About Calculators

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			William Seward Burroughs Born Jan 28 1857 - Died Sep 14 1898 Calculating Machine Calculator Patent Number(s) 388,116 Inducted 1987 William Seward Burroughs invented the first practical adding and listing machine. Burroughs submitted a patent application in 1885 for his 'Calculating Machine' and the patent was awarded in 1888. In 1886 Burroughs and several St. Louis businessmen formed the American Arithmometer Co. to market the machine. The first machine, however, required a special knack in pulling the handle to execute the calculation correctly. More often than not novice users would get wildly differing sums depending on the vigor they employed in using the invention. In 1893 Burroughs received a patent for an improved calculating machine, which incorporated an oil-filled 'dashpot,' a hydraulic governor. This device enabled the machine to operate properly regardless of the manner with which the handle might be pulled. Invention Impact Burroughs’ adding machine continually developed into more complex machines. The Sensimatic could store up to twenty-seven balances during posting operations, and the Sensitronic stored balances on a magnetic stripe of the ledger card. Burroughs’ company mostly made calculators for banking systems, but when the company was renamed the Burroughs Corporation in 1953 it began moving into computers. Burroughs Corporation was one of the major eight computer companies in the United States in the 1960s, and in 1986 it merged with Sperry Corporation to form Unisys. Inventor Bio Born in Rochester, New York, Burroughs began his career as a bank clerk in the Cayuga County National Bank in Auburn, New York. His poor health necessitated a move to a warmer climate, however, and he relocated to St. Louis in 1882. Working in a bank inspired the young inventor with a vision of a mechanical device that would relieve accountants and bookkeepers of the monotony of their tasks and ensure that a smaller percentage of their time was spent correcting errors. Burroughs began work on his mechanical accounting device shortly after he moved to St. Louis. A sympathetic shop owner, Joseph Boyer, encouraged his work by giving him bench space at the Boyer Machine Shop and provided him with a young assistant, Alfred Doughty, later president of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. Burroughs retired from his company in 1897 due to poor health and moved to Citronelle, Alabama. By 1898, the year Burroughs died, more than 1,000 machines had been sold, and by 1926 the company, renamed the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, had produced a million machines.