ENIAC
ECKERT, J. PRESPER, JOHN W. MAUCHLY, HERMAN H. GOLDSTINE and JOHN GRIST BRAINERD. Description of the ENIAC and Comments on Electronic Digital Computing Machines. N.p.: Applied Mathematics Panel National Defense Research Committee, November 30, 1945.
4to. 3 folding charts. Cloth-backed printed wrappers. Some wear and soiling to wrappers, ink stamps and cancellations to printing on wrapper, adhesive residue on verso of wrapper and title page.
Provenance: Prevas (ownership penciled to front wrapper); Winifred S. Jonas, ENIAC/EDVAC/ORDVAC programmer at BRL.

FIRST EDITION OF THIS RESTRICTED FIRST REPORT ON THE FIRST PROGRAMMABLE, ELECTRONIC, GENERAL-PURPOSE DIGITAL COMPUTER. Issued in limited numbers, this no 121. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was largely the work of J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, who had met at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School in late 1941. Mauchly, a doctor of physics, had had struck upon the idea of building a digital calculating machine for assisting with the computations necessary for predicting the weather and enrolled at Penn in order to gain a deeper understanding of electronics. Eckert, a recent Penn graduate, had been an electronics prodigy and the two found themselves with a common interest.
Mauchly submitted a 7-page proposal in August 1942 'The Use of High-Speed Vacuum Tube Devices for Calculation,' but it was ignored by Penn's deans. The following year, word of the paper came to Dr. Herman Goldstine, then a Lieutenant in the US Army assigned to solve the problem of finding a replacement for the artillery firing tables that had worked in Europe, but were not suitable for the conditions found in Africa. The Army enlisted Penn's Moore School to assist with the computations because they had a Differential Analyzer, but it proved too slow for the task.
Goldstine brought Mauchly and Eckert to pitch for their machine at the Ballistics Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland. Much to their surprise, the Army greenlighted the project with an initial $61,700 appropriation for the first 6-months' work.
The present work was published soon after the ENIAC was made operational at the Moore School. It consists of sections titled: 'The Need for High Speed General Purpose Computing Machines,' 'Advantages of Electronic Digital Machines,' 'Description of the ENIAC,' 'Design Principles for High Speed Computing Machines,' 'Reliability and Checking,' and an appendix that includes 'Remarks on Arithmetic Operation of the ENIAC,' 'Remarks on Programming the ENIAC,' and 'General Constructional Data on the ENIAC.'
Hook-Norman. Origin of Cyberspace 1107.