Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation

The Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) (March 1946–1950) was founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and was incorporated on December 22 1947. After building the ENIAC computer at the University of Pennsylvania, Eckert and Mauchly formed EMCC to build new computer designs for commercial and military applications. The company was initially called the Electronic Control Company, changing its name to Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation when it was incorporated.

Founding

By the spring of 1946, Eckert and Mauchly had procured a U.S. Army contract for the University of Pennsylvania and were already designing the EDVAC—the successor machine to the ENIAC—at the university's Moore School of Electrical Engineering. However, new university policies that would have forced Eckert and Mauchly to sign over intellectual property rights for their inventions led to their resignation, which caused a lengthy delay in the EDVAC design efforts. After considering options to join IBM and John von Neumann's team at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, they decided to start their own company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

UNIVAC

Mauchly persuaded the U.S. Census Bureau to order an "EDVAC II" computer—a model that was soon renamed UNIVAC—receiving a contract in 1948 that called for having the machine ready for the 1950 census. Eckert hired a staff that included a number of the engineers from the Moore School, and the company launched an ambitious program to design and manufacture large-scale computing machines. A major achievement was the use of magnetic tape for high-speed storage. During development Mauchly continued to solicit new customers and started a software department. They developed applications, starting with the world's first compiler for the language Short Code.

BINAC and fiscal difficulties

Cash flow was poor and the UNIVAC would not be finished for quite some time, so EMCC decided to take on another project that would be done quickly. This was the BINAC, a small computer (compared to ENIAC) for the Northrop corporation. Original estimates for the development costs proved to be extremely unrealistic, and by the summer of 1948, EMCC had just about run out of money, but it was temporarily saved by Harry L. Straus, vice president of the American Totalisator Company, a Baltimore company that made electromechanical totalisators. Straus felt that EMCC's work, besides being promising in general terms, might have some application in the race track business, and invested $500,000 in the company. Straus became chairman of the EMCC board, and American Totalisator received 40 percent of the stock. Unfortunately, Straus was killed in an airplane crash in October 1949, and American Totalisator's directors withdrew their support. BINAC was eventually delivered in 1949, but Northrop complained that it never worked well for them. (It had worked fine in acceptance tests at EMCC; but Northrup, citing security concerns, refused to allow any EMCC employees onto their site to reassemble it after shipping. Instead, Northrup hired a newly-graduated electrical engineer to assemble it. EMCC claimed that the fact that it worked at all after this was testimony to the quality of the design.)

Accusations of Communist infiltration

EMCC also received contracts for one UNIVAC machine each for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. These contracts were eventually canceled after the company was accused of having hired engineers with "Communistic leanings" during the McCarthy era. The company lost its clearance for government work, and company president and chief salesman Mauchly was banned from the company property. He challenged the accusations, but it took 2 years before a hearing allowed him to work at his company again; by then the UNIVAC was seriously behind schedule. The programming to allow the UNIVAC I to be used in predicting the outcome of the 1952 Presidential election had to be done by Mauchly and University of Pennsylvania statistician Max Woodbury at Mauchly's home in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

ale to Remington Rand

As had happened with BINAC, EMCC's estimates of delivery dates and costs proved to be optimistic, and the company was soon in financial difficulty again. In early 1950, the company was for sale; potential buyers included National Cash Register and Remington Rand (later part of the Sperry Corporation). Remington Rand made the first offer, and purchased EMCC on February 15, 1950, whereupon it became the UNIVAC division of Remington Rand. The first UNIVAC was not delivered until March 1951, over a year after EMCC was acquired by Remington Rand, and too late to help much for the 1950 census. Mauchly resigned from Remington Rand in 1952; his 10-year contract with them ran until 1960, and prohibited him from working on other computer projects during that time.

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External links

* [http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/mauchly/jwm10.html John W. Mauchly and the Development of the ENIAC Computer]
* [http://sew1.home.comcast.net/Univac/doc/Kay_Mauchly.doc Machine Launched a World of Change] , by Kay Mauchly Antonelli, one of the first ENIAC programmers, and wife of J. W. Mauchly
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* - "note that this is a tertiary source and has some errors of fact - please do not rely on it as an authoritative information source"
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