The Father of the Computer - John Atanasov

A citizen of the United States, John Atanasov had a Bulgarian father and a French-Irish mother. His mother's father fought in the US Civil War. His father's was killed in the Bulgarian April 1876 Uprising against the Ottoman yoke. As a lecturer at Iowa State University in 1937 John Atanasov had some ideas about improving an IBM tabulator but the company refused to authorize his meddling. It took 35 years and a series of exhausting court cases until he succeeded in proving that he was the father of the intelligent machine. In the land of his father - BULGARIA, John Atanasov was awarded the order of Cyril and Methodius, first class in 1970 and was awarded the order oh the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He gave the following definition of his brainchild: “The computer is but a means, a tool, and a useful instrument and remains one so long as people manage to use it well.” John Atanasov after long and hard examinations in 1937 with the help of the assistant Berry and 650 dollars from the University made the first prototype of electrical - computing machine.

But the good Bulgarian man Atanasov didn't look for his copyright 40 years. Just about in 1973 the court restores the copyright of John Atanasov. Then the news arrived in Bulgaria and Bulgarian filming team made the first documental film for the inventor of the century.

» Book: The Engines of Our Ingenuity: An Engineer Looks at Technology and Culture
Based on episodes from Lienhard's widely broadcast public radio series, this intriguing set of essays begins with a simple premise: more than we often care to admit, our lives are shaped by our machines. Fleshing out this proposition, Lienhard ransacks 2,000 years of scientific and technological history, cobbling together a quirky biography of the strange being he calls homo technologicus. From Galileo's inspired tinkerings to a thumbnail history of the DC-3, this book plunges into the annals of mechanical culture and turns up a technophile's delight of canny observations.