John Mauchly´s Early Years

The paper describes John W. Mauchly´s experiences and experiments that led to his concept of an electronic digital computer based on mechanical desk calculators during the years he was teaching at Ursinus College (1933-1941), his interaction with John V. Atanasoff of Iowa State College, and the environment at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania that led to the eventual proposal (1943) for building the electronic ENIAC.