Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-329) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
pt. 1. Origins of a New Industry, 1865-1920. 1. From Opportunities to Typewriters. 2. Adding and Calculating Machines. 3. Hollerith and the Development of Punched Card Tabulation. 4. Cash Registers and the National Cash Register Company. 5. Rudiments of an Industry Identified -- pt. 2. An Age of Office Machines, 1920-1941. 6. Economic Conditions and the Role of Standardization. 7. Products, Practices, and Prices. 8. Commercial and Scientific Applications of Punched Card Machines. 9. International Trade in Punched Card Machines. 10. The Great Depression in the United States. 11. IBM and Powers/Remington Rand. 12. Other Accounting Machines and Their Uses. 13. Vendors, Practices, and Results -- pt. 3. World War II and the Postwar Office Appliance Industry, 1941-1956. 14. Economics, Government Controls, and Applications. 15. The Role of Major Vendors, 1939-1946. 16. Industry Structure, Vendors, and Practices, 1945-1956. 17. Business Volumes. 18. Conclusion: The Roles of Marketing, Distribution, and Technology.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Before the Computer fully explores the data processing industry in the United States from its nineteenth-century inception down to the period when the computer became its primary tool. As James Cortada describes what was once called the "office appliance industry," he challenges our view of the digital computer as a revolutionary technology. Cortada interprets reliance on computers as a development within an important segment of the American economy that was earlier represented largely by such instruments as typewriters, tabulating machines, adding machines, and calculators. He also describes how many of the practices of the office appliance industry evolved into those of the computer world. Drawing on previously unavailable industry archives, the author adds to our understanding of IBM's early history and offers short corporate histories of firms that include NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand. Focusing on the United States but also including comparative material on Europe and Asia, Before the Computer will be a unique source of knowledge about the companies that built office equipment and their enormous impact on economic life.
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Electronic office machine industry-- United States-- History.
Office equipment and supplies industry-- United States-- History.
Appareils électroniques-- États-Unis-- Histoire.
Bureaux-- appareils et matériels-- industrie et commerce-- Etats-Unis-- histoire.