Origin of Famous Inventions and Inventors: ENIAC the First Computer

About the origin of the invention of ENIAC the first computer, history of how inventors Mauchly, Eckert, Brainerd and others created it.

THE INVENTION: Electronic Computer (1946)

THE INVENTORS: Dr. John W. Mauchly, U.S.; J. Presper Eckert Jr., U.S.; J. G. Brainerd, U.S.

American physicist Mauchly led a group of researchers that built the world's 1st electronic computer at the University of Pennsylvania. They called it ENIAC--electronic numerical integrator and computer. Unlike earlier computers, the work was performed by radio tubes--18,000 in total. The $400,000 brain required a room 30' by 50'. It used 10-digit numbers and could make 5,000 additions a second and perform up to 500 multiplications a second.