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Remington Rand |
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (February 2008) |
Remington Rand (1927–1955) was an early American computer manufacturer, best known as the original maker of the UNIVAC I, and now part of Unisys. For a time, the word "univac" was recognized as a generic synonym for "computer". Remington Rand also made office equipment and electric shavers. The Remington Rand Building at 315 Park Avenue in New York City was a 20-floor skyscraper completed in 1911.
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Remington Rand was formed by the merger of the Remington Typewriter Company, Rand Kardex Company, and Powers Accounting Machine Company in 1927. From its inception until 1958, it was led by founder James Rand, Jr.
From 1942 to 1945, Remington Rand was one manufacturer of the M1911A1 .45 caliber automatic pistol used by the United States Armed Forces during World War II. Remington Rand produced more M1911A1 pistols than any other wartime manufacturer.citation needed
In 1950, Remington Rand acquired the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, the makers of the ENIAC, and in 1952, they acquired Engineering Research Associates (ERA), both of which were pioneers in electronic computing. At that time, Remington Rand had become one of the biggest computer companies in the United States.
Remington Rand was acquired by Sperry Corporation in 1955 to form a company then known as Sperry Rand (later shortened to Sperry). Sperry merged in 1986 with Burroughs to form Unisys.
Initially produced by Remington Arms, the Remington Typewriters were the first typewriters introducing the QWERTY keyboard layout. Christopher Sholes who company, which were not interested in typewriters. Remington Arms then bought the design exclusively from Sholes and began with the production of typewriters. The Remington No.1 was the first model released. All keys were uppercase.
Remington Arms spun off Remington Typewriter Company in 1886, and after the 1927 merger, the Remington Rand Corp. continued to manufacture and sell typewriters.
The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was the first commercial computer made in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work was begun by their company, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. (In the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine was simply known as "the UNIVAC".)
The first UNIVAC was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on March 31, 1951 and was dedicated on June 14th that year.1 The fifth machine (built for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission) was used by CBS to predict the result of the 1952 U.S. presidential election. With a sample of 1% of the voting population it predicted Eisenhower's win.
In 1949, Remington Rand designed the Remington Rand 409, a plug-board programmed punch card calculator (but not introduced as a product until 1952 as the UNIVAC 60 then in 1953 as the UNIVAC 120 with double the memory).
Remington Rand also made electric razors. The Remington brand of razor was originally produced by a division of Remington Rand, starting in 1937. Sperry Corporation sold the division in 1979 to Victor Kiam, who became the company spokesman of the new Remington Products Company. His line, "I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company" became one of the more memorable advertising slogans of the early 1980s. Remington Products was sold in 2003 to the battery manufacturer Rayovac. Rayovac is now Spectrum Brands.
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