As a bank clerk in Auburn, New York, William Seward Burroughs (1857-1898) became convinced that banks needed a machine that would add figures accurately and print entries and sums. When poor health forced Burroughs to leave the bank in 1882, he resolved to invent an adding machine. He went to St. Louis, took a job in a machine shop, and began tinkering. By 1891, he had several patents and an adding machine sufficiently reliable for use in banks. It was sold by a firm called American Arithmometer Company, later renamed Burroughs.

    To use a Burroughs adding machine, an operator first pushed down the digits on the keyboard for the number to be added. Pulling the crank forward caused the entry to print. Releasing the crank added the number to those already entered. Adding took place through a system of toothed segments and gears. In the early machine shown, the only way to see the sum was to print it out. On later Burroughs machines, a row of numeral dials displayed the running total.

    The photograph shows the first model sold by the American Arithmometer Company. It measures 11" wide x 15" deep x 12.5" high (28 cm. x 38 cm. x 32 cm.). It was introduced in 1890 but did not work well and was withdrawn the following year. Despite this early setback, Burroughs perservered, and soon had asuccessful product. By 1926, Burroughs Corporation had sold over a million machines. Unfortunately for Burroughs, ill health plagued him in the 1890s, he was forced to retire in 1897, and he died the next year. Burroughs Corporation would remain an active manufacturer of calculating machines and then computers. In the 1980s it merged with Sperry Univac to form Unisys.

References: Anonymous (1939), Horsburgh, NMAH Collections, d'Ocagne.