William Seward Burroughs I
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- This article is about the inventor. For the Beat Generation writer, see William S. Burroughs.
William Seward Burroughs I (January 28, 1857 – September 14, 1898) was an American inventor, born in Rochester, New York.
Initially a bank clerk, he invented a "calculating machine" designed to ease the monotony of clerical work. He was a founder of the American Arithmometer Company (1886), which later became the Burroughs Adding Machine Company (1904), then finally the Burroughs Corporation (1953). He was the grandfather of William S. Burroughs the Beat Generation writer, and great-grandfather of William S. Burroughs, Jr., also a writer.
He died in Citronelle, Alabama and was interred in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.
[edit] Patents
- U.S. Patent 388,116 Calculating-machine. Filed January 1885, issued August 1888.
- U.S. Patent 388,117 Calculating-machine. Filed August 1885, issued August 1888.
- U.S. Patent 388,118 Calculating-machine. Filed March 1886, issued August 1888.
- U.S. Patent 388,119 Calculating-machine. Filed November 1887, issued August 1888.
[edit] External links
- Burroughs Corporation Records Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Collection contains the records of the Burroughs Corporation, and its predecessors the American Arithmometer Company and Burroughs Adding Machine Company.
- William S. Burroughs biography and science resources at The Franklin Institute's Case Files online exhibit
- William Seward Burroughs' Photo & Gravesite
