On this day in 1888 American inventor William Seward Burroughs I received a patent for his calculating machine. Burroughs had been a clerk in a bank in 1882 and was determined to create an adding machine. There were several early prototypes, but none of them performed according to Burroughs’ wishes. After being forced to resign from his job in the bank due to health reasons, and getting a job in a machine shop, he was better able to focus on his creation. In 1885 he filed his first patent for a “calculating machine”, and by 1890, these machines were well-known in the banking industry.
William Seward Burroughs I
Was Burroughs’ name then used for the server manufacturers?
Yes, and Burroughs merged with Sperry to become the present day Unisys.
Yes- I worked for Burroughs as an EE in the very late 70’s/early 80’s and when it Became “Unisys”,. They built servers using proprietary chipset/processors as I recall, and other specialized computer peripherals, such as the B9138 check sorting system used by the Federal Reserve Bank. Their large 14″ “fan-fold” multi-part printers were built at the Detroit Tireman Ave plant, where I worked . Later smaller CPU systems were built (I think in the east coast facilities ?) such as the B20
Besides the large plant in Plymouth, there was also a plant in Wayne; cant recall what they made.
But thats along time ago, and I’ve forgotten many details.
YES
I worked for Burroughs ; they built a series of mainframes , large and small.
Personally I would call BS on leaving bank for health reasons, unless it was because he did something that was going to cause a third party to create them? I’ve worked in machine shops, some pretty clean but most were dirty and dusty places (in 1970’s) I really don’t think 1880~1900 would be a cleaner environment
So the logotype used the ‘slashed zero’. The first use of the glyph in the modern sense, maybe?
Worked for Burroughs Quality Control bank mainframe line near Somerville, New Jersey
in the 1970ies
Worked for Burroughs in the 80s. Yes, the 6000/7000 mainframes were built in Tredyffrin, PA outside of Philadelphia, then later the A-Series for Unisys. The B20s were designed in Flemington, NJ but outsourced. But we built the ET-2000 Intel-based workstation there. Does anybody remember those? It was Burroughs one and only foray into PCs. More terminal than PC really.