Computize history

With other activities being mechanized, why not calculation? In 1820 Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar of France effectively met this challenge when he built his Arithmometer, the first commercial mass-produced calculating device.

He began by writing a letter in 1822 to Sir Humphry Davy, president of the Royal Society, about the possibility of automating the construction of mathematical tables—specifically, logarithm tables for use in navigation.

All design and construction ceased in 1833, when Joseph Clement, the machinist responsible for actually building the machine, refused to continue unless he was prepaid. (The completed portion of the Difference Engine is on permanent exhibition at the Science Museum in London.)

In 1843, at age 27, she had come to understand it well enough to publish the definitive paper explaining the device and drawing the crucial distinction between this new thing and existing calculators.

When IBM began to sell the computers in addition to leasing them in 1956 (under pressure from the Justice Department), Oreamuno recognized that a potentially lucrative role as middleman had opened up.

MAI's history can be traced to 1957, when Management Assistance Inc. was founded by Walter R. Oreamuno.

The store was to be large enough to hold 1,000 50-digit numbers; this was larger than the storage capacity of any computer built before 1960.

In 1967, after plans for a merger with Transamerica Corporation suddenly disintegrated, Oreamuno resigned as CEO. He was replaced by Luther Schwalm, a 37-year veteran of IBM who had recently come over to MAI.

By 1968, the errors of MAI's earlier ways became clear, and the company took a $17 million write-down on obsolete punch-card equipment.

While the company had $60 million in revenue in 1970, it maintained $140 million in debt and a net worth of negative $28 million.

Basic/Four's first product, launched in 1971, was a line of business computer systems for small to medium-sized companies.

In 1972, Basic/Four introduced the first multi-user transaction processing mini-computer to use the Business Basic language.

In 1973, the court found in favor of the company using Atanasoff claim and Atanasoff received the acclaim he rightly deserved.

By 1975, Basic/Four's revenue had grown to $43 million, and it was contributing around two-thirds of MAI's total earnings.

Also introduced in 1977 was the TRS-80.

For 1980, Basic/Four earned $14 million (a 39 percent drop) on sales of $304 million.

For fiscal 1983, Basic/Four reported an operating loss of $10.2 million.

Once at the company's helm, Edelman immediately set out to liquidate MAI. By early 1985, most of the company's parts had been sold off.

By 1987, nearly two-thirds of MAI's total sales were coming from overseas, and half of the parts used in its manufacturing operations were from outside the company.

An infusion of $55 million in cash came from Brooke Partners L.P., an investment group controlled by LeBow, giving Brooke a majority ownership in MAI. Sales continued to recede, however, and for 1989 the company suffered a net loss of $39 million on revenue of $397 million.

In May 1991, Peter Anderson was named to replace Fred Anderson as president and CEO of MAI. The company continued its cost-cutting efforts, reducing personnel and streamlining operations wherever possible.

The company reported revenue of $115 million for 1993.

The following list is each of the years from B.C. to 2020 of computer-related events that have occurred.