John W. Mauchly papers Ms. Coll. 925 Finding aid prepared by Holly Mengel. Last updated on April 27, 2020. University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts 2015 September 9 John W. Mauchly papers Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents....................................................................................................................................... 6 Administrative Information........................................................................................................................... 7 Related Materials........................................................................................................................................... 8 Controlled Access Headings..........................................................................................................................8 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 10 Series I. Youth, education, and early career......................................................................................... 10 Series II. Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.................................. 31 Series III. Eckert-Mauchly partnership................................................................................................. 48 - Page 2 - John W. Mauchly papers Summary Information Repository University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Creator Mauchly, John W. (John William), 1907-1980 Title John W. Mauchly papers Call number Ms. Coll. 925 Date [inclusive] 1908-1980 Extent 37 linear feet (37 boxes) Language English Abstract John W. Mauchly (1907-1980) was a physicist, teacher, and a leader in the development of computers. With J. Presper Eckert, he invented the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC), the Binary Automatic Computer (BINAC), and the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC). This first installment of Mauchly's papers documents Mauchly's youth, education, early career at Ursinus College, his work at the University of Pennsylvania Moore School of Electrical Engineering, his partnership with J. Presper Eckert, with whom he formed two companies, the Electronic Control Company (ECC) and the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), and his work through 1959 with Remington Rand/Sperry Rand after its purchase of EMCC in 1950. Early work in programming, coding, compilers, routines and subroutines, and most importantly, the application of electronic computers in government, business, and industry, as well as the history of the computer, is well documented. Moreover, this collection provides a glimpse into the - Page 3 - John W. Mauchly papers personal life of the remarkable man behind this work through his interactions with family, friends, and colleagues. Cite as: John W. Mauchly papers, 1908-1980, Ms. Coll. 925, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Biography/History John W. Mauchly was born on August 30, 1907, to Sebastian and Rachel (Scheidermantel) Mauchly in Cincinnati, Ohio. He moved with his parents and sister, Helen Elizabeth (Betty), at an early age to Chevy Chase, Maryland, when Sebastian Mauchly obtained a position at the Carnegie Institute of Washington as head of its Section of Terrestrial Electricity. As a youth, Mauchly was interested in science, and in particular with electricity, and was known to fix neighbors' electric systems at the age of 13 or 14. Mauchly attended E.V. Brown Elementary School in Chevy Chase and McKinley Technical High School in Washington, DC. At McKinley, Mauchly was extremely active in the debate team, was a member of the national honor society, and became editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper, Tech Life. After graduating from high school in 1925, he earned a scholarship to study engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently transferred to the Physics Department, and without completing his undergraduate degree, instead earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1932. From 1932 to 1933, Mauchly served as a research assistant at Johns Hopkins University where he concentrated on calculating energy levels of the formaldehyde spectrum. Mauchly's teaching career truly began in 1933 at Ursinus College where he was appointed head of the physics department, where he was, in fact, the only staff member. According to John Costello, Mauchly "became a campus celebrity--if not a faculty favorite--for the irreverent Professor Ho-Hum lectures he used to deliver on the last day of class before Christmas," (Costello, page 50). In addition to his teaching duties, Mauchly sought automated ways to manipulate weather data. After some experimentation on his own, he visited John V. Atanasoff, an Iowa State University professor and inventor of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) which used vacuum tubes. Because the ABC machine was not fully electronic, Mauchly decided to continue his own research and experimentation. In the summer of 1941, Mauchly took a Defense Training Course for Electronics at the University of Pennsylvania Moore School of Electrical Engineering. There he met the lab instructor, J. Presper Eckert (1919-1995), with whom he would form a long-standing working partnership. Following the course, Mauchly was hired as an instructor of electrical engineering and in 1943, he was promoted to assistant - Page 4 - John W. Mauchly papers professor of electrical engineering. Following the outbreak of World War II, the United States Army Ordnance Department contracted the Moore School to build an electronic computer which, as proposed by Mauchly and Eckert, would accelerate the recomputation of artillery firing tables. In 1943, Mauchly and Eckert began building the ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, "an electronic machine to replace mechanical devices" (Costello, page 45). Mauchly has been described as the visionary and Eckert the engineering mastermind of Project PX, the name of the ENIAC during development. ENIAC was not completed until 1946, one year after the end of the war, and was first used by the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland for ballistics testing in 1947. While still at Penn's Moore School, and even during the construction of ENIAC, Eckert and Mauchly were also working on the "next computer," the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC), which Mauchly describes as "the outcome of lengthy planning in which Eckert and [he] deliberately tried to overcome many problems of storage and control which were evident in the hasty 'state-of-the-art' ENIAC System," (Mauchly, Datamation). However, in 1946, Eckert and Mauchly resigned from Penn as a result of a patent dispute over "changes in the way in which ... contracts were administered at the University and changes which the University wished to make in the terms of [their] employment" (Mauchly, Resume). Together, they immediately formed the Electronic Control Company (ECC) which was later renamed the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) when it was incorporated on December 22, 1947. During this period of Mauchly's career, he was denied security clearance which made his work difficult and resulted in his frequently working from home. Although the reasons for Mauchly's security clearance problems were never disclosed, Kay Mauchly suspected, based upon Mauchly's FBI file that it was because he subscribed to Consumer Reports which was declared communist-oriented, or because some members of his staff were considered security risks. Despite this challenge, Eckert and Mauchly introduced, in 1949, the Binary Automatic Computer (BINAC), which used magnetic tape rather than punched cards and stored computer programs internally. By 1950, the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) had been developed. In February 1950, EMCC was purchased by Remington Rand, and EMCC became a division of Rand. The UNIVAC went on the market in 1951 and is considered the first widely used commercial computer able to handle both numerical and alphabetical data. The first order for a UNIVAC came from the United States Bureau of the Census. In 1955, Remington Rand merged with Sperry Corporation and Mauchly became the head of the UNIVAC Applications Research Center (UARC), the UNIVAC division of the Sperry Rand Corporation. Applications research was a field for which Mauchly had long campaigned, and while heading UARC, Mauchly, along with his colleagues, developed C-10 programming code as well as many other "component parts for a commercially useful data processing device of high speed and general scope," (Mauchly, Resume). UNIVAC II was introduced in 1957. Documents within the John W. Mauchly papers indicate that Mauchly and Remington Rand/Sperry Rand did not always agree on the direction in which the company was headed, although productive work appears to have been achieved. In 1959, Mauchly left Sperry Rand and started Mauchly Associates, Inc. One of Mauchly Associates' notable achievements was the development of the Critical Path Method (CPM) which provided for automated