1. “I wish to God these
calculations had been
Charles Babbage, 1821

2. William Seward
Burroughs
Detroit’s Steampunk Inventor

3. World Steam Expo 2011
Today’s Adventure:
William Seward Burroughs I
19th Century Information & Innovation
Burroughs’ Solution & Alternatives
Rise of the Information Industry

4. William Seward Burroughs

5. William Seward Burroughs

6. William Seward Burroughs

7. William Seward Burroughs

8. William Seward Burroughs

9. William Seward Burroughs

10. William Seward Burroughs

11. William Seward Burroughs

12. William Seward Burroughs

13. William Seward Burroughs

14. William Seward Burroughs

15. William Seward Burroughs

16. 17th - 19th Century I.T.
Technology Focus:
Digital Mathematics
Mechanical computation
Roads not traveled:
Logarithms and sliderules
Abaci and Asian numeracy
Analog computation

17. Mechanical Computation: Roots
1594: Lord John Napier
“Napier Bones” (Scotland)
1623: Prof. Wilhelm Schikard
“Calculating Clock” (Tübingen)
1642: Blaise Pascal
“Pascaline” (Paris)
1646: Sir Thomas Brown
“Computer” (London)

18. Mechanical Computation: Roots

19. The Pascaline, and descendants

20. The Pascaline, and descendants

21. The Pascaline, and descendants

22. The Pascaline, and descendants

23. The Pascaline, and descendants

24. The Pascaline, and descendants

25. The Pascaline, and descendants

26. Mechanical I.T. - Challenges
Bugs in the tables
Bugs in the works
Bugs in pebkac
Bugs in ledgers
Industry acceptance
Audit trails

27. Mechanical I.T. - Challenges
Bugs in ledgers

28. Babbage

29. Babbage

30. Babbage

31. Babbage

32. Babbage

33. Babbage

34. Babbage

35. Babbage

36. Business/Societal Challenges

37. Business/Societal Challenges
Politics
War
Economics
Governing
Business
Taxes
Revolution

38. Business/Societal Challenges
Politics Power and money
War Access to resources
Economics Capital and choice
Governing Counting heads
Business Counting money
Taxes Accounting
Revolution Reapportionment

39. Why Burroughs?

40. Why Burroughs?

41. Why Burroughs?

42. Why Burroughs?

43. Why Burroughs?

44. Why Burroughs?

45. Why Burroughs?

46. Why Burroughs?

47. Why Burroughs?

48. Burroughs’ Innovation
Carry mechanism: Pascal
Stepped cylinder: Leibnitz
Automated I/O: Auch
Sequence of calculations: Babbage
“Arithmometer”: de Colmar

49. Burroughs’ Obsession

50. Burroughs’ Obsession

51. Burroughs’ Business

52. Burroughs’ Business
1886: American Arithmometer Co

53. Burroughs’ Business
1886: American Arithmometer Co
1888: First 50 “Registering Accountant” machines

54. Burroughs’ Business
1886: American Arithmometer Co
1888: First 50 “Registering Accountant” machines
1889: Oil-filled dash-pot solution

55. Burroughs’ Business
1886: American Arithmometer Co
1888: First 50 “Registering Accountant” machines
1889: Oil-filled dash-pot solution
1891: Second 100 machines

56. Burroughs’ Business
1886: American Arithmometer Co
1888: First 50 “Registering Accountant” machines
1889: Oil-filled dash-pot solution
1891: Second 100 machines
1893: Expansion in St. Louis

57. Burroughs’ Business
1886: American Arithmometer Co
1888: First 50 “Registering Accountant” machines
1889: Oil-filled dash-pot solution
1891: Second 100 machines
1893: Expansion in St. Louis
1895: Lord Kelvin’s pronouncement

58. Burroughs’ Business
1886: American Arithmometer Co
1888: First 50 “Registering Accountant” machines
1889: Oil-filled dash-pot solution
1891: Second 100 machines
1893: Expansion in St. Louis
1895: Lord Kelvin’s pronouncement
1897: Third 5,000 machines

59. Burroughs’ Business

60. Burroughs’ Business

61. Rise of the Information Industry
Pascal, 1642
Jacquard, 1804
Babbage, 1821
Ritty, 1879
NCR, 1884 American Butz, 1885
Arithmometer, 1886
Hollerith, 1889
Burroughs, 1898
Honeywell, 1906
C-T-R, 1911 Sperry, 1910
Watson defects
to IBM, 1914
IBM, 1924

62. Burroughs Legacy

63. Burroughs Legacy
1897: Burroughs wins the John Scott Legacy
Medal for inventing the Arithmometer

64. Burroughs Legacy
1897: Burroughs wins the John Scott Legacy
Medal for inventing the Arithmometer
1898: William Seward Burroughs dies

65. Burroughs Legacy
1897: Burroughs wins the John Scott Legacy
Medal for inventing the Arithmometer
1898: William Seward Burroughs dies
1899: Company renamed
“Burroughs Adding Machine Company”

66. Burroughs Legacy
1897: Burroughs wins the John Scott Legacy
Medal for inventing the Arithmometer
1898: William Seward Burroughs dies
1899: Company renamed
“Burroughs Adding Machine Company”
1904: Company relocated to Detroit

67. Burroughs Legacy

68. Burroughs is now UNiSYS
Remington Rifle
1816
Remington Typewriter
American
1873 Rand Kardex
Arithmometer
1886 Visible Ledger
Sperry Gyroscope 1898
1910 Remington Rand
Merger
Burroughs ships 1927
Millionth machine EMCC’s
1928 ENIAC
1946 Sperry acquires
EMCC
1950 Sperry Rand
Burroughs Merger
acquires Sperry 1955
1986

69. Thank You!

70. Thank You!

71. “I wish to God these
calculations had been
Charles Babbage, 1821