Burroughs Corporation

The collection contains manuals for a number of different Burroughs computer systems, including the B6700, the B7000/B6000/B5000 families, and large systems in general. They concentrate on the programming languages (ALGOL and COBOL), but also contain primers on CANDE, WFL, and the DMSII system.

The HOBO Group consisted of executives from Burroughs Adding Machine Company and the British Tabulating Machine Company, who met in 1952 to examine the world-wide business machine market.

Research and development requests were routed through the patent department.

Burroughs machines often were accompanied by several manuals, including those aimed at the customers, and those for the technical department. Relatively few of these remain today, as the vast majority of the product literature is about Burroughs computers.

Burroughs Corporation had several histories written about the company. Most were for special occasions or anniversaries, some were short articles for newspapers or magazines, some were used for general corporate information, and there is also a book written by a former Burroughs employee.

Burroughs Corporation advertised from almost the very beginning of their business, when they only had one product (the Burroughs Registering Accountant). These advertisements cover many decades and often reflect many of the societal attitudes of the time.

The Burroughs Corporation began in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company. It was formed with the intent of selling the adding machine invented by William Seward Burroughs. The company started in St. Louis, Missouri where Burroughs was living at the time. The company moved its entire operations to Detroit, Michigan in 1904. By 1905 the company had settled in Detroit and the name was changed to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, in honor of William S. Burroughs who had died in 1898. Operations resumed almost immediately, and for about the next fifty years, Burroughs grew into the biggest adding machine company in the United States. It introduced many different products, including many variations of the basic adding machine, typewriters, check protectors, ticketeers, and finally, computers. In 1953 the Burroughs Adding Machine Company was renamed the Burroughs Corporation, a name more reflective of their broad scope of products. They still had a strong market in adding and calculating machines, especially at banks and similar institutions. However, they were also moving into the computer field about this time. Their experience with the military during WWII also steered them toward the computer field, and they worked with the government on numerous contracts after the end of the war. As Burroughs Corporation concentrated more and more on computers, they still marketed toward their prime customers, banking institutions. However, as time passed, their mainframes and other computers were given a greater market. IBM, of course, was far ahead of Burroughs in terms of sales and revenues, but Burroughs was often the next competitor behind them. In September 1986, Burroughs Corporation and Sperry Corporation completed a merger that had been started over a year before. W. Michael Blumenthal, president of Burroughs Corporation, and Joseph J. Kroger, president of Sperry Corporation, became Chairman/CEO and Vice-Chairman, respec.

Burroughs research facilities in Pennsylvania grew from rented space in Philadelphia in the late 1940s to include two research laboratories: one in Paoli and one about three miles away.

Decisions at Burroughs on which products to produce often came after large amounts of research on the industry and the public.

Burroughs' International Operations had a long history, starting with the British firm started only a couple of years after the American Arithmometer Company. This Branch of Burroughs was called the Burroughs International Corporation, Burroughs International S. A., and simply the International Division. The company entered into international operations very early in their history, and this continued all the way through their merger with Sperry in 1986.

From the time of the American Arithmometer Company, when the books were done by hand in pen and ink, to the financial computerized records of the Burroughs Corporation by the time in merged with Sperry in 1986, financial information has been the backbone of Burroughs Corporation. A few of the early financial records have been saved.

Photographs taken by Burroughs Adding Machine and, after 1953, Burroughs Corporation for publicity use and internal publications.

Burroughs was in many court cases, some appealed and some not. Most of the legal court records were not kept, although there does exist information on Laura Miller Boyer v. Standish Backus (and other defendants), a case Burroughs was involved in during 1934-1935, which involved a disputed amount of money a daughter-in-law of Joseph Boyer received when her husband died.

Burroughs products in the development stage were assigned a Product Development Authorization (PDA) and/or a Product Management Authorization (PMA) number. Sometimes projects were cancelled or renumbered.

This collection of Burroughs photographs was created by the Burroughs archives.

The ElectroData Corporation was taken over by Burroughs in June of 1956. ElectroData, originally a division of the Consolidated Electrodynamics Corporation, was spun off and then went public. This acquisition gave Burroughs a good start in the computer industry as ElectroData had built the Datatron 205 and was working on the Datatron 220.

Burroughs had a major research center, and became a branch of this society, which was known by the acronym RESA.

The Unisys Archives organized this ready reference collection.

This publication was an internal marketing report designed to study the competitors, producing a set of profiles of the major computer vendors in the world.

The Electronic Components Division and the Electronic Instruments Division were both involved with many projects, especially those having to do with improvement of Burroughs office supplies.

The Burroughs Press Releases were produced by the publicity department and organized by corporate communications.

Burroughs hired Nowland & Company for a corporate image study in 1957, and the consulting firm of Siegel and Gale for a corporate image study in 1984.

Burroughs manufactured adding and calculating machines and later computers.

The Legion of Honor was a group of top-ranked sales representatives and field managers.

The biography files were a source of information and photographs of executives used largely for public relations purposes.

From the first stockholders of the American Arithmometer Company (William S. Burroughs, William Pye, Thomas Metcalfe, and Richard M. Scruggs) to the thousands of stockholders it had when it merged with Sperry in 1986, Burroughs has depended upon these people for its financial stability. By 1986, Burroughs had paid out continuous quarterly dividends for 91 years. These, of course, had gone up and down with the fortunes of the company, but there was always a divided to pay stockholders every quarter. In the 1960s, Burroughs started calling their stockholders "shareholders" instead.

Burroughs made subsidiaries of most of the companies that it acquired and collected information on them for internal reference use.

Burroughs Corporation had an annual meeting of stockholders, where it described its activities and financial position of the company for that year.

Burroughs had its own print shop, which took care of all in house and some external publications, as well as Burroughs, and later Unysis, product and technical literature.

Burroughs had many outstanding salesmen over the years, and retained several collections of salesmen's papers.

The Burroughs sales force was an important part of the company from the first years of the American Arithmometer Company, and later when it was renamed Burroughs. Many company-produced manuals and literature that was used to educate and encourage salesmen.

The first Burroughs Corporation patent was applied for by William S. Burroughs on January 10, 1885 and it was granted on August 21, 1888. He was not alone, however, as several people both in the United States and elsewhere had applied for patents for various calculating devices, including Dorr E. Felt, who invented the Comptometer. There is confusion as to whether Burroughs or Felt actually had the "first" adding machine. Burroughs filed his application for a patent was about a year and a half earlier than Felt's, but Felt's patents were granted in 1887. Burroughs' machine also had several unique features not found on other machines including: a single lever stroke that computed the answer and printed it on paper, printing (or listing) of individual items, self-correction and checking before finally pulling the lever, and the dash pot to regulate the operating mechanism and compensate for the different styles of lever pulling by the operators.

The Defense, Space, and Special Systems Group handled projects which involved issues of national defense, space travel, and other miscellaneous areas. Most of these contracts were with the U. S. government.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which represented about 180 Burroughs Field Engineers in New York, called a strike against Burroughs in August 1974 and the strike lasted through 1975. Jay Conne was the manager of Large Systems Education for Burroughs Corp. with an office in the New York Commercial District office Mid-town Manhattan. Mr. Conne was also an Auxiliary Police Officer in the 17th Precint and a witness to the violence of the strike.

Burroughs compiled special informational sheets ( Competitor Information ) for the sales department to use in countering arguments against Burroughs products or showing how a Burroughs machine was better than the competitors'. Burroughs also kept product literature files, which included a variety of types of information on the company’s competitors and their products.

Burroughs often got reprints of articles written about their products in other magazines to use for advertising and publicity purposes.

The mechanical library, kept by the patent department, includes information on most machines manufactured by Burroughs.

Throughout its history, Burroughs was involved in more than 250 lawsuits that went through the appellate level. Their legal department handled the patent and trademark work, along with any actions require to resolve lawsuits.

Burroughs had a large research branch in Paoli, Pennsylvania. This started out with rented quarters in Philadelphia in the late 1940's, but eventually grew to include two research laboratories (one in Paoli and one about three miles away). Collectively they were known as the Great Valley Laboratories, but at Burroughs they were the Paoli labs. In addition to the general research work done at Paoli, the Defense, Space, and Special Systems Division was also located here.

The Burroughs plant in Cumbernauld, Scotland was part of its International Division.

From 1942 to 1945, Burroughs sold office machines only to the government. Burroughs Corporation also produced the Norden bombsight, which was used by the Navy and the Army/Air Force for high altitude precision bombing.

The Burroughs press releases were produced by the publicity department, and organized by corporate communications.

Burroughs Corporation annually assisted in the United Foundations' Torch Drive campaign.

Burroughs Adding Machine Company, later Burroughs Corporation, kept a record of company correspondence regarding policies and procedures.

The Legion of Honor was a group of top-ranked sales representatives and field managers of the Burroughs Corporation. They had an annual convention at different hotels/country clubs around the country; it was a way for the company to say thank-you to its best salesmen. To get into the Legion of Honor, a salesman needed to make a quota, but also show the basic credentials of product knowledge, excellent sales campaigns, perseverance and zeal.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was on strike against Burroughs Corporation (in New York) from August 1974 through 1975.

Over the years, the organization of the sales/distributive department was changed. As Burroughs grew bigger, they needed more agencies, managers and salesmen. The sales and distribution grew from the original three salesmen when the company started to the hundreds of regional offices and managers and thousands of salesmen Burroughs employed at the time of their merger with Sperry Corporation in 1986.

Many early publications of Burroughs Corporation, previously known as the American Arithmometer Company and the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, included product manuals, brochures and advertising materials.

Burroughs saved a few circuit boards from their computers of the 1950's and 1960's as display pieces that later ended up in the company archives. Along with a few code cards and some miscellaneous pieces, this became the "artifacts" that were donated to the Charles Babbage Institute. The display table was made at the request of Burroughs' President John S. Coleman Many of the items were located inside the table. The next president, Ray Eppert, was not interested in having it in his office, so it was taken by the General Manager of the Burroughs Detroit Division, Lyle Blossom. Edward Schening was its next owner, and upon his retirement, the table was given to Dr. Robert R. Johnson, Vice President-Engineering.

In September 1986, Burroughs and Sperry combined their strengths to compete against IBM by merging to form the Unisys Corporation.

Burroughs published an annual report, describing its activities and financial position of the company for that year.

The Todd Company was acquired by the Burroughs Corporation in June 1955. In September 1955, Burroughs acquired the Charles R. Hadley Company and later integrated it into the Todd Company Division.

The manufacturing and engineering divisions that were located in or near Detroit were: the Detroit Manufacturing and Engineering Division (including the Tireman Plant), the Military Electronic Computer Division, and the Plymouth Manufacturing and Engineering Division.

Control Instrument Company, Inc., a company that produced electronic fire control equipment for the U.S. Navy, was based in Brooklyn, New York. It was acquired by Burroughs in 1951, mainly to give Burroughs a background in electronic research and development. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Burroughs Corporation.

The mechanical library was essentially a set of service books that described each machine. There were variations like instruction books, symbol lists, shop tool lists, and feature prints (blueprints). These were kept by the patent department. The way Burroughs identified different machines changed over the years, and sometimes included a style #, a class #, a series #, or any combination of these.

The Burroughs Corporation Patent Research Division maintained files on the research activities of the corporation, including activities in Philadelphia and in Paoli, as well as research work done for Burroughs under contract by outside institutions.

Retirement parties and visits of distinguished guests gave Burroughs reason to celebrate these out of the ordinary events. When Burroughs' top people retired, they were often honored at a luncheon or dinner, where they received toasts, speeches in their honor, and several gifts from the company. Likewise, when special guests of Burroughs were in town, they were often treated to meals, visits of the factory and facilities, and often tours of the city.

Subsidiary product literature includes brochures, manuals, and correspondence for some of Burroughs' subsidiary companies.

Burroughs Corporation (and Burroughs Adding Machine Company) had many regulations and rules about how sales were to be handled, what to do about consignments, repairs, allowances, competition, supplies, and advertising. These decisions were to be followed by all salesmen, sales managers, and other employees who worked in advertising, shipping, repairs, and other areas of the company.

CUBE (Cooperating Users of Burroughs Equipment) was formed from two earlier user's groups: DUO (Datatron Users Organization) and CUE. At one time there was another users group: BUG (Burroughs Users Group), but it is unclear how long this group lasted or what it was in relation to other groups. It might have been the original name of CUBE.

Burroughs kept information on its competitors, and sent special informational sheets to the sales department to use in order to counter arguments against Burroughs products or show how a Burroughs machine was better than the competition.

All research and/or development requests for Burroughs Adding Machine Company, and later, Burroughs Corporation, went through the patent department; this department was kept current on research undertaken at the firm.

Burroughs Machines, Ltd. (Burroughs Adding and Registering Machine Company, Ltd. from 1895-1905) has a history almost as long as Burroughs Corporation. The British rights were sold by the American Arithmometer Company when they needed money in their early years. The British rights were repurchased in 1904, and Burroughs Machines, Ltd., was a subsidiary up to the time of the Burroughs merger with Sperry Corporation that formed Unisys.

Burroughs kept a press clippings file that contained publicity about the firm. Most of the clippings were done in-house, although Burroughs subscribed to a clipping service for a few years.

CUBE was a users group. It stood for Cooperating Users of Burroughs Equipment, and was formed from two earlier users groups: DUO (Datatron Users Organization) and CUE.

When new Burroughs products were in the development stage and working their way through research and testing, they were assigned a Product Development Authorization (PDA) and/or a Product Management Authorization (PMA) number. Sometimes projects were cancelled or renumbered.

Many speeches given by Burroughs employees (in all areas of the company) collected and preserved by the corporate archives.

Burroughs machines were divided into types, classes, and series according to the general type of construction. The style and price list described the basic features of each machine, and were helpful for the salesmen to keep track of the many different types of machines that Burroughs sold.

The city of Detroit had decided that an umbrella organization, United Foundations, would handle most of the social and welfare charities and organizations in the city, and then run one, large, annual fund drive. Burroughs Corporation donated money to this annual campaign, the "Torch Drive," and employees could have contributions deducted from their checks.

Brochures were a means of communication between Burroughs management and the work force they had and those they hoped to attract. These brochures were also used as a concise account of the company's history, scope, and operations.

The Burroughs Corporation was one of the largest adding machine and electronic computer manufacturers in the United States. It began as the American Arithmometer Company in 1886, founded in St. Louis around a machine invented by William S. Burroughs, an accountant who desired to develop a practical adding and listing machine. By 1905 the headquarters and plant were relocated to Detroit and the company was renamed the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. Over the next twenty years the company acquired a number of related firms and expanded its product line to include adding machines, nonlisting calculators, bookkeeping machines, and transit listing machines for banks. By the end of World War II there were 773 sales.

branches, service centers, and dealer offices throughout the world and sales had grown to $46 million. In 1953 the company changed its name to the Burroughs Corporation; three years later it acquired the ElectroData Corporation, which became a foundation of Burroughs' entry into the computer industry. Throughout the next three decades, Burroughs was a leader in mainframe computer systems for commercial and military applications. In 1980 it acquired System Development Corporation, and a year later the Memorex Corporation. In 1986 the company agreed to a merger with Sperry and became part of the Unisys Corporation.

Like most companies, Burroughs was interested in its public image and corporate identity. In addition to internal studies, the company hired outside firms to conduct corporate identity studies. Burroughs hired Nowland & Company for a study in 1957. The results revealed that in the public's mind, Burroughs was linked with adding and bookkeeping machines, but not computers or electronic computing devices. Several changes were suggested to bring more recognition to Burroughs' lesser-known products. There were also some changes to and standardization of company logos and correspondence.

In 1984, Burroughs hired the consulting firm of Siegel and Gale to do an image study of the company. The 1984-1985 corporate identity program consisted of an audit of existing company conditions, interviews with top management players at Burroughs, financial studies, market research, and a review of the business press. The report discussed Burroughs strengths and weaknesses, and then suggested directions for the future. As a result of the corporate identity program, there were changes at Burroughs, including a new company logo.

As a publicly traded company, the Burroughs Corporation was required to report financial data to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Burroughs filed quarterly (Form 10-Q) and annual (Form 10-K) reports, which summarized financial information about the company and the business it did during the past quarter or year. Burroughs filed S4 forms in 1986, to register "securities issued in business combination transactions." The 1986 S4 filings were required as a result of the merger with the Sperry Corporation.

Burroughs also created and collected information related to the performance of the company's stock.

The Burroughs Corporation began in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company. It was formed with the intent of selling the adding machine invented by William Seward Burroughs. The company started in St. Louis, Missouri where Burroughs was living at the time. The company moved its entire operations to Detroit, Michigan in 1904.

By 1905 the company had settled in Detroit and the name was changed to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, in honor of William S. Burroughs who had died in 1898. Operations resumed almost immediately, and for about the next fifty years, Burroughs grew into the biggest adding machine company in the United States. It introduced many different products, including many variations of the basic adding machine, typewriters, check protectors, ticketeers, and finally, computers.

In 1953 the Burroughs Adding Machine Company was renamed the Burroughs Corporation, a name more reflective of their broad scope of products. They still had a strong market in adding and calculating machines, especially at banks and similar institutions. However, they were also moving into the computer field about this time. Their experience with the military during WWII also steered them toward the computer field, and they worked with the government on numerous contracts after the end of the war.

As Burroughs Corporation concentrated more and more on computers, they still marketed toward their prime customers, banking institutions. However, as time passed, their mainframes and other computers were given a greater market. IBM, of course, was far ahead of Burroughs in terms of sales and revenues, but Burroughs was often the next competitor behind them.

In September 1986, Burroughs Corporation and Sperry Corporation completed a merger that had been started over a year before. W. Michael Blumenthal, president of Burroughs Corporation, and Joseph J. Kroger, president of Sperry Corporation, became Chairman/CEO and Vice-Chairman, respectively, of the new company -- Unisys Corporation. The merger, which was actually an acquisition of Sperry by Burroughs for $4.8 billion, put Unisys into second place in the computer market in 1986, with revenues of about $10.5 billion. This was the largest merger in the computer industry's history, and although impressive, Unisys was still only about 1/5 the size of IBM. A period of reorganization followed the merger, with the closing of some facilities, combining of similar departments in Burroughs and Sperry, and the divestment of non-computer-related businesses.

William Seward Burroughs, inventor of an adding machine and a founder of the American Arithmometer Company (which was renamed in his honor in 1905), was born in rural New York, although the date of Burroughs' birth has been hard to establish, it was between 1855 and 1858. He became a bank clerk at the Cayuga County National Bank in Auburn, New York in the 1870s, but eventually moved to St. Louis for health reasons.

It was here, in the early 1880s, in a small area of the Boyer Machine Company shop, that he started working on the bank clerk's dream--the adding machine. After several years, he applied for a patent, eventually granted in 1888. The earliest machines were great prototypes, but when in the hands of inexperienced users would give outrageous answers. Burroughs answered the challenge by designing (in a few days), the "dash pot," a mechanism that regulated the pull on the adding machine's handle.

The next challenge was to convince banks and businesses that they needed this new machine, surprisingly not an easy thing to do. With a few salesmen who doubled as the service department, the American Arithmometer Company set out to add a new machine into the "modern-day" offices at the end of the nineteenth century. William Seward Burroughs only glimpsed the beginning of the office automation phenomenon, for he died, in Citronelle, Alabama, in 1898.

Burroughs saved a few circuit boards from their computers of the 1950's and 1960's as display pieces that later ended up in the company archives. Along with a few code cards and some miscellaneous pieces, this became the "artifacts" that were donated to the Charles Babbage Institute.

The Coleman Table Artifacts have a rather interesting history. The display table was made at the request of Burroughs' President John S. Coleman; many of the items were located inside the table. The next president, Ray Eppert, was not interested in having it in his office, so it was taken by the General Manager of the Burroughs Detroit Division, Lyle Blossom. Edward Schening was its next owner, and upon his retirement, the table was given to Dr. Robert R. Johnson, Vice President-Engineering.

Burroughs Corporation and Sperry Corporation (formerly Sperry Rand and Sperry Univac), completed their merger in September of 1986 to form the Unisys Corporation.

Burroughs Corporation started in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company selling adding machines. The Sperry Corporation evolved out of the Sperry Gyroscope Company (founded by Elmer Ambrose Sperry in 1910). Both companies eventually became involved in the electronics and computer industries.