Burroughs Corporation

William Seward Burroughs was a maker of mechanical calculating machines and founder of the American Arithmometer Company – the name was later changed to the Burroughs Corporation. He was also the grandfather of the William S. Burroughs, the author of Naked Lunch.

The firm became a giant in the calculating machine business and expanded into electronics and digital computers when these technologies developed. They gained entry to the industry by purchasing the southern California company Electrodata Corporation in 1956. Burroughs created many highly regarded computer systems in the 1960s and 1970s and eventually merged with the makers of the Univac computers (Sperry Rand) to form Unisys.