For many years, Mauchly and Eckert were considered the inventors of the electronic computer. In fact they
applied for, and received, a patent for their work in 1947. After purchasing ECC, Remington Rand owned the
rights to their patent and was collecting royalties from firms building computers. In a legal battle, initiated by
Honeywell??™s refusal to pay royalties, a judge ruled the original patent invalid. Part of his decision to invalidate
the patent was based on the fact that Mauchly had visited John Atanasoff??™s laboratory in 1941, and used the
knowledge he gained during the visit to build ENIAC. The results of this lawsuit legally established John
Atanasoff as the inventor of the modern computer.
After the war, commercial development of computers continued, resulting in the development of many new
machines that provided improved performance in terms of computing capability and speed. Computers at this
time were large, cumbersome devices that were capable of performing simple operations. These machines were
very expensive to build and maintain. The only organizations that could afford to purchase and run the
equipment were the government and large corporations.
Not surprisingly, many individuals working in the computing field felt that the use of computers would be
limited.
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