William Seward Burroughs I
Videos
William Seward Burroughs I was an American inventor born in Rochester, New York, most prominently known as the inventor of a mechanical calculator.
William S. Burroughs
An early Burroughs adding machine
Patent no. 388,116 on a "calculating machine"
Burroughs' grave at Bellefontaine Cemetery. His grandson William's is in the lower right.
Adding machine
Videos
An adding machine is a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations. Consequently, the earliest adding machines were often designed to read in particular currencies
William Seward Burroughs I
…the foundation of his work. He made his design drawings on metal plates to prevent distortion. Burroughs filed his first patent for the invention of a "calculating machine" in 1885. It was designed to ease the monotony of clerical arithmetic. By 1890, they were well known in the banking industry, and adoption spread…
A Remington Rand adding machine alongside its original cardboard box
An older adding machine. Its mechanism is similar to a car odometer.
Corona Portable adding machine exhibited in Moscow
Sundstrand adding machine at Civilian Conservation Corps Museum, Connecticut