Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation

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Remington Rand employees demonstrate the US Census Bureau's UNIVAC I
Univac I Factronic in the Deutsches Museum in Munich

The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation ( EMCC ) (1946-1950) was a computer manufacturer, which by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly was established in 1946. In the beginning the company was also called Electronic Controls Company . After Eckert and Mauchly had built the ENIAC for the University of Pennsylvania, they wanted to use the computer architecture commercially for military and civil computers.

history

After the ENIAC was built, legal disputes arose between Eckert, Mauchly and the University of Pennsylvania. The university claimed the patents that Eckert and Mauchly had applied for while the ENIAC was being built, and wanted to force them to transfer the patents to the university. Eckert and Mauchly then left the university and founded the EMCC.

The first projects

EMCC's first project was the BINAC , a small version of the ENIAC that was built for the Northrop Corporation . The EMCC's cost estimate for the construction of the BINAC was one of the worse jobs, and the following summer the EMCC was in financial difficulties. Harry L. Straus , Vice President of the American Totalizator Company, stepped in as an investor . In 1949, Harry Straus died in an airplane accident and the American Totalizator Company withdrew its financial stake. The BINAC was delivered in 1949.

In 1948 EMCC was commissioned to build a computer for the US Census Bureau , which should be ready for the 1950 census. Further orders came from the US Army and the US Navy . After EMCC was charged with hiring communist-minded engineers in the McCarthy era , they lost those jobs and also lost the security rating to handle jobs for the American military. Mauchly was banned from entering the company premises. Only two years later, after a hearing had acquitted him, he was allowed to re-enter the company premises. Mauchly worked at home during this time.

When UNIVAC I was handed over to the US Census Bureau in 1951 , it ushered in the era of commercial electronic computing systems, and for some years the name UNIVAC was used to represent all computers. This was the first time a computer manufactured for commercial purposes was used anywhere in the world.

The UNIVAC became famous after the presidential election night in 1952. It was used to produce an extrapolation based on 7% of the votes counted. As a result, he predicted a landslide victory for Eisenhower at 9 o'clock in the evening , in contradiction to conventionally determined forecasts of a head-to-head race. The client did not trust the UNIVAC forecast and decided not to publish it. It was later found to be quite accurate: the predicted electoral distribution of 438 for Eisenhower and 93 for Stevenson came close to the actual distribution of 442: 89. This result made UNIVAC known worldwide.

Takeover by Remington Rand

As with BINAC, the cost estimates for building UNIVAC were too optimistic, and EMCC was again in financial difficulties. At the beginning of 1950 the company was advertised for purchase. The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation was taken over by Remington Rand on February 15, 1950 and incorporated into the Remington Rand organization as the UNIVAC business unit .

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