Clifford Berry
Clifford Edward Berry was an influential figure in the early development of electronic computers, born in 1918 in Gladbrook, Iowa. He showed a keen interest in engineering and electronics from a young age, inspired by his father's engineering background. Berry attended Iowa State College, where he graduated in 1939 and subsequently collaborated with John Vincent Atanasoff on the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), a pioneering electronic digital computer prototype. Their work demonstrated innovative concepts such as dynamic regenerative memory and the application of binary numbers, which contributed significantly to the evolution of modern computing technology.
Despite their impactful contributions, Berry's work was overshadowed by the onset of World War II, which diverted both he and Atanasoff to defense-related jobs. After the war, Berry continued his career in engineering and research, holding several positions and obtaining numerous patents related to electronics and mass spectrometry. Tragically, his life ended prematurely in 1963, under circumstances that raised questions about his death. Berry's legacy endures, as his collaboration with Atanasoff laid the groundwork for future advancements in computer science, and he is increasingly recognized for his vital role in the history of computing.
Clifford Berry
American electrical engineer
- Born: April 19, 1918
- Birthplace: Gladbrook, Iowa
- Died: October 30, 1963
- Place of death: Plainview, New York
While John Vincent Atanasoff developed the concept for the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), Berry deserves equal credit for the detailed design and construction. Berry’s work on the ABC showed that an electronic computer could be built for digital calculation. This influenced future development of the computer.
Primary field: Computer science
Primary invention: Atanasoff-Berry Computer
Early Life
Clifford Edward Berry was born in Gladbrook, Iowa, in 1918. He was the first of four children born to Fred and Grace Strohm Berry. Fred, a self-taught engineer, had an electrical appliance and repair store in Gladbrook and worked on electrical projects, including building the small town’s first radio. Clifford, also known as Cliff, showed early interest in engineering and electronics when he, with his father’s oversight, built his own radio.
The Berry family moved to Marengo, Iowa, when Cliff was eleven. Tragedy struck the family when Fred, a manager at the Iowa Power Company, was shot and killed by an employee who had been fired from his job. Before his death, Fred had decided that Cliff would attend Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) because its college of engineering had a national reputation. When Cliff was ready for college, the family moved to Ames, Iowa, and he studied electrical engineering at Iowa State. There he excelled, graduating in 1939. One of Berry’s professors recommended him to John Vincent Atanasoff when the latter was looking for an electrical engineering graduate student to assist in his computer project.
Life’s Work
In the spring of 1939, Berry began to work on Atanasoff’s project to build a prototype of an electronic digital computer. For Atanasoff’s research, he had to find solutions to large and complex sets of equations. Doing this by hand was extremely tedious. It could take a human 125 hours to solve twenty equations and twenty unknowns. Atanasoff designed a fully electronic computer that could solve a system of thirty equations and thirty unknowns.
Berry’s skill in electronics complemented Atanasoff’s skills in math and physics. Berry took Atanasoff’s rough sketches of some parts of the machine and worked out the details. Eventually, Berry worked independently on the machine without detailed instructions from Atanasoff and suggested his own improvements. They worked in the basement of the physics building next to a student workshop, where they could carefully build each component and test it before moving on.
Berry found that vacuum tubes were expensive, used a lot of space, emitted much heat, and broke often. After testing, he chose a kind that consumed the least power and worked well with the condensers. The tubes provided enough voltage to recharge the condensers, and the condensers provided enough voltage to actuate the tubes.
By the end of 1939, Berry and Atanasoff had a working prototype, which they demonstrated to Iowa State officials. The prototype was a breadboard-size device with the electrical components mounted crudely on its surface. While small, the machine had all the important parts to show that they could make the design work. They received a grant to build a full-scale machine, and the college decided to apply for a patent.
Atanasoff, with Berry’s assistance, wrote a thirty-five-page manuscript entitled “Computing Machines for the Solution of Large Systems of Linear Algebraic Equations,” with drawings of the machine. The manuscript was sent to a college-appointed lawyer to proceed with the patent application. While Iowa State College officials refused to grant a portion of income from a patent to a graduate student, they agreed not to interfere if Atanasoff chose to give Berry a portion of his 50 percent. Atanasoff wanted to acknowledge the importance of Berry’s contribution. In the end, however, the attorney and the college never applied for the patent.
Berry received his master of science in physics in 1941. On May 30, 1942, he married Martha Jean Reed, Atanasoff’s secretary. They had two children, Carol and David. Also that year, Atanasoff and Berry produced a working electronic special-purpose computer, known as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). This computer employed various new techniques, including novel uses of logic circuitry and regenerative memory. However, the part of the machine designed to record intermediate results on paper worked for small systems of equations, not for large ones.
The U.S. entry into World War II ended Berry and Atanasoff’s work and may have prevented their innovations from being published, patented, and given proper credit. They both left Iowa for jobs in the defense industry. Atanasoff went to work for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Maryland. Berry moved to Pasadena, California, where he took a position with Consolidated Engineering Corporation (CEC) for defense-related work. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer remained in the basement of the physics building, where Atanasoff and Berry had built it. When neither returned to Iowa after the war, the chair of the Physics Department needed the space in the basement and disassembled the ABC in 1948.
While employed at CEC, Berry arranged with Iowa State to complete the requirements for a Ph.D. in physics, which he received in 1948 with his dissertation “The Effects of Initial Energies on Mass Spectra.” CEC’s market strength was in mass spectrometers, which produced large amounts of data. To analyze the data, one had to solve a set of simultaneous linear equations similar to the work Atanasoff had done. Berry (with Sibyl Rock) developed and patented an analog computer to accomplish this in 1945.
In 1949, Berry became chief physicist at CEC, and he was promoted to assistant director of research in 1952. In 1959, he became director of engineering of the Analytical and Control Division and also served as technical director. Berry received nineteen patents in the area of mass spectrometry and eleven in the areas of electronics and vacuum tubes.
In 1963, Berry left CEC for a position at the Vacuum-Electronics Corporation in Plainview, New York. Before his family could join him, he died suddenly on October 30. His death was listed as a “possible suicide” from suffocation.
Impact
Berry played a key role in the development of the electronic computer. Berry and Atanasoff’s work communicated the ideas of fully electronic digital logic and dynamic regenerative capacitor storage to other early computer designers and played an important role in the eventual development of a fully programmable electronic general-purpose computer.
Particular components of the ABC were innovative and became basic elements in computers. The machine pioneered a regenerative memory. It used regenerative pulses to stop the charges in the capacitors from “leaking” away. This technique is still the basis of modern dynamic random access memory (RAM). Other innovations included the use of vacuum tubes, the use of binary numbers, and the use of electronic logic.
In the 1960’s, when the legal battles over who invented the first electronic computer began, Atanasoff began to refer to the machine as the “Atanasoff-Berry Computer,” or “ABC,” to give Berry appropriate credit. Atanasoff said that the assembly procedure for the logic circuit that Berry had designed had made the circuits perfect. The ABC would not have been built and would not have worked without Berry’s contribution.
Bibliography
Burks, Alice R., and Arthur W. Burks. The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988. A technically oriented book, the majority of which focuses on the influence of Atanasoff’s work on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) and the legal battle over the invention of the computer. Illustrations, references, index, appendixes.
Gustafson, John. “Reconstruction of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.” In The First Computers—History and Architectures, edited by Raúl Rojas and Ulf Hashagen. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000. Technically detailed chapter detailing the reconstruction of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer in 1997. Provides some information about the working of the computer that cannot be found elsewhere. Illustrations, sources, index.
Hally, Mike. Electronic Brains: Stories from the Dawn of the Computer Age. Washington, D.C.: J. Henry Press, 2005. Readable book with details of various machines and personalities significant in the development of the modern computer. Includes one chapter with information on Berry and Atanasoff’s work. Includes useful appendixes explaining technical terms, binary mathematics, and parts of the modern computer. Illustrations, references, index.
Mollenhoff, Clark R. Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1988. Very readable work that provides many details on Berry’s life and work in the first half of the book. Second half of book has little on Berry. Illustrations, references, index.