corporate acquisitions and mergers. The patent on the ENIAC, , application date June 26, 1947, issue date February 4, 1964, had been placed with a Sperry Rand subsidiary, Illinois Scientific Developments, newly created for the express purpose of marketing licenses for the newly issued patent. Because it was ostensibly the patent on the premiere electronic digital computer, Sperry Rand held that this patent entitled them to collect royalties on the sales of all electronic digital computers in what was by the late 1960s a rapidly expanding data processing industry, including Honeywell,
Control Data Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a mainframe and supercomputer firm. CDC was one of the nine major United States computer companies through most of the 1960s; the others were IBM, Burroughs Corporation, DEC, NCR, General Electric, Honeywel ...
, Burroughs,
RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
,
National Cash Register NCR Corporation, previously known as National Cash Register, is an American software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and electronic products. It manufactures self-service kiosks, point-of-sale termin ...
,
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
, and
Philco-Ford Philco (an acronym for Philadelphia Battery Company) is an American electronics manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia. Philco was a pioneer in battery, radio, and television production. In 1961, the company was purchased by Ford and, from 196 ...
, and peripheral equipment manufacturers. (Illinois Scientific Developments demanded royalties of $250 million from Honeywell initially, a figure that was lowered to $20 million prior to the start of litigation, and $150 million altogether from the other listed firms.) * The enforceability (but not the validity) of what was known as the 30A package of patents filed by Eckert and Mauchly and held by Sperry Rand, which included patents for a
delay-line memory Delay-line memory is a form of computer memory, now obsolete, that was used on some of the earliest digital computers. Like many modern forms of electronic computer memory, delay-line memory was a refreshable memory, but as opposed to modern ran ...
system (, applied for October 31, 1947, and issued in 1953) and a number of serial binary adders. * Royalties (and damages, legal fees, court costs, etc.) owed Sperry Rand by Honeywell should their patents be found valid and enforceable. With 135 days of oral courtroom testimony by 77 witnesses—and the presentation of the deposition of an additional 80 witnesses—for a total trial transcript of 20,667 pages, ''Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'' was at that time the longest trial in the history of the federal court system. It was preceded by six years of litigation that produced thousands of pages of under-oath depositions. The court marked 25,686 exhibits for the plaintiff Honeywell; defendants Sperry Rand and its subsidiary Illinois Scientific Developments contributed 6,968 exhibits. The corporations on the two sides spent a combined more than $8 million pursuing the case. The resulting exhibits and testimony constitute a massive evidentiary record describing the invention and development of the electronic digital computer. Materials relevant to the case but not entered into evidence have appeared, but sparsely and infrequently, since the case's conclusion in 1973. The computer played a major role in the prosecution of the case for plaintiff Honeywell. A computerized record of documents pertaining to the case, known as Electronic Legal Files (or ELF), allowed Honeywell attorneys to store, sort, recall, and print information on hundreds of different subjects.


The decision

More than seven months following the end of courtroom testimony, Judge Earl R. Larson's decision was published on October 19, 1973, in a document, over 248 pages long, titled ''Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order for Judgement''.Text of US District Court Decision
at USHistory.org, Retrieved August 1, 2015 Its conclusions defy summarization, but key findings include: *
John W. Mauchly John William Mauchly (August 30, 1907 – January 8, 1980) was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first com ...
and J. Presper Eckert were the co-inventors of the
ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...
; other contributors to the computer's design,
Arthur W. Burks Arthur Walter Burks (October 13, 1915 – May 14, 2008) was an American mathematician who worked in the 1940s as a senior engineer on the project that contributed to the design of the ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. ...
, T. K. Sharpless, and
Robert F. Shaw The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, who had petitioned to have their names added to the patent as inventors after it had already been issued, did not qualify for co-inventor status, nor did other contributors John H. Davis, Frank Mural, and Chuan Chu. * Honeywell had infringed on the
ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...
patent (Finding 23). The judge awarded no monetary damages, as he invalidated the ENIAC patent on numerous grounds in the same decision (see below). * Sperry Rand had tried to monopolize the electronic data processing industry in violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. ...
, on the basis of a cross-licensing agreement between Sperry Rand and IBM signed on August 21, 1956, but that only IBM had in fact succeeded in creating such a monopoly (Finding 15). The judge awarded no monetary damages despite these findings of conspiracy. * The ENIAC patent was unenforceable (not invalid) on the grounds of unnecessary and unreasonable delay before the U.S. Patent Office (Finding 11). The judge ruled that undue delay in the patent's filing, which would have rendered the patent invalid, had not been proven. * The ENIAC patent was unenforceable (not invalid) on the grounds of certain derelictions—including suppressing documents, withholding information, securing misleading affidavits, reversing legal positions in response to new evidence, blocking efforts of competitors to secure documents from the government, and proceeding with patent applications despite warnings of infirmities—on the U.S. Patent Office (Finding 13). The judge ruled that willful and intentional fraud on the U.S. Patent Office in filing the patent, which would have rendered the patent invalid, had not been proven. While the patent was rendered invalid on other grounds (see below), no finding of fraud on the Patent Office was significant, as the converse would have been a criminal offense and might have meant criminal prosecution for the patent filers. * The ENIAC patent was invalid on the basis of the amount of time the inventors had permitted to elapse before filing the patent following its disclosure in public use (Finding 1). Dedication ceremonies for the ENIAC had taken place on February 15, 1946, which was prior to the critical date of June 26, 1946 (one year before the patent's filing), and any public disclosure of the device prior to the critical date rendered the patent invalid. (Problems run on the computer by figures outside the invention team took place even earlier.) The judge found the date of December 1, 1945, as the date the ENIAC was handed over to Army Ordnance and beyond which no further modifications could be considered experimental. * The ENIAC patent was invalid on the basis of the amount of time the inventors had permitted to elapse before filing the patent following its placement on sale (Finding 2). The judge noted that the construction contract for the ENIAC placed the intended delivery date at December 31, 1945. Moreover, the first working parts of the ENIAC, consisting of two accumulators, had been shown to be operational in July 1944, and the judge ruled that these components of the eventual ENIAC were themselves an "automatic electronic digital computer", thus pushing the date before which Eckert and Mauchly would have needed to apply for the patent to July 1945. * The ENIAC patent was invalid on the basis of the amount of time the inventors had permitted to elapse before filing the patent following the publication of its key features (Finding 7). The judge ruled that Herman Goldstine's June 30, 1945, dissemination of
John von Neumann John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
's ''
First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC The ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC'' (commonly shortened to ''First Draft'') is an incomplete 101-page document written by John von Neumann and distributed on June 30, 1945 by Herman Goldstine, security officer on the classified ENIAC pro ...
'', a set of incomplete notes describing the logical design of the ENIAC's successor machine the EDVAC, which was being built simultaneously to the ENIAC's completion at the
Moore School of Electrical Engineering The Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania came into existence as a result of an endowment from Alfred Fitler Moore on June 4, 1923. It was granted to Penn's School of Electrical Engineering, located in the Towne ...
at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, constituted a publication under the law and an enabling disclosure of the ENIAC. Moreover, Eckert and Mauchly had published their own official report, ''Automatic High Speed Computing: A Progress Report on the EDVAC'', on September 30, 1945, which was, again, prior to the critical date of June 26, 1946. * Three of the 148 formal claims of the ENIAC patent were anticipated by a prior invention, the 1942 electronic multiplier by IBM's Byron E. Phelps (Finding 6), for which a patent was filed in late 1945. The judge ruled out derivation, as Mauchly and Eckert could not have been aware of this prior invention; nevertheless, its patent date preceded that of the ENIAC. * 14 of the 148 formal claims of the ENIAC patent were invalid on the basis of an unreasonably delayed amendment to the patent application (Finding 10). In May 1963, attorneys for Sperry Rand tried to amend the ENIAC patent after discovering that the definition of the word "pulse", which carried over to 14 of the patent's claims (sometimes under the equivalent usage of "impulse" or "signal"), left a lower bound on the length of an electronic pulse of 2 microseconds. Thus, machines that operated at a speed of more than 1 
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
would not be covered by the ENIAC patent. The judge ruled that the patentholders' attempts to amend the patent at such a late date was "an exigent afterthought to capture the subsequent contributions of others already in the public domain". * The 30A package of patents (the regenerative memory system and the serial binary adders) were unenforceable. * The ENIAC patent was invalid on the basis of derivation (Finding 3). The publication of the ''Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'' decision coincided with the event of the
Saturday Night Massacre The Saturday Night Massacre was a series of events that took place in the United States on the evening of Saturday, October 20, 1973, during the Watergate scandal. President of the United States, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered United State ...
, one of many events in the ongoing Watergate scandal of
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
's presidency. As a result of the media's focus on Watergate, news of the decision did not attract public attention at the time.


Derivation controversy

Finding 3 was the most controversial, as it assigned the invention of the electronic digital computer by judicial fiat to John V. Atanasoff: Charges of derivation stemmed from testimony and correspondence describing meetings between Atanasoff and Mauchly in December 1940 and June 1941, the first at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
where Atanasoff attended a talk given by Mauchly at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on use of Mauchly's harmonic analyzer (a simple
analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. In ...
) to speed the calculation of meteorological data to test for periodicities in precipitation, and the second in Ames, Iowa where Mauchly had driven to visit Atanasoff for a period of five days and to examine his progress on a special-purpose computing machine whose construction Atanasoff had described for Mauchly at the prior meeting. (In the discovery process leading up to ''Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'', this device came to be called the Atanasoff–Berry Computer, or ABC;
Clifford Berry Clifford Edward Berry (April 19, 1918 – October 30, 1963) helped John Vincent Atanasoff create the first digital electronic computer in 1939, the Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC). Biography Clifford Berry was born April 19, 1918, in Gladbr ...
had been Atanasoff's graduate student assistant in the computer development project in the basement of the physics building at
Iowa State College Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...
and in 1942 the two of them left Iowa State for positions in war research—Atanasoff in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
and Berry in Pasadena, California.) All parties agree that Mauchly had opportunity to see the ABC, which was then in a sufficiently advanced state of construction to demonstrate many if not all of its general principles. There is disagreement about (and no definitive evidence regarding) the extent to which Mauchly understood—or indeed was interested in or capable of understanding—the circuit designs incorporated in the machine. The ABC's inventors considered their invention novel and patentable. The same trip to Philadelphia in December 1940 included a visit to the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. to conduct patent searches—so Dr. Mauchly's contention under oath that the ABC's inventors were deliberately hesitant about revealing all of the machine's details would seem to be credible. All parties agreed that Mauchly took away with him no written technical description of the ABC. However, he was familiar enough with the ABC's basic method of operation, particularly the involvement of its rotating capacitor memory drum, to have described it to J. Presper Eckert in 1943 or 1944, and to have recounted it in some detail in a 1967 deposition, over 26 years after having visited the ABC in June 1941. Correspondence from Mauchly to Atanasoff following Mauchly's visit was touted by the plaintiff as a
smoking gun The term "smoking gun" is a reference to an object or fact that serves as conclusive evidence of a crime or similar act, just short of being caught ''in flagrante delicto''. "Smoking gun" refers to the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence ...
. Considered to be particularly damning to the Sperry Rand case were the following often-quoted excerpts: Taken in context, this and other letters entered into evidence in ''Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'' evinced a spirit of cordiality and mutual admiration between Mauchly and Atanasoff, one that would continue into the 1940s, as Atanasoff recommended Mauchly for part-time consulting work at the
Naval Ordnance Laboratory The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) was a facility in the White Oak area of Montgomery County, Maryland. It is now used as the headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Origins The U.S. Navy Mine Unit, later the Mine Laboratory at ...
in 1943 and Mauchly continued to visit Atanasoff in
White Oak, Maryland White Oak is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 16,347 in 2020. White Oak was known for its Naval Ordnance Laboratory, which was closed in 1994. The headqua ...
throughout 1944, where Mauchly served as mentor, guide, and sounding board to some of those on Atanasoff's staff. ''Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'' and the decision it culminated in emphasized the differences between the ENIAC and the ABC, some of which were: * The ENIAC was electronic digital computing machines, while the ABC was a semi-electronic (''i.e.'', only the computing was electronic, the control and synchronization was electromechanical using timing control drum), special-purpose (''i.e.'', non-programmable) machine intended to solve systems of linear equations via a modified Gaussian elimination
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
. * The two machines were incomparable in size, scope of design, and cost. * Both the ENIAC and ABC used triode vacuum tubes, but the ABC computed ''logically'' using ''binary'' adder circuits, whereas the ENIAC computed ''enumeratively'' using ''decimal'' ring counters. (For proponents of Mauchly's claims to have been influenced not by the ABC but by scaling circuits used to count
cosmic rays Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our ow ...
at Swarthmore College, this is a significant distinction: if Mauchly derived any work from Atanasoff, why did he not appropriate for the ENIAC Atanasoff's add-subtract mechanism, in principle the most novel and enduring aspect of the ABC?) * Most significantly to the legacies of the two devices, the ABC was never used in any practical way for the computational task for which it was constructed, owing in part to its need to write and read interim results to paper cards using an ill-conceived input-output system too error-prone for solving large systems of equations. The ENIAC, conversely, lived a useful service life spanning almost a decade, and was used for computational jobs in numerous scientific fields. Through its successor machine the EDVAC and the principles disseminated at the
Moore School Lectures ''Theory and Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers'' (popularly called the "Moore School Lectures") was a course in the construction of electronic digital computers held at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical ...
, the
ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...
influenced all future computing machines. The ABC was dismantled (with only a few of its basic components of its memory and arithmetic unit salvaged) without having been patented, published, or publicly demonstrated or described; thus it influenced no other computing machines, except insofar as such influence was transmitted through John Mauchly's exposure to the device (but again, derivation by Mauchly of any concept in the ABC is still a subject of controversy). Following the ruling, some writers perceived recognition of Atanasoff for his title as "father of the computer" was slow in coming, and wrote books of their own. These included Pulitzer Prize-winning Iowan reporter
Clark R. Mollenhoff Clark R. Mollenhoff (April 16, 1921 – March 2, 1991) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, an attorney who served as Presidential Special Counsel, and a columnist for ''The Des Moines Register''. Life and career Born in Burnside, Io ...
and wife-and-husband team Alice Burks and
Arthur Burks Arthur Walter Burks (October 13, 1915 – May 14, 2008) was an American mathematician who worked in the 1940s as a senior engineer on the project that contributed to the design of the ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. ...
. (Arthur had been on the
ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...
's engineering staff and had requested to be added as a co-inventor following the issuance of the ENIAC patent; Alice Burks had been a computer at the
Moore School The Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania came into existence as a result of an endowment from Alfred Fitler Moore on June 4, 1923. It was granted to Penn's School of Electrical Engineering, located in the Town ...
.) Since the time of the ruling, the ''
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing The ''IEEE Annals of the History of Computing'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. It covers the history of computing, computer science, and computer hardware. It was founded in 1979 by the AFIP ...
'' has served as the principal battleground for articles debating the derivation controversy. Therein John Mauchly's widow Kay published her retort to the first Burks article following her husband's 1980 death. An article by
Calvin Mooers Calvin Northrup Mooers (October 24, 1919 – December 1, 1994), was an American computer scientist known for his work in information retrieval and for the programming language TRAC. Early life Mooers was a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, atte ...
, a former employee of Atanasoff's at the
Naval Ordnance Laboratory The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) was a facility in the White Oak area of Montgomery County, Maryland. It is now used as the headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Origins The U.S. Navy Mine Unit, later the Mine Laboratory at ...
, was published posthumously; in it, he questioned Atanasoff's commitment to and capacity for development of computing machines even when provided with ample financial resources.


References

* * * *


External links


A web site and blog devoted to all aspects of ENIAC

"The ENIAC Patent" by Charles E. McTiernan, ''IEEE Annals of the History of Computing'', Vol. 20, No. 2, 1998.

Honeywell, Inc., ''Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'' Records, 1925-1973
at
Charles Babbage Institute The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...
, University of Minnesota. This collection contains pretrial depositions, plaintiff exhibits, deposition exhibits, trial testimony, trial exhibits, the final opinion and judgment, and indexes from the 1971 Honeywell vs. Sperry Rand suit. The trial featured extensive testimony by many early computer designers and engineers detailing the efforts in the United States to build the first digital computers. The trial exhibits include early research reports and notebooks, pictures, and descriptions of early computing machines and programs, and films on the ENIAC. Honeywell, Inc. donated most of the materials in the collection and all of the indexes. A copy of the final judgment was donated by Judge Earl Larson. See als
Larson's papers on the case

Honeywell vs. Sperry Rand
John Vincent Atanasoff and the Birth of Digital Computing, Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University.

Corporate Patent Counsel for Honewell, Inc., Special Collections Department, Iowa State University. {{Honeywell United States patent case law United States district court cases Iowa State University Computer industry United States computer case law 1973 in United States case law Honeywell