Unisys History

The computers of the late 1940s were all one-of-a-kind special projects done at research laboratories or companies closely tied to government funding. In 1946 J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly started a company which had the goal of producing computers to be offered for sale in the commercial marketplace. They, too, were dependent on government funding to get started, but they wanted to reach customers in the larger business community, not just those involved in defense or other government work. After many years of struggle, they produced the UNIVAC I computer, which was delivered to its first customer (the U.S. Census Bureau) in 1951. Eventually, 46 UNIVAC I computers were built. Soon, other computers would be manufactured in much larger quantities, but from the perspective of the 1950s, this was mass production.