First computer delivered to Census Bureau

On June 14, 1951 the first commercially produced computer, UNIVAC 1, was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The computers of the late 1940’s were all unique items created either at research labs or by companies closely tied to the government. In 1946, J. Presper Eckert and John W. Maudy started a company which had the goal of producing computers to be offered for sale in the commercial marketplace but the two were totally dependent on federal and state funding to get started. (We guess they hadn’t read Romney’s playbook about big bad government.)

After years of hard work the UNIVAC 1, with its 3,000-word memory, was delivered to its first customer, the U.S. Census Bureau.  Eventually 46 UNIVAC 1 computers were produced. Back in the 1950’s this was “mass production” in the computer business.