March 15, 2001

Mauchly: The Computer and the Skateboard

color. 98 min. Paul David & Jim Reed, dist. by Cinema Guild, 130 Madison Ave., 2d fl., New York, NY 10016; 212-685-6242. 2000. ISBN 0-7815-0798-7. $295 (Rental: $95). Preview avail; public performance. COMPUTERS
This biography illustrates the struggles of John Mauchly, the inventor of the ENIAC computer, to make his colleagues understand the need for an electronic computing machine and explain how he brought the project to fruition. As a professor, Mauchly demonstrated Newton's laws of motion by zooming around his classroom on a jet-propelled skateboard. The film continues with the development of Mauchly Eckert, Inc. (his association with J. Presper Eckert) and the first commercially developed computer, the UNIVAC. The story is told through interviews with Mauchly's widow and friends and also via archival footage of interviews with Mauchly. Covering the early days of computing, this informative and thought-provoking film would be an asset to any academic library supporting a computer-science program. Recommended.
-- Kathleen Loomis, SUNY Coll. at Fredonia Lib.