A closer look
If you ask someone who invented the computer, they will probably mumble something about Alan Turing or ENIAC. They will definitely not mention a physics professor and his grad student in a dusty basement at Iowa State College. Built in 1942, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was actually the first electronic digital computer. It used vacuum tubes for math and capacitors on a rotating drum for memory, completely ditching slow mechanical gears. The tragedy is that it wasn't programmable, couldn't be patented in time due to WWII, and was literally dismantled for parts, remaining mostly forgotten until a massive 1973 lawsuit set the record straight.
