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J. Presper Eckert (1919–1995)

Basic Facts

  • Full name: John Adam Presper Eckert Jr. (known as “Pres”)
  • Born: 9 April 1919, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Died: 3 June 1995, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
  • Cause of death: Leukemia

Family Background

Born into a wealthy Philadelphia family. His mother, Ethel M. Hallowell, came from an old Philadelphia Quaker family. His father, John Eckert, was a wealthy real estate developer of Swiss-German and Alsatian descent. During elementary school, Eckert was driven by chauffeur to William Penn Charter School.

Education

  • High school: William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia. He placed second nationally on the College Board mathematics exams. In high school, he joined the Engineer’s Club of Philadelphia and spent afternoons at the electronics laboratory of television inventor Philo Farnsworth in Chestnut Hill – early exposure to cutting-edge electronics that would shape his career.
  • 1937: Initially enrolled at the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) but transferred to the Moore School of Electrical Engineering.
  • B.S.: Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1941.
  • M.S.: Moore School, 1943.

At the Moore School, Eckert conducted radar timing research, improved the differential analyzer’s speed and precision, and assisted in teaching electronics courses. It was as a lab instructor in the summer 1941 Defense Training Course that he met John Mauchly, who was a student.

ENIAC: The Engineering Genius

Vacuum Tube Reliability

The central engineering challenge of ENIAC was vacuum tube reliability. With 17468 vacuum tubes, the machine needed extraordinary measures to keep running. Eckert devised the key insight: by running the tubes well below their rated voltage, failure rates dropped dramatically. This approach – derate everything – made the difference between a machine that crashed every few minutes and one that could run for days. The innovation was as much managerial as technical: Eckert imposed rigorous quality control on every component.

Construction

Eckert served as chief engineer when the Army contracted the Moore School in 1943 to build ENIAC. The machine was completed in late 1945 and publicly unveiled in February 1946. ENIAC weighed over 30 tons, contained over 17000 vacuum tubes, 70000 resistors, 6000 switches, and 10000 capacitors.

Mercury Delay-Line Memory

Eckert invented mercury delay-line memory, which became crucial for reliable data storage in early computers. This invention was key to EDVAC and later to UNIVAC. The mercury delay line stored data as acoustic pulses traveling through a tube of mercury, recirculating them at the end.

EDVAC and the Stored-Program Controversy

Eckert contended that the “von Neumann architecture” should properly be called “Eckert architecture,” arguing that the stored-program concept predated von Neumann’s involvement with the Moore School project by at least eight months. Jean Bartik, one of the original ENIAC programmers, supported this claim. The question of who truly originated the stored-program concept remains one of computing history’s most contentious debates.

Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation

  • March 1946: Eckert and Mauchly left the Moore School over intellectual property disputes (the university changed its patent policy to claim ownership of employee inventions).
  • 1947: Founded the Electronic Control Company, which soon became the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation – the first computer company in the United States.
  • Built BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) with magnetic tape storage (completed August 1950).
  • Received an order from the National Bureau of Standards for UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer).
  • UNIVAC I completed 21 December 1950 – the first commercial computer in the U.S., designed for business applications and featuring magnetic tape for mass storage.

Financial Troubles and Acquisition

  • 1950: The company faced financial difficulties and was acquired by Remington Rand Corporation.
  • Eckert remained with Remington Rand and became an executive within the company.
  • Continued through the 1986 merger with Burroughs Corporation to form Unisys.
  • 1989: Retired from Unisys but continued as a consultant.

Awards and Honors

  • Howard N. Potts Medal (1949)
  • National Medal of Science (1968): “For pioneering and continuing contributions in creating, developing, and improving the high-speed electronic digital computer.”
  • Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame (2002, posthumously)

Personal Characteristics

Eckert was above all an engineer – meticulous, detail-oriented, and practical. While Mauchly was the visionary who conceived the idea of an electronic computer, Eckert was the one who made it physically work. His early exposure to Philo Farnsworth’s television lab, his intuitive grasp of electronic circuits, and his insistence on running components conservatively were the practical foundation upon which ENIAC, BINAC, and UNIVAC were built.

Connections to Others in the Story

  • John Mauchly: Intellectual partner; Mauchly conceived, Eckert built. Together they co-founded the first computer company and created ENIAC and UNIVAC.
  • John von Neumann: The “First Draft” controversy: Eckert maintained that the stored-program concept was his and Mauchly’s, not von Neumann’s.
  • Herman Goldstine: Army liaison who facilitated ENIAC funding; distributed the “First Draft” under von Neumann’s name alone.
  • Adele Goldstine: Wrote the ENIAC technical manual.
  • The six ENIAC programmers: Programmed the machine Eckert built; Jean Bartik later supported Eckert’s claim to the stored-program concept.

Sources