(For proponents of Mauchly's claims to have been influenced not by the ABC but by scaling circuits used to count cosmic rays at Swarthmore College, this is a significant distinction: if Mauchly derived any work from Atanasoff, why did he not appropriate for the ENIAC Atanasoff's add-subtract mechanism, in principle the most novel and enduring aspect of the ABC?)
This statement highlights a discrepancy between Mauchly's claims and the actual implementation of his contributions to the ENIAC project. It suggests that if Mauchly was influenced by Atanasoff's work, he should have incorporated Atanasoff's innovative "add-subtract" mechanism into the ENIAC design.