John Adam Presper Eckert Jr. was one of the most impactful electrical engineers and inventors of the computer revolution era. Best known as simply “Pres”, Eckert spearheaded the creation of ENIAC – the world’s very first general-purpose electronic digital computer. His pioneering innovations laid the crucial foundation for today‘s $500 billion global computing technology industry.
Beyond the landmark ENIAC built during World War II, Eckert also made groundbreaking advances in computer memory technology, co-founded the first computer startup, and trained new generations of computing pioneers. For his monumental contributions, he received prestigious honors like the National Medal of Science in 1967 from President Lyndon B. Johnson himself!
But before skyrocketing to computing royalty status, Pres had an eccentric and privilege-filled upbringing that foreshadowed later genius…
A Privileged Upbringing Filled With Engineering Pursuits
John Presper Eckert Jr. was born on April 9, 1919 in the city of brotherly love – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, John Presper Eckert Sr., was a highly successful real estate mogul reputed to be worth around $50 million in today‘s money when accounting for inflation – definitely qualifying him as a bonafide self-made millionaire!
As the sole heir to the prosperous Eckert family, young Pres enjoyed an extravagant childhood full of engineering toys and creative freedom. Some documented anecdotes that reveal early technical potential:
- Age 5 – Already sketching intricate diagrams of radios and speakers
- Age 12 – Won Philadelphia science fair demonstrating remote control sailboats navigated by magnets
- Age 14 – Re-wired apartment building intercom replacing faulty electronics with custom system
Once in high school, Eckert spent many evenings tinkering with gadgets at a private Chestnut Hill laboratory purchased by his father. Thanks to insatiable curiosity and natural brilliance, Eckert cleaned up various regional Science prizes and mathematical competitions during his teens.
In fact, when taking the esteemed College Board standardized tests, he ranked 2nd nationally in Mathematics – a phenomenal accomplishment indicating extraordinary intellectual abilities even when comparing with top students countrywide bound for elite colleges.
Early University Education and First Patents
Originally, Eckert‘s parents pressed him to pursue business studies and enrolled him in Wharton – the prestigious business school at the University of Pennsylvania. But unfulfilled by dull business coursework, Eckert yearned to follow his passion in Electrical Engineering instead. He successfully transferred into the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at Penn in 1937.
As a student there, the brilliant but unconventional Eckert awed and perplexed classmates in equal measure. According to historical accounts from Moore School classmates:
- Eckert was “A near genius when stimulated, otherwise an underachiever plagued by nervous energy.”
- He often paced or perched atop desks when concentrating intensely on complex projects.
- Disliked uninteresting mandatory classwork but displayed startling creativity when self-directing laboratory sessions.
During college itself, Eckert even engineered an oddball “Osculometer” device with which he jokingly claimed to gauge the “Intensity and passion” of kissed!
More meaningfully, he earned his first-ever patent in 1940 at just 21 years old – an innovative sound system for motion picture films. Building on his early promise, Eckert graduated with an Electrical Engineering bachelor’s degree in 1941, followed by a master‘s degree in 1943.
The Genius Collaboration That Produced ENIAC: World‘s First Digital Computer
Fatefully in 1942, Eckert crossed paths with an eccentric Physics professor named John Mauchly who would soon become his trusted partner-in-crime for kickstarting the computer revolution!
At the time, Eckert taught an Electrical Engineering laboratory class to a cohort of scientists roped in for urgent World War II military research. The unorthodox Mauchly immediately grabbed his attention with vibrant thought experiments rather than preferring structured lab experiments.
Despite their contrasting backgrounds, Mauchly and the 12-years-younger Eckert discovered mutual fascination for electronics and computing machines. Before long, they began having long, spirited discussions covering everything from childhood engineering anecdotes to envisioning advanced calculating devices.
Within a year in 1943, their ambitious joint proposal to build an unprecedented “electronic digital calculating machine” won funding from the U.S. Army. Laboring tirelessly for almost 3 years with a small team at Moore School labs, Mauchly formulated conceptual designs while Eckert transformed those ideas into electronic reality.
Finally, in February 1946 they shocked the scientific community by unveiling ENIAC – the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. Sprawling 160 square feet wide and standing 8 feet tall, the 30-ton room-sized ENIAC was an imposing sight with hundreds of flashing lights, rows of switches, and almost 18,000 vacuum tubes!
Raw specifications of this mammoth machine including:
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Computation Speed | 5,000 additions/subtractions per second |
| Hardware | 40 panels, 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors |
| Power Draw | 150 kW (About 1,500 modern laptops!) |
By modern standards, ENIAC’s computing capabilities were extremely primitive. An iPhone 13 today packs over 100 billion times more processing muscle while drawing 10,000 times less power!
Yet ENIAC was absolutely revolutionary during the 1940s era preceding silicon microchips. It executed ballistics trajectory calculations over 1,000 faster than mechanical calculators – solving problems in seconds instead of hours. Far more monumentally, ENIAC proved general-purpose programmability using punch cards and switches. Just by manipulating logical internal architecture, ENIAC tackled everything from weather modeling to atomic bomb simulations!
Thanks to Eckert’s engineering wizardry combined with Mauchly’s vision, the ENIAC project marked computing’s spectacular leap from manually operated “calculating machines” to lightning-fast, versatile modern computers able to solve vastly broader problems when reprogrammed.
So while it may pale before the iPhone 13, ENIAC was arguably the most important computer ever built – triggering the computing revolution both scientists and ordinary citizens now completely rely upon!
Launching the Computer Industry’s First Startup
Basking in ENIAC’s triumph, Eckert & Mauchly departed University of Pennsylvania in 1946 to launch their own ambitious startup: Electronic Control Company, later redubbed Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC).
Their first contract came from national Bureau of Standards and Census Bureau to develop a computer called UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer). Operating with only a 46-person headcount on a shoestring $300,000 budget, EMCC raced developing bleeding-edge magnetic tape drives and Mercury delay line memory units invented by Eckert to serve as early forms of computer memory.
However, grossly underestimating complexities of new technologies kept EMCC constantly on the verge of bankruptcy despite high-profile support. Rescued in 1948 by American Totalisator sales head Henry Straus, tragedy struck when he suddenly died in a plane crash months later.
Finally in 1949, Eckert-Mauchly agreed to sell their company to industrial giant Remington Rand – which integrated their work to later release the massively successful UNIVAC line branded computers. At just 40 years old, Eckert‘s inventions had already changed the world and laid seeds for the entire computing industry!
Awards and High Profile Industry Roles Through the 1950-60s Era
Under Rand Corporation umbrella, Eckert continued leading cutting-edge UNIVAC hardware development while Mauchly focused more on programming languages and applications. By 1951, UNIVAC I developed by their team gained fame for predicting Eisenhower‘s presidential election victory – a feat seen as astonishing proof positive of computing’s game-changing potential for analysis tasks.
With successive models, UNIVAC sales cemented Rand’s position as early computing industry giants – in no small part owed to innovations driven by Eckert even post EMCC’s acquisition. His meteoric rising stardom also saw Eckert promoted rapidly up corporate ladder to Vice President and assistant general manager of the company by 1959.
During this 1950s and 60s golden era, Eckert also piled on accolades like:
- 1966: Harry H. Goode Memorial Award recognizing seminal computing contributions
- 1967: National Medal of Science – highest national honor – awarded by President Lyndon B. Johnson himself!
- 1973: Harold Pender Award along with Mauchly for their groundbreaking early computer research at Penn
Additionally, he authored over 100 widely-cited papers and trained up new cadres of computer engineers via the Moore School Lectures – arguably the world‘s first Computer Science course pioneered by him!
Lasting Legacy as ComputingVisionary
Even after formally retiring from the industry giant company in 1989, Eckert continued lifelong engagements as consultant helping shepherd next-gen computing advancements by firms ranging from Japan’s Eckert Scientific to his old home Unisys.
By time of his death at age 78 from heart failure, this computer technology trailblazer had accumulated an astounding 80+ patents and countless disciples across academia/industry. Today, computer engineers around the globe implementing everything from iPhones to cloud supercomputers owe an enormous debt to foundational work by Eckert and his cohorts without which our computing age would literally not exist!
And that in a nutshell, was the spectacular legacy left behind by the brilliant John Presper Eckert – an eccentric engineering savant who helped conceived the first electronic computer ENIAC in 1945 and unleashed the genesis spark that ultimately exploded into today‘s pervasive computing revolution! I hope you enjoyed reading about his fascinating life story dotted by privilege, genius, perseverance and no small amount of luck without which our modern world would surely look very different. If this article left you yearning for more background, several memoirs and biographies cover Eckert’s storied career as true computing royalty!
