"HISTORY" by Burroughs Corporation
(June 1983) (3009352)
PREFACE
The following item appeared in the late 1880s in a St. Louis daily newspaper as part of an advertisement:
"Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Damian Stanislitz, station master of Yogondin (Servia), was so upset at finding a deficit of $1.25 in his accounts that he committed suicide after writing the railway company stating his error. "When his accounts were examined, it was proven that an error in casting up had led him astray. There was not a penny missing."
This short item was followed by a message in bold, black type informing the reader that Burroughs adding machines could be purchased from Mr. Jay Ward, St. Louis sales agent.
To those of us who are used to the sophisticated convenience of pocket calculators that do everything from routine mathematical functions to teaching a foreign language, the spectacle of Mr. Ward rushing to the aid of St. Louis bookkeepers about to blow their brains out, may seem a little extreme. But bookkeeping was far different a century ago.
Before the invention of the adding machine, bookkeepers were required to have an extraordinary capacity for sustained concentration, attention to detail, and a passion for accuracy. In large banks and businesses, with their great volumes of numbers, the task of the bookkeeper was formidable and strenuous.
William Seward Burroughs knew the problems well. A slight, retiring young man in precarious health, he worked in the counting room of a bank in Auburn, New York. he was also an inventor with a talent for mechanical design which he inherited from his father, who received the pioneer patent on paper cutter knives as well as patents on railroad maintenance equipment.
In 1881, when Burroughs was 24 years old, the many hours required to correct the inevitable mistakes which occurred in handling long lists of figures had taken their toll. His doctors advised his to go to a warmer climate and change occupations to preserve his health. He choose to move to St. Louis, Missouri and to pursue an idea he had for a machine that would add long columns of figures mechanically, thus saving bookkeepers from countless hours of tedious figuring and re-figuring.
In 1882 Burroughs moved to St. Louis where he was given bench space to develop his machine by a machine shop owner, Joseph Boyer. The following are excerpts from Boyer's own account of what took place over the next few years:
"There was Burroughs with his great idea, greater than any of us could fully appreciate, and with his meager capital of $300. Long before the first model was actually begun, his money was gone. But as his resources dwindled, his courage rose. I used to leave him at his bench in the evening and find him still there in the morning. . . .
"When damp weather expanded the paper on which he worked, he resorted to polished sheets of copper, cutting his lines with the point of a needle. When he located the center, he did so under the microscope. When the polished copper proved tiresome to his eyes, he drew on polished zinc, chemically blackened, the lines showing white against the background of black. It was his way of drafting plans for what he knew must be minutely accurate."
In 1885, at the age of 28, William S. Burroughs filed an application for his first patent, establishing priority for the adding and listing machine,
William S. Burroughs didn't actually invent the adding machine in the sense that he created it from nothing. Calculating devices had existed for centuries, at least since the abacus. But Burroughs combined existing technologies to build the first practical adding machine. It could be mass produced, and it promised to eliminate hours of boring human toil.
(this preface is reprinted from InFocus, the Burroughs employees magazine.)
1880s
This was the founding of Burroughs Corporation. To produce and market his machine, Burroughs and his co-founders - Thomas Metcalfe, R. M. Scruggs, and William R. Pye - formed the American Arithmometer Company on January 20, 1886, in St Louis. Metcalfe was elected the Company's first president, Burroughs was named vice president, Metcalfe's older brother William, although not a stockholder, was made secretary and Scruggs treasurer.
The Company's product "line" consisted of a single model, a straight adding and listing machine which sold for $475.
In its first 10 years, the Company grew to include a factory and office staff of 65 employees, with three salesman in the field. With asset of a little more than $300,000, the fledgling company quickly became an international organization. In 1895, Burroughs Adding and Registering Company Limited, of Nottingham, England was established, and three years later the Company's first manufacturing facility outside the United States was also established at Nottingham.
The adding machine was proving more and more to be a success, especially with banks. In 1898, 729 machines were sold. Four models were now being offered. The original was a nine-column machine, the second model could make duplicate copies on a roll paper, the third had a wider carriage, and a fourth, introduced in late 1897, had only six columns and sold for $250.
William S. Burroughs, who had retired from active participation in the Company because of ill health, died on September 14, 1898. Joseph E. Boyer, a St. Louis manufacturer who had encouraged and supported the efforts of Burroughs for many years, became president of the American Arithmometer Company in 1902.
1900s
In 1904, when it became clear that the young company had outgrown its St. Louis facilities, the Company packed up and moved to Detroit - literally. On Saturday, October 8, two special trains pulled out of the St. Louis depot bound for Detroit. There cargo was the American Arithmometer Company - foreman and factory hands, wives and children, ice boxes, punch presses, gramophones, roll-top desks, crockery, and adding machines.
The destination was a newly-constructed plant of some 70,000 square feet at Detroit's northern fringe, on land that had as a seed bed for the famous Ferry Seed Company.
After the long weekend trip, the 465 employees came to work on Monday to help unload the trains and begin operations at the new factory. It wasn't long before adding machines were being produced again - 71 in October, 283 in November, and 316 in December.
In these new surroundings, the Company grew and prospered. Additions to the first factory were made in 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910, and 1916.
The Company was renamed the Burroughs Adding Machine Company in 1905, in tribute to the man whose vision had led to the Company's founding less than 20 years earlier. During 1905, employment rose to 1,200, and 7,800 machines were sold - as many as William S. Burroughs predicted the entire U.S. market might be able to absorb. Just two years later the 50,000th Burroughs machine was made. The assets of the Company were now valued at $5 million.
1920s
Recognizing the universal demand for its product, the Company began to spread its operations throughout the world. By the mid-1920s Burroughs machines were being sold in some 60 countries, and the Company had established major operations in South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.
Burroughs product line was also expanding during this period. A series of calculators designed specifically for banking needs was produced in the early part of the century. In 1910, Burroughs introduced the new duplex adding machine, which featured both totals and subtotals, and a year later the first subtracting-adding machine, regarded as a major step forward for bank postings. The first electric key-actuated calculating machine was introduced in the 1920s.
By year-end 1920, the 800,000th Burroughs machine had been produced. Total employment in the factory and offices had risen to 8,500, and there were 3.500 people employed by the sales agencies in the U.S. and Canada. Net earnings for 1923 was $4.4 million on sales of $28.4 million.
In May 1921, the Company purchased the financially ailing Moon-Hopkins Billing Machine Company of St. Louis for $750,000. Moon-Hopkins manufactured a unique adding, typing and multiplying machines that became an important addition to the Burroughs product line.
At the turning point of the depression in the 1930s, the Moon-Hopkins machine accounted for about one-fifth of all Burroughs sales.
By 1935, the Burroughs product line had grown to include 450 standard models of manual and electric calculating, bookkeeping machines and typewriters.
1940s
The course of Burroughs growth and development began to change significantly with World War II. The Company cooperated in the National Defense Program as production of Burroughs machines was restricted to the needs of the Army, Navy, lend-lease program, and the war contractors.
In 1944 Burroughs was awarded an Army-Navy "E" for outstanding achievement in the production of the Norden bombsight. This program made accurate, high-altitude bombing possible, and was considered by some military authorities as the single most significant device in shortening the war. Previously, mass production of the bombsight , a very advanced precision instrument, was believed impossible due to the half millionth of an inch tolerance required.
While Burroughs efforts were again directed toward production of commercial machines in the post-war period, World War II had marked the beginning of a major turning point for Burroughs. The war had accelerated the development of electronic technology, including the potential for development of the electronic computer. Beginning in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Company's growth was in four principle areas: electronic development, computer systems, and diverse products which supported banking and business applications.
By the end of World War II, there were 558 sales branches and service centers in the U.S. and Canada, and 215 branches and dealer offices overseas. Company sales had grown to $46 million.
John C. Coleman, who was credited with working out the system for mass production of the Norden bombsight, became president of the Company in 1946. Under Coleman's leadership, the decision was made to begin a full program of electronic research, and in 1949 permanent facilities for electronic research and development were established near Philadelphia. Three years later, an Electronic Instrument Division was established in that city to manufacture and market scientific instruments and electronic memory components and systems.
the new emphasis on electronic products had already resulted in a series of innovative banking and accounting machines, called the Sensimatic, which was produced by Burroughs in the late 1940s.
1950s
In 1950 the Company introduced the first Sensimatic accounting machine with programmed control panel, a product considered the greatest advance in accounting machines in 25 years. Burroughs Sensimatic and later "Sensitronic" machines - called the Series F - became the standard of bookkeeping machines.
In 1951, experiments began at the Company's research and development center, which were aimed at developing a series of computers specifically for business problem solving. In 1954 Burroughs introduced the E 101, a desk-size electronic digital computer for scientific, engineering and business applications. Later, Series E systems, such as the E 2000, and counterpart Series F systems, became widely accepted and were Burroughs leading products for accounting applications in business, industry and banking well into the 1960s.
In parallel with Burroughs development of electronic products for accounting applications, the Company expanded its capability for development of larger, multipurpose computer systems. The Burroughs memory system built in 1952 for ENIAC, the worlds first electronic computer, increased the computer's memory capacity six-fold, and demonstrated the Company's capability in electronic computation.
With the acquisition of several companies in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Burroughs began to diversify its operations. The Company entered the office supplies business in 1949 with the acquisition of two manufacturers of carbon paper and machines ribbons, Mittag & Volger, Inc. of Park Ridge, New Jersey and Acme Carbon & Ribbon Co., Ltd., of Toronto, Canada.
Two other key acquisitions strengthened the Company's electronics development program: Control Instrument Company of Brooklyn, New York, a designer and manufacturer of electronic instruments and fire control devices for the U.S. Navy, in 1951; and Haydu Brothers of Plainfield, New Jersey, a manufacturer of vacuum tubes and other electric components, in 1954. The acquisition in 1955 of the Todd Company of Rochester, New York, a major supplier of checks, business forms, and check writers and signers, further expanded Burroughs product capability.
Burroughs soon became recognized as a single source for a variety of products for business management. Reflecting the Company's more diverse operations. Burroughs Adding Machine Company was renamed Burroughs Corporation in 1953.
The Company was now a major force in this rapidly evolving industry. By the end of 1956, total employment had grown to 33,000, and revenue to almost $273 million.
A decade later, under the leadership of Chairman Ray R. Eppert, Burroughs became a half-billion-dollar Company. Eppert's retirement in 1966 led to the election of Ray W. MacDonald as the new chairman. He would lead the Company through the 1960s an 70s.
Burroughs acquired the ElectroData Corporation of Pasadena, California in 1956, and further expanded the Company's base in electronic technology.
ElectroData, a leading producer of computing equipment, provided Burroughs with much needed engineering and manufacturing capacity.
The same year Burroughs Great Valley Laboratories were opened in Paoli, Pennsylvania.
Burroughs development of a full range of computer systems progresses steadily. The Company introduced the large-scale Datatron 220 in 1957, the B 251 visible record computer for banking applications in 1959, the B 200 series of small to medium-scale solid-state computers in 1961, and the B 5000 solid-state modular data processing system, also in 1961.
The B 5000 was regarded as the most advanced business and scientific computer offered by any manufacturer. It departed from traditional concepts of computer design, and featured such pioneering concepts as automatic multiprogramming, extensive use of compiler languages, Burroughs Master Control Program, and "virtual memory."
1960s
The B 5000 was followed by the more powerful B 5500 system in 1964, as Burroughs began its "family" approach to computer design. In addition to the B 5500, the '500" family included the large-scale B 6500 and medium-scale B 2500 and B 3500 systems introduced in 1866, and the small-scale B 500 systems released in 1968.
The '500' family served a broad cross-section of date processing requirements in fields such as banking, manufacturing, and government. It solidified Burroughs position in the computer industry, and provided the base for the Company to further expand its computer manufacturing capabilities.
Burroughs success at solving business problems took a further evolutionary step in the late 1960s with the introduction of the Series TC terminal computers and the Series L mini-computers. The Series TC internally programmed computers were designed for use with on-line data processing systems, and could function as either terminals or independent computers. The Series L was designed primarily as a self-sufficient billing computer, but featured a data communications option which enabled it to operate on-line as a terminal computer. Both Series TC and Series L mini-computers were well received by all types of customers, and over 140,000 units were sold worldwide in 10 years.
As developments in micro-circuitry were applied to Series TC and Series L systems in the 1960s and 1970s, the system evolved from electro-mechanical machines to fully electronic computers.
The early programs to expand Burroughs electronic capabilities also resulted in the Company being awarded numerous government and defense contracts. Burroughs computers were used by the United States Navy in its POLARIS program, and by the U.S. Air Force in the SAGE, ALRI and BUIC continental air defense networks. In 1961 Burroughs was named by the Air Force as hardware contractor for the NORAD combat operations computer complex and data display system. The computer was used to make split-second evaluations of threats to the North American continent using input from satellites and radar throughout the world.
During this time, Burroughs was also an active participant in the U.S. space program. The world's first operational transistorized computer, produced by Burroughs in 1957, was used in guiding the launch of the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. A later version of this computer guided every launch in the Mercury and Gemini programs of manned space flights. With the completion of the first space rendezvous, made in 1965 between Gemini VI and VII, Burroughs guidance computers had handled more than 300 successful missions without failure, error or delay. That year, the Burroughs computer that had guided the first Atlas missile was presented to the Smithsonian Institution by the U.S. Air Force, and another of the first ground guidance computers was installed in the Air Force Space Museum at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The last of 17 such Burroughs guidance computers was retired by the Air Force in 197 after completion of over 400 successful missions.
Throughout Burroughs extensive involvement in electronic research, defense projects, and the space program, the Company remained in the forefront of the commercial market by supplying a variety of products for banking and business.
Late in the 1960s, Burroughs began the first phase of a major, long-range capital expenditure program for the expansion of its worldwide production resources. Five new facilities were opened that year, including two in the U.S> and one each in Belgium, Brazil and Mexico. More facilities followed in the 1970s, as the Company's production centers increased from 36 in 1966 to 61 in 1976.
1970s
The 1970s saw the further merging of Burroughs electronics and computer efforts of the previous decades, and the Company's emergence as a leader in the computer industry. The decade also marked Burroughs entry into other areas of information management, principally office automation. The Company used its growing resources to develop several complete new families of computer systems - from minicomputers to large-scale computers - and to support them with a full range of related software products, computer peripherals, terminals and data communications systems, and data management equipment.
Burroughs Series TC and Series L electronic systems, which had been introduced in the late 1960s, were continually refined for various business applications. These refinements along with continued electronic developments led to the introduction of the B 80 series of small-scale computer systems in 1976. The B 80 brought the power and memory capacity of much larger computers to the small systems range. These features were further evident in the B 90 series announced in 1979.
Burroughs also continued to place strong emphasis on the development of larger computer systems during the 1970s. Following the successful "500" family of computers, the '700' family was introduced between 1971 and the end of 1975.
The '700' family considerably extended Burroughs coverage of the data processing market from the base established with the '500' family.
In late 1975 Burroughs began introducing the '800' family of systems with the announcement of a series of computers designed for medium-to-large-scale applications. This family was to be the successor for each member of the '700' series.
In 1979, Burroughs announced the first models of the '900' family of systems. The '900' models typically occupy half the space and require 50 percent less power to operate than the '800' family models.
During the 1970s, the Company also continued its developments in other areas of data processing, with products for data preparation and document handling; with a full range of displays, keyboards, printing terminals, and related data communications computer systems; with memory subsystems and high speed printers; and with software products for applications in banking and finance, manufacturing, health care, education, government, transportation, and many other areas.
The Burroughs expansion in data processing was paralleled by its entry into the office automation market. The Company entered the facsimile communications market in 1975 by acquiring Graphic Sciences, Inc. which produced equipment under the "dex" trademark, and entered the word processing market one year later by acquiring Redactron Corporation. The acquisition of the assets of Context Corporation in 1979 added an optical character recognition page reader system to this growing range of office automation products, which have become an increasingly important segment of Burroughs "total solution" approach to information management.
While the Burroughs product line expanded, so too did employment and revenue. By 1976, world wide revenue had grown to almost $2 billion. Employment had reached 50,000.
1970s
More growth was just around the corner. The 1980s ushered in a new era of acquisitions, as Burroughs made its niche within the burgeoning information systems industry. Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal became chairman of the board in early 1980, following the retirement of Paul S. Mirabito. DuRay E. Stromback was succeeded as president of the Company by Dr. Paul G. Stern in mid-1982. Under this new leadership, more firms were acquired to fill technology voids and strengthen areas targeted for growth.
In 1980, System Development Corporation, a leading information systems supplier for government agencies, was acquired. Its operations were merged in 1982 with those of the Burroughs Federal and Special Systems Group to better concentrate the expertise of both organizations in designing systems for governments. The new organization was christened System Development Corporation - a Burroughs company.
The 1981 acquisition of Memorex Corporation brought to Burroughs first-rate capability in computer storage devices, one of the fastest-growing areas in the information systems industry. The first Memorex-built storage system specifically designed for a Burroughs computer system debuted in 1982.
On a smaller scale, there were other acquisitions which strengthened the Company in key areas. The 1981 purchase of Systems Research Incorporated gave Burroughs a supplier of advanced data communications equipment and software. And in 1982, the Company enhanced its ability to serve the educational market with the acquisition of Mid-west Systems Group, a software house specializing in programs for educational institutions.
The early 1980s also saw Burroughs turn to outside suppliers when it made sense to purchase products and services, or to form joint ventures. The Company divested itself of a major portion of its components and display business, but at the same time teamed with companies like Convergent Technologies and Intel Corporation to forge new business relationships.
With Convergent Technologies, Burroughs introduced the B 20, a family of powerful microcomputers that can operate either as standalone intelligent workstations or small business-computers, or be hooked into a distributing processing network. Convergent developed and builds the B 20 to Burroughs specifications.
The Company's state-of-the-art semiconductor facility in Rancho Bernardo, California, also devised an agreement with Intel in 1982, whereby Intel produces a significant percentage of the Burroughs-designed high-volume, proprietary chips.
Products introduced in the first few years were deep. The '900' family of computer systems featured new entries at the low, medium and high end. The OFIS 1 office automation system, introduced in 1981, comprised a series of components for editing, filing, and retrieving documents. It included a broad line of graphic communications (facsimile) equipment to provide still another dimension - document sending via telephone lines. Other products included communications processors and large-capacity disk drives built by Memorex.
Finally, in software, Burroughs introduced a new product called LINC (acronym for Logic and Information Network Compiler) in 1982. Called an applications generator, LINC is a program that actually writes other programs for a wide variety of business situations. Since you don't have to be a professional programmer to use it, LINC will put the power of the computer in the hands of a great many more people.
Advances such as these in the 1980s have kept Burroughs at the forefront of the information systems industry. With annual revenue in 1982 approaching $4.2 billion, and worldwide employment of 62,000, the story of Burroughs Corporation has been one of responding to the human problems of the times with relevant technologies, just as William S. Burroughs had done for accountants in 1885.
s Chairman W. Michael Blumenthal recently put it: "It is this tradition that will help define what we become in the rest of the 1980s and beyond. We will remain true to our original mission - the use of technology to solve human problems - while at the same time we stay o top of our complex and exciting industry, with its many markets, products, and opportunities."
(June 1983) (3009352)
PREFACE
The following item appeared in the late 1880s in a St. Louis daily newspaper as part of an advertisement:
"Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Damian Stanislitz, station master of Yogondin (Servia), was so upset at finding a deficit of $1.25 in his accounts that he committed suicide after writing the railway company stating his error. "When his accounts were examined, it was proven that an error in casting up had led him astray. There was not a penny missing."
This short item was followed by a message in bold, black type informing the reader that Burroughs adding machines could be purchased from Mr. Jay Ward, St. Louis sales agent.
To those of us who are used to the sophisticated convenience of pocket calculators that do everything from routine mathematical functions to teaching a foreign language, the spectacle of Mr. Ward rushing to the aid of St. Louis bookkeepers about to blow their brains out, may seem a little extreme. But bookkeeping was far different a century ago.
Before the invention of the adding machine, bookkeepers were required to have an extraordinary capacity for sustained concentration, attention to detail, and a passion for accuracy. In large banks and businesses, with their great volumes of numbers, the task of the bookkeeper was formidable and strenuous.
William Seward Burroughs knew the problems well. A slight, retiring young man in precarious health, he worked in the counting room of a bank in Auburn, New York. he was also an inventor with a talent for mechanical design which he inherited from his father, who received the pioneer patent on paper cutter knives as well as patents on railroad maintenance equipment.
In 1881, when Burroughs was 24 years old, the many hours required to correct the inevitable mistakes which occurred in handling long lists of figures had taken their toll. His doctors advised his to go to a warmer climate and change occupations to preserve his health. He choose to move to St. Louis, Missouri and to pursue an idea he had for a machine that would add long columns of figures mechanically, thus saving bookkeepers from countless hours of tedious figuring and re-figuring.
In 1882 Burroughs moved to St. Louis where he was given bench space to develop his machine by a machine shop owner, Joseph Boyer. The following are excerpts from Boyer's own account of what took place over the next few years:
"There was Burroughs with his great idea, greater than any of us could fully appreciate, and with his meager capital of $300. Long before the first model was actually begun, his money was gone. But as his resources dwindled, his courage rose. I used to leave him at his bench in the evening and find him still there in the morning. . . .
"When damp weather expanded the paper on which he worked, he resorted to polished sheets of copper, cutting his lines with the point of a needle. When he located the center, he did so under the microscope. When the polished copper proved tiresome to his eyes, he drew on polished zinc, chemically blackened, the lines showing white against the background of black. It was his way of drafting plans for what he knew must be minutely accurate."
In 1885, at the age of 28, William S. Burroughs filed an application for his first patent, establishing priority for the adding and listing machine,
William S. Burroughs didn't actually invent the adding machine in the sense that he created it from nothing. Calculating devices had existed for centuries, at least since the abacus. But Burroughs combined existing technologies to build the first practical adding machine. It could be mass produced, and it promised to eliminate hours of boring human toil.
(this preface is reprinted from InFocus, the Burroughs employees magazine.)
1880s
This was the founding of Burroughs Corporation. To produce and market his machine, Burroughs and his co-founders - Thomas Metcalfe, R. M. Scruggs, and William R. Pye - formed the American Arithmometer Company on January 20, 1886, in St Louis. Metcalfe was elected the Company's first president, Burroughs was named vice president, Metcalfe's older brother William, although not a stockholder, was made secretary and Scruggs treasurer.
The Company's product "line" consisted of a single model, a straight adding and listing machine which sold for $475.
In its first 10 years, the Company grew to include a factory and office staff of 65 employees, with three salesman in the field. With asset of a little more than $300,000, the fledgling company quickly became an international organization. In 1895, Burroughs Adding and Registering Company Limited, of Nottingham, England was established, and three years later the Company's first manufacturing facility outside the United States was also established at Nottingham.
The adding machine was proving more and more to be a success, especially with banks. In 1898, 729 machines were sold. Four models were now being offered. The original was a nine-column machine, the second model could make duplicate copies on a roll paper, the third had a wider carriage, and a fourth, introduced in late 1897, had only six columns and sold for $250.
William S. Burroughs, who had retired from active participation in the Company because of ill health, died on September 14, 1898. Joseph E. Boyer, a St. Louis manufacturer who had encouraged and supported the efforts of Burroughs for many years, became president of the American Arithmometer Company in 1902.
1900s
In 1904, when it became clear that the young company had outgrown its St. Louis facilities, the Company packed up and moved to Detroit - literally. On Saturday, October 8, two special trains pulled out of the St. Louis depot bound for Detroit. There cargo was the American Arithmometer Company - foreman and factory hands, wives and children, ice boxes, punch presses, gramophones, roll-top desks, crockery, and adding machines.
The destination was a newly-constructed plant of some 70,000 square feet at Detroit's northern fringe, on land that had as a seed bed for the famous Ferry Seed Company.
After the long weekend trip, the 465 employees came to work on Monday to help unload the trains and begin operations at the new factory. It wasn't long before adding machines were being produced again - 71 in October, 283 in November, and 316 in December.
In these new surroundings, the Company grew and prospered. Additions to the first factory were made in 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910, and 1916.
The Company was renamed the Burroughs Adding Machine Company in 1905, in tribute to the man whose vision had led to the Company's founding less than 20 years earlier. During 1905, employment rose to 1,200, and 7,800 machines were sold - as many as William S. Burroughs predicted the entire U.S. market might be able to absorb. Just two years later the 50,000th Burroughs machine was made. The assets of the Company were now valued at $5 million.
1920s
Recognizing the universal demand for its product, the Company began to spread its operations throughout the world. By the mid-1920s Burroughs machines were being sold in some 60 countries, and the Company had established major operations in South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.
Burroughs product line was also expanding during this period. A series of calculators designed specifically for banking needs was produced in the early part of the century. In 1910, Burroughs introduced the new duplex adding machine, which featured both totals and subtotals, and a year later the first subtracting-adding machine, regarded as a major step forward for bank postings. The first electric key-actuated calculating machine was introduced in the 1920s.
By year-end 1920, the 800,000th Burroughs machine had been produced. Total employment in the factory and offices had risen to 8,500, and there were 3.500 people employed by the sales agencies in the U.S. and Canada. Net earnings for 1923 was $4.4 million on sales of $28.4 million.
In May 1921, the Company purchased the financially ailing Moon-Hopkins Billing Machine Company of St. Louis for $750,000. Moon-Hopkins manufactured a unique adding, typing and multiplying machines that became an important addition to the Burroughs product line.
At the turning point of the depression in the 1930s, the Moon-Hopkins machine accounted for about one-fifth of all Burroughs sales.
By 1935, the Burroughs product line had grown to include 450 standard models of manual and electric calculating, bookkeeping machines and typewriters.
1940s
The course of Burroughs growth and development began to change significantly with World War II. The Company cooperated in the National Defense Program as production of Burroughs machines was restricted to the needs of the Army, Navy, lend-lease program, and the war contractors.
In 1944 Burroughs was awarded an Army-Navy "E" for outstanding achievement in the production of the Norden bombsight. This program made accurate, high-altitude bombing possible, and was considered by some military authorities as the single most significant device in shortening the war. Previously, mass production of the bombsight , a very advanced precision instrument, was believed impossible due to the half millionth of an inch tolerance required.
While Burroughs efforts were again directed toward production of commercial machines in the post-war period, World War II had marked the beginning of a major turning point for Burroughs. The war had accelerated the development of electronic technology, including the potential for development of the electronic computer. Beginning in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Company's growth was in four principle areas: electronic development, computer systems, and diverse products which supported banking and business applications.
By the end of World War II, there were 558 sales branches and service centers in the U.S. and Canada, and 215 branches and dealer offices overseas. Company sales had grown to $46 million.
John C. Coleman, who was credited with working out the system for mass production of the Norden bombsight, became president of the Company in 1946. Under Coleman's leadership, the decision was made to begin a full program of electronic research, and in 1949 permanent facilities for electronic research and development were established near Philadelphia. Three years later, an Electronic Instrument Division was established in that city to manufacture and market scientific instruments and electronic memory components and systems.
the new emphasis on electronic products had already resulted in a series of innovative banking and accounting machines, called the Sensimatic, which was produced by Burroughs in the late 1940s.
1950s
In 1950 the Company introduced the first Sensimatic accounting machine with programmed control panel, a product considered the greatest advance in accounting machines in 25 years. Burroughs Sensimatic and later "Sensitronic" machines - called the Series F - became the standard of bookkeeping machines.
In 1951, experiments began at the Company's research and development center, which were aimed at developing a series of computers specifically for business problem solving. In 1954 Burroughs introduced the E 101, a desk-size electronic digital computer for scientific, engineering and business applications. Later, Series E systems, such as the E 2000, and counterpart Series F systems, became widely accepted and were Burroughs leading products for accounting applications in business, industry and banking well into the 1960s.
In parallel with Burroughs development of electronic products for accounting applications, the Company expanded its capability for development of larger, multipurpose computer systems. The Burroughs memory system built in 1952 for ENIAC, the worlds first electronic computer, increased the computer's memory capacity six-fold, and demonstrated the Company's capability in electronic computation.
With the acquisition of several companies in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Burroughs began to diversify its operations. The Company entered the office supplies business in 1949 with the acquisition of two manufacturers of carbon paper and machines ribbons, Mittag & Volger, Inc. of Park Ridge, New Jersey and Acme Carbon & Ribbon Co., Ltd., of Toronto, Canada.
Two other key acquisitions strengthened the Company's electronics development program: Control Instrument Company of Brooklyn, New York, a designer and manufacturer of electronic instruments and fire control devices for the U.S. Navy, in 1951; and Haydu Brothers of Plainfield, New Jersey, a manufacturer of vacuum tubes and other electric components, in 1954. The acquisition in 1955 of the Todd Company of Rochester, New York, a major supplier of checks, business forms, and check writers and signers, further expanded Burroughs product capability.
Burroughs soon became recognized as a single source for a variety of products for business management. Reflecting the Company's more diverse operations. Burroughs Adding Machine Company was renamed Burroughs Corporation in 1953.
The Company was now a major force in this rapidly evolving industry. By the end of 1956, total employment had grown to 33,000, and revenue to almost $273 million.
A decade later, under the leadership of Chairman Ray R. Eppert, Burroughs became a half-billion-dollar Company. Eppert's retirement in 1966 led to the election of Ray W. MacDonald as the new chairman. He would lead the Company through the 1960s an 70s.
Burroughs acquired the ElectroData Corporation of Pasadena, California in 1956, and further expanded the Company's base in electronic technology.
ElectroData, a leading producer of computing equipment, provided Burroughs with much needed engineering and manufacturing capacity.
The same year Burroughs Great Valley Laboratories were opened in Paoli, Pennsylvania.
Burroughs development of a full range of computer systems progresses steadily. The Company introduced the large-scale Datatron 220 in 1957, the B 251 visible record computer for banking applications in 1959, the B 200 series of small to medium-scale solid-state computers in 1961, and the B 5000 solid-state modular data processing system, also in 1961.
The B 5000 was regarded as the most advanced business and scientific computer offered by any manufacturer. It departed from traditional concepts of computer design, and featured such pioneering concepts as automatic multiprogramming, extensive use of compiler languages, Burroughs Master Control Program, and "virtual memory."
1960s
The B 5000 was followed by the more powerful B 5500 system in 1964, as Burroughs began its "family" approach to computer design. In addition to the B 5500, the '500" family included the large-scale B 6500 and medium-scale B 2500 and B 3500 systems introduced in 1866, and the small-scale B 500 systems released in 1968.
The '500' family served a broad cross-section of date processing requirements in fields such as banking, manufacturing, and government. It solidified Burroughs position in the computer industry, and provided the base for the Company to further expand its computer manufacturing capabilities.
Burroughs success at solving business problems took a further evolutionary step in the late 1960s with the introduction of the Series TC terminal computers and the Series L mini-computers. The Series TC internally programmed computers were designed for use with on-line data processing systems, and could function as either terminals or independent computers. The Series L was designed primarily as a self-sufficient billing computer, but featured a data communications option which enabled it to operate on-line as a terminal computer. Both Series TC and Series L mini-computers were well received by all types of customers, and over 140,000 units were sold worldwide in 10 years.
As developments in micro-circuitry were applied to Series TC and Series L systems in the 1960s and 1970s, the system evolved from electro-mechanical machines to fully electronic computers.
The early programs to expand Burroughs electronic capabilities also resulted in the Company being awarded numerous government and defense contracts. Burroughs computers were used by the United States Navy in its POLARIS program, and by the U.S. Air Force in the SAGE, ALRI and BUIC continental air defense networks. In 1961 Burroughs was named by the Air Force as hardware contractor for the NORAD combat operations computer complex and data display system. The computer was used to make split-second evaluations of threats to the North American continent using input from satellites and radar throughout the world.
During this time, Burroughs was also an active participant in the U.S. space program. The world's first operational transistorized computer, produced by Burroughs in 1957, was used in guiding the launch of the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. A later version of this computer guided every launch in the Mercury and Gemini programs of manned space flights. With the completion of the first space rendezvous, made in 1965 between Gemini VI and VII, Burroughs guidance computers had handled more than 300 successful missions without failure, error or delay. That year, the Burroughs computer that had guided the first Atlas missile was presented to the Smithsonian Institution by the U.S. Air Force, and another of the first ground guidance computers was installed in the Air Force Space Museum at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The last of 17 such Burroughs guidance computers was retired by the Air Force in 197 after completion of over 400 successful missions.
Throughout Burroughs extensive involvement in electronic research, defense projects, and the space program, the Company remained in the forefront of the commercial market by supplying a variety of products for banking and business.
Late in the 1960s, Burroughs began the first phase of a major, long-range capital expenditure program for the expansion of its worldwide production resources. Five new facilities were opened that year, including two in the U.S> and one each in Belgium, Brazil and Mexico. More facilities followed in the 1970s, as the Company's production centers increased from 36 in 1966 to 61 in 1976.
1970s
The 1970s saw the further merging of Burroughs electronics and computer efforts of the previous decades, and the Company's emergence as a leader in the computer industry. The decade also marked Burroughs entry into other areas of information management, principally office automation. The Company used its growing resources to develop several complete new families of computer systems - from minicomputers to large-scale computers - and to support them with a full range of related software products, computer peripherals, terminals and data communications systems, and data management equipment.
Burroughs Series TC and Series L electronic systems, which had been introduced in the late 1960s, were continually refined for various business applications. These refinements along with continued electronic developments led to the introduction of the B 80 series of small-scale computer systems in 1976. The B 80 brought the power and memory capacity of much larger computers to the small systems range. These features were further evident in the B 90 series announced in 1979.
Burroughs also continued to place strong emphasis on the development of larger computer systems during the 1970s. Following the successful "500" family of computers, the '700' family was introduced between 1971 and the end of 1975.
The '700' family considerably extended Burroughs coverage of the data processing market from the base established with the '500' family.
In late 1975 Burroughs began introducing the '800' family of systems with the announcement of a series of computers designed for medium-to-large-scale applications. This family was to be the successor for each member of the '700' series.
In 1979, Burroughs announced the first models of the '900' family of systems. The '900' models typically occupy half the space and require 50 percent less power to operate than the '800' family models.
During the 1970s, the Company also continued its developments in other areas of data processing, with products for data preparation and document handling; with a full range of displays, keyboards, printing terminals, and related data communications computer systems; with memory subsystems and high speed printers; and with software products for applications in banking and finance, manufacturing, health care, education, government, transportation, and many other areas.
The Burroughs expansion in data processing was paralleled by its entry into the office automation market. The Company entered the facsimile communications market in 1975 by acquiring Graphic Sciences, Inc. which produced equipment under the "dex" trademark, and entered the word processing market one year later by acquiring Redactron Corporation. The acquisition of the assets of Context Corporation in 1979 added an optical character recognition page reader system to this growing range of office automation products, which have become an increasingly important segment of Burroughs "total solution" approach to information management.
While the Burroughs product line expanded, so too did employment and revenue. By 1976, world wide revenue had grown to almost $2 billion. Employment had reached 50,000.
1970s
More growth was just around the corner. The 1980s ushered in a new era of acquisitions, as Burroughs made its niche within the burgeoning information systems industry. Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal became chairman of the board in early 1980, following the retirement of Paul S. Mirabito. DuRay E. Stromback was succeeded as president of the Company by Dr. Paul G. Stern in mid-1982. Under this new leadership, more firms were acquired to fill technology voids and strengthen areas targeted for growth.
In 1980, System Development Corporation, a leading information systems supplier for government agencies, was acquired. Its operations were merged in 1982 with those of the Burroughs Federal and Special Systems Group to better concentrate the expertise of both organizations in designing systems for governments. The new organization was christened System Development Corporation - a Burroughs company.
The 1981 acquisition of Memorex Corporation brought to Burroughs first-rate capability in computer storage devices, one of the fastest-growing areas in the information systems industry. The first Memorex-built storage system specifically designed for a Burroughs computer system debuted in 1982.
On a smaller scale, there were other acquisitions which strengthened the Company in key areas. The 1981 purchase of Systems Research Incorporated gave Burroughs a supplier of advanced data communications equipment and software. And in 1982, the Company enhanced its ability to serve the educational market with the acquisition of Mid-west Systems Group, a software house specializing in programs for educational institutions.
The early 1980s also saw Burroughs turn to outside suppliers when it made sense to purchase products and services, or to form joint ventures. The Company divested itself of a major portion of its components and display business, but at the same time teamed with companies like Convergent Technologies and Intel Corporation to forge new business relationships.
With Convergent Technologies, Burroughs introduced the B 20, a family of powerful microcomputers that can operate either as standalone intelligent workstations or small business-computers, or be hooked into a distributing processing network. Convergent developed and builds the B 20 to Burroughs specifications.
The Company's state-of-the-art semiconductor facility in Rancho Bernardo, California, also devised an agreement with Intel in 1982, whereby Intel produces a significant percentage of the Burroughs-designed high-volume, proprietary chips.
Products introduced in the first few years were deep. The '900' family of computer systems featured new entries at the low, medium and high end. The OFIS 1 office automation system, introduced in 1981, comprised a series of components for editing, filing, and retrieving documents. It included a broad line of graphic communications (facsimile) equipment to provide still another dimension - document sending via telephone lines. Other products included communications processors and large-capacity disk drives built by Memorex.
Finally, in software, Burroughs introduced a new product called LINC (acronym for Logic and Information Network Compiler) in 1982. Called an applications generator, LINC is a program that actually writes other programs for a wide variety of business situations. Since you don't have to be a professional programmer to use it, LINC will put the power of the computer in the hands of a great many more people.
Advances such as these in the 1980s have kept Burroughs at the forefront of the information systems industry. With annual revenue in 1982 approaching $4.2 billion, and worldwide employment of 62,000, the story of Burroughs Corporation has been one of responding to the human problems of the times with relevant technologies, just as William S. Burroughs had done for accountants in 1885.
s Chairman W. Michael Blumenthal recently put it: "It is this tradition that will help define what we become in the rest of the 1980s and beyond. We will remain true to our original mission - the use of technology to solve human problems - while at the same time we stay o top of our complex and exciting industry, with its many markets, products, and opportunities."