Guus Bosman

In a few days Tamara Burton will visit Bulgaria. She is the granddaugther of John Vincent Atanasoff, one of the most famous Bulgarians ever.

In this newspaper article (in English)
he is referred to as the person who invented the world's first electronic digital computer.

He worked an the Iowa State College, USA and designed a machine that could solve lineair equations electronically. He worked on this project with an assistant, Clifford Berry but in 1942 they were forced to abandon their project due to the war.

In 1947 a patent was requested for the ENIAC, which was called the first all-purpose digital computer ever. In 1964 this patent was granted and the owner of the patent started to sue other companies building digital computers. However, these companies convinced the judge that Atanasoff's machine was designed before the ENIAC, and had in fact influenced the ENIAC's design. The judge agreed and cancelled the patent.

At that time this judgement which implied that Atanasoff was the real inventor of the electronic digital computer, was called controversial. However in 1984 Arthur Burks, on of the early designers of the ENIAC acknowledged that Atanosoff had designed the first electronic computer.

Bulgaria is very proud of this man and in 1970 he was awarded Bulgaria's highest science award.

For me it's one of the most interesting stories in the history of computer science. Here's more on mr. Atanasoff.