John William Mauchly, a physicist and computer engineer, is widely credited with co-inventing two of the most important early computers. With J. Presper Eckert, Mauchly invented the first general-purpose digital electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). Also with Eckert, Mauchly developed the first commercial digital electronic computer, the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC). Their work together effectively began the commercial computer revolution in America and throughout the world.

Mauchly was born on August 30, 1907, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Sebastian J. Mauchly and Rachel Scheidemantel Mauchly. His father was an electrical engineer who, in 1915, moved the family east to accept a position as head of the Section of Terrestrial Electricity and Magnetism at the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C. Mauchly attended the Johns Hopkins University from 1925 to 1927, when he was admitted to the graduate school there without an undergraduate degree. He received a Ph.D. in physics...