Sperry-Univac Company Records1935-1985

Sperry-Univac was the information technology division of the Sperry Corporation. It was formed after Sperry absorbed the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and Engineering Research Associates, two of the post-World War II pioneering computer companies. The records include a large body of materials generated by the Sperry-Honeywell lawsuit that revolved around the question about who invented the first electronic-digital computer. There is also a large body of corporate records documenting most major company functions.

Sperry Corporation was the product of a June 30, 1955 merger between the Sperry Gyroscope and Remington-Rand Companies. Both these corporations were well established enterprises. E. Remington & Sons of Ilion, N.Y., the oldest of the predecessor companies (1873), began as a manufacturer of sewing machines. Within three years, however, Remington entered the office equipment market, and in 1876, became the first company to commercially market a typewriter. After the Remington typewriter was displayed at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, sales skyrocketed. During the succeeding decades, it established itself as America's leading producer of typewriters and office machinery. In 1927 Remington merged with the Rand Company which had developed the Kardex and a number of other office record control systems including the Rand Ledger and visible index. The new Remington-Rand, Inc., soon absorbed the Dalton Adding and Powers Accounting Machine Companies. Under the leadership of James H. Rand, Jr. it became the nation's largest producer of business machines and office systems.

The mid-twentieth century move into computers was a natural one for a company committed to office automation. In 1950 Remington-Rand acquired the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation which had developed the first electronic digital computer. However, Remington-Rand had been only marginally profitable during the 1940s and needed a new source of capital to develop the computer. With James H. Rand, Jr. planning his retirement, the search for an appropriate merger partner began.

The Sperry Gyroscope Company, which like Remington-Rand was a technologically oriented firm, was a logical choice. Its founder, Elmer Sperry, had organized the company in 1910 in order to market his gyrocompass and high intensity ship searchlight. In the years before World War I Sperry Gyroscope grew into a world-renowned research and development firm that pioneered in organizing science and technology for wartime military needs. The company was in the forefront of industrial research and Elmer Sperry was one of the first engineers to make the transition from the era of heroic invention to industrial science. In the 1920s the company developed the automatic pilot and airplane stabilizer. These inventions represented one of the first successful applications of the feedback control technology that is the key component for all automated systems. During the second World War Sperry became a leader in guided missile research and became one of the nation's most important military contractors. The termination of hostilities forced it to make some major readjustments. In 1947, the company began to diversify by acquiring the New Holland (Pennsylvania) Farm Machinery Company. However, military contracts still accounted for more than 75% of the company's revenues. By the 1950s the firm's management team was convinced that it had to establish a broad and stable base in the private sector. Given its high technology orientation it looked to the electronics industry. Remington Rand, with its recently acquired Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, looked very attractive. By March 20, 1951, the company had delivered the first UNIVAC data processing system to the United States Bureau of the Census. This was the first stored-program computer to be sold commercially. During the next four years, thirty UNIVACs were sold and orders substantially backlogged. However, shortly after the Sperry-Remington-Rand merger, IBM introduced its 700 series computer and UNIVAC saw its lead quickly dissolve.

During the 1950s and 60s Sperry-Rand continued to be technological innovator, as it rapidly introduced new generations of computers. Its UNIVAC division, which moved to Blue Bell, Pennsylvania (forty miles north of Philadelphia), grew increasingly important as a firm became committed to high technology. In 1961, the Sperry-Rand research center was established in Sudbury, Massachusetts, to serve as an R& D laboratory for all the company's divisions. Research conducted here reflects the entire range of corporate interests from solid state physics and its laser applications to plasma chemistry. A 1983 reorganization unified all the firm's high technology businesses under the name Sperry Corporation.

The first modern computer, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was a product of the second World War. It was developed by a team of scientists headed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering. The project was launched by the Army's Ordance Department which was seeking to solve some extremely complicated ballistics problems that could not be calculated by conventional means. The ENIAC, with its 18,000 vacuum tubes, was, in fact, a high speed calculator designed to solve hundreds of simultaneous linear equations. Since it did not have stored memory capability it had few potential civilian uses.

John Mauchly, however, conceived of a computer with far wider applicability. In 1944, with the ENIAC's development well along and allied victory and all but assured, he began to seriously think about the commercial potential of the computer. After the war, Eckert and Mauchly left the University of Pennsylvania to organize own company which was formed to develop a universla automatic computer (UNIVAC) that could be sold in the private sector. In 1946, they persuaded the Bureau of the Census to finance a “research and study” project. The government appropriated $300,000 toward this effort, but costs were estimated to be at least $490,000. Eckert and Mauchly gambled that they would be able to bridge this gap by securing advance orders from corporate customers. This decision involved significant risk since no one could estimate how long it would take to construct a suitable memory and magnetic tape storage device.

The years between 1946, when the original census bureau contract was awarded, and 1948, when an actual design contract was finally approved were extremely difficult ones for the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. During this period, Eckert and Mauchly were fortunate to be able to sell a small computer called the BINAC to Northrop Aircraft Company. The BINAC, designed to pilot a guided missile, became the first stored-program electronic digital computer to be built and put into operation. Eckert and Mauchly built the BINAC according to Northrop's specifications, but, at the same time, they conceived of it as a UNIVAC prototype. When it was completed on August 22, 1949 they were able to convince the Census Bureau to accept it for that purpose. However, even though Eckert and Mauchly got another advance from the Census Bureau in September of 1949, they were still in serious financial difficulty. Their initial cost and time estimates had proven to be tremendously understated. They had secured contracts from A.C. Nielson, Prudential Insurance, and American Totalistator Companies, but these could not be renegotiated to reflect increased costs of research and development.

On October 25, 1949, Eckert-Mauchly's main financial backer, Henry Straus, chairman of American Totalistator died in a plane crash. This threw the Eckert-Mauchly company into a crisis. At first, Eckert and Mauchly tried to float a series of loans, but when this proved impossible, it became clear that the company would have to be sold to the highest bidder. Both National Cash Register and Remington Rand expressed immediate interest. Remington Rand made the first firm offer and on February 1, 1950, and it was accepted. This provided Remington Rand with a substantial lead in computing technology. This marked a major watershed in the history of electronic digital computers. After years of research and development had brought the digital computer to the threshold of commercial viability, a well established corporation entered the industry. On March 31, 1951 Remington-Rand delivered the UNIVAC I to Bureau of the Census. As the first commercial computer system, UNIVAC made a dramatic impression on the American public. Industry eventually bought 46 of them. At the suggestion of Remington-Rand CBS Television used a UNIVAC to predict the outcome of the 1952 presidential election. This was a marvelous public relations stroke and helped UNIVAC capture the imagination of the nation.

In 1955, shortly after the Sperry-Remington-Rand merger, UNIVAC II was introduced. This machine had a core magnetic memory which provided it with a storage capacity of between 2,000 and 10,000 words. However, IBM soon announced its 702 computer which featured a binary coded decimal representation and alphabetic characters that were ideal for commercial use. While many industry observers believed that the UNIVACs were still technologically superior, Sperry-Rand could not compete with IBM's imaginative marketing initiatives and sophisticated sales forces.

By the early 1960s IBM controlled 71% of the computer market and Sperry-Rand was a distant second with 10%. In 1964, the United States patent office finally issued Eckert and Mauchly's ENIAC Patent, seventeen years after the initial application. Sperry began notifying all computer companies that they were violating its patent rights and offered to license competitors for a fee of 1.5% (IBM was excluded as it had reached a $10,000,000 settlement with Sperry in 1956). However the industry did not accept Sperry's claim and the issue wound up in the court.

In May, 1967 Sperry sued Honeywell and Control Data Corporation for patent violations. Honeywell countersued, accusing Sperry of trying to enforce a fraudulent patent. The cases were consolidated and wound up in Minneapolis Federal District Court. The trial opened on July 1, 1971 and lasted 135 days. Seventy-seven witnesses testified and 32,654 exhibits were entered in the record. Judge Earl Larson handed down his decision on October 10, 1973. Sperry lost on every count. The judge declared that the patent was invalid because it had been filed more than a year after the ENIAC was in public use. He also concluded that Eckert and Mauchly did “not themselves first invent the automatic electronic digital computer, but instead derived that subject matter from one Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff.”

It is extremely difficult to access the merits of this judgement. Clearly, a concept like the computer did not spring fully developed from John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert's imaginations in 1944. It can be argued that the history of computers can be traced back to the invention of abacus in ancient Babylonia. This discovery initiated a long chain of technological developments that led to the invention of the ENIAC and stored program computer. John Atanasoff's primitive machine that was designed to solve simultaneous linear equations was one step on this road. But Atanasoff's computer was never fully operational. He did not see the importance of his invention and failed to perfect, patent and publicize it. It was Eckert and Mauchly who in fact developed the first working computer.

Since the development of the ENIAC, BINAC and first UNIVAC computers, there has been exponential progress in electronic data processing. It is now common to speak of “generations of computers.” Newer and more powerful memory systems are the principal facture differentiating one generation from another. In the Sperry-UNIVAC family the first generation employed a mercury delay line memory and vacuum tubes; the second magnetic core memory and vacuum tubes; the third magnetic drum memory and solid state components; the fourth was characterized by integrated circuits which were a hundred times more powerful than their transisterized predecessors. Finally in the 1970s the microprocessor was introduced and then the personal computer.

Part I. Records collected for the Sperry-Honeywell Law Suit (1971-3)

The Sperry-Honeywell suit revolved around the question of who invented the electronic digital computer. Thirty-six thousand documents were entered in evidence (30,000 by Honeywell and 6,000 by Sperry) and 50,000 pages of trial transcript were generated. The lawyers produced a huge archive documenting the history of the computer industry (1935-1971). Two major files were created. (1) an “original file” containing documents from Sperry's archives that were submitted to the court (2) “a chronological file” which contains copies of all the documents which were entered as exhibits.

Series I: Original File

This series documents John Mauchly's and J. Presper Eckert's efforts to develop and market the ENIAC, BINAC, and UNIVAC computers. The records include one folder of John Mauchly-John Atanasoff correspondence describing Mauchly's 1941 visit to Ames, Iowa to examine the Atanasoff Computer. Also included are most of the surviving records of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (1947-50).

Subseries 1

Correspondence files trace the development of the Eckert-Mauchly computers. This subseries includes letters and memoranda of John Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert, as well as three of engineers Isaac Aurbach, Irwin Travis, J.R. Weiner, and T.K. Sharpless.

Subseries 2

Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation Administrative Records include minutes of board of directors and stockholders meetings (1948-9); articles of incorporation; secretary's financial papers; and minutes of the executive, operating, planning, administrative and contract committees. Also included is a copy of the 1950 Eckert-Mauchly-Remington-Rand merger agreement.

Subseries 3

Research and Development Records (1942-52) includes a copy of John Mauchly's 1942-3 ENIAC proposal that was submitted to the U.S. Army's Ordnance Department; also included are ENIAC progress reports, laboratory noteboods, engineering drawings, and patent files. Records also document the EDVAC, BINAC, and UNIVAC projects. The EDVAC files includes a folder of letters of John von Neuman tracing his involvement with the project. BINAC records contain considerable correspondence with Northrop Aircraft which trace the technological obstacles that had to be overcome in order to build the first stored memory computer. UNIVAC design and production records describe the development of the UNIVAC system component by component i.e. card to tape feed, input-output circuts, unityper, and uniprinter.

Subseries 4

Marketing and Sales Records contain Eckert-Mauchly's correspondence with its major customers: A.C. Nielsen, National Bureau of Standards, Prudential Insurance, Northrop Aviation, and Watson Laboratories (American Totalistator Company). These files document production costs and trace pricing and sales policies.

Subseries 5

LARC Computer R&D Records document the development of a large Scale High Speed Computing System which was among the fastest Scientific Computer of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Series II: Chronological File

The chronological file is a complete record of all the documents that were submitted in evidence during the Sperry-Honeywell suit. The documents from the 1936-50 period describe the early history of the computer industry in exquisite detail. The records include copies of John Mauchly's correspondence both as Professor of physics at Ursinus College and at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. These files trace Mauchly's interest in computing, his early theoretical work, and the genisis of the ENIAC project. The development of the ENIAC is described through Mauchly and Eckert's correspondence, published articles, technical and progress reports. There is considerable correspondence with John G. Brainerd, project director at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering and with Herman Goldstine and other engineers who worked for the Armys's Ordnance Department. The records also document the ENIAC's service at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and its use in the Los Alamos Atomic Bomb Project.

The chronological file documents a number of other pre 1950 computer projects. There is considerable correspondence relating to John Atanasoff's ABC computer and John von Neuman's EDVAC. Other projects documented include those sponsored by Bell Laboratories, National Cash Register, IBM, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, RCA, and the University of Chicago. The post 1950 records document the various generations of UNIVAC computers and the process by which Sperry lost ground to IBM during the 1950s and 60s. The relationship between software and hardware development is clearly defined in the records. The Sperry-UNIVAC effort to secure patent rights for the ENIAC are described as is the company's determination to license and defend the ENIAC patent. The final 25 cartons in the chronological file describe the events leading up to the Sperry Honeywell suit and the way this drama was played in the courtroom.

Series III: Trial Transcript

The trial transcript contains 50,000 pages of testimony in 137 bound volumes. It is a complete record of the proceedings as they took place in Judge Earl Larson's courtroom between June 1, 1971 and March 13, 1972. The testimony explored the origins and history of the computer industry in minute detail. Judge Larson's “Finding of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order for Judgement” (October 19, 1973) represents both the verdict of the court and a judgement of about the history of electronic digital computing.

Series IV: Witness Files

The Witness Files contain copies of the transcribed depositions that were entered in evidence. Among those who giving testimony were:

Series V: Legal Papers

The Legal Papers document Sperry-UNIVAC's efforts to defend and license the ENIAC patent. This series contains patent interference files as well as the records generated by the Sperry attorneys who worked on the Sperry-Rand vs. Bell Laboratories case (1956-7) the Sperry Rand vs. IBM case (1963-4). This series also contains a fragment of the legal correspondence generated by the Sperry-Honeywell suit.

Series VI: Sperry - UNIVAC Administrative and Operating Records

Administrative records of UNIVAC Division of Sperry-Rand. This include a fragment of the executive officer correspondence of president R.E. McDonald (1965-70), vice president, G.H. Geick (1967-9), and vice president F.R. Raach (1962-5). Also included are miscellaneous financial records.

Series VII: Technical Documents

The technical documents file (1946-72) traces the research and development work done by the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and the Sperry-UNIVAC Company. The series is divided into eight subseries:

Series VIII: Engineering Department Records

The engineering department records include the papers of Herman Lukoff (department chair, 1960-79). These records contain Lukoff's project files on the LARC and UNIVAC 1105, as well as the minutes of the various administrative committees on which he sat.

Series IX: Engineering Research Associates Records

In 1952, Remington Rand attempted to strengthen its position in the electronic data processing equipment industry by acquiring Engineering Research Associates (E.R.A.) of St. Paul, Minnesota. At that time, E.R.A. was on the cutting edge of computer technology. However, in 1957, William Norris, the firm's founder, left Sperry to form his own Company, Control Data Corporation. The E.R.A. records document (1946-55) the negotiations which led to the Sperry-ERA merger as well as the engineering work conducted by ERA.

Series X: Sales and Marketing Records consist of five subseries:

Series XI: Manuals

Subseries 1. Service Manuals

Subseries 2. Programming Manuals

Series XII: Mini Computer Operations - Varian Records.

In June 1977 Sperry-UNIVAC aquired Varian Data Machines. The operation became known as the Sperry Univac Mini Computer Operations. Records include merger and divestiture agreements, Varian technical documents, sales literature, and manuals.

Series XIII: Public and Community Relations Department Records (1950-82) includes clippings and press release files as well as copies of promotional brochures. There is also a typescript copy of the unpublished Sperry-UNIVAC history book (1979-80).

Series XIV: Patent and Licensing Records (1950-78) include the files of patent attorney W.E. Cleaver and copies of domestic, and foreign licensing agreements.

Series XV: Personnel Department Records (1950-75) contain departmental correspondence files as well as records of contract negotiations, arbitration, grievance, and National Labor Relations Board Proceedings.

	Simultaneous Equation Routines for the ORDVAC and EDVAC	1956
	[Recent Developments at the Moore School, 1948]

Series II: Chronological File
(Includes correspondence, technical reports and other materials collected by Sperry Corporation's legal department for the Sperry-Honeywell Suit. Some of this material duplicates records in boxes 1-65, but the chronological file is a more complete record.)