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1. #Burroughs portable adding machine serial number serial numbers#
2. #Burroughs portable adding machine serial number serial number#
3. #Burroughs portable adding machine serial number series#

Thus it sometimes develops that, judged by actual date of sale, the following table will not appear correct. The necessity of maintaining sale and consignment stocks of various models, often brings about a condition whereby a machine is not sold for many months after its manufacture. The following table is an approximation of such serial numbers. When the above plan of numbering was abandoned, a regular sequence was maintained each machine, regardless of its class or model, was assigned a consecutive factory number. Patent application was made in 1885 and major production started in 1888. When a twenty-five-year-old Burroughs became frustrated with the time involved in adding numbers as a bank clerk in 1882, he set out to speed up the process mechanically. An example is as follows:Ĭlass 8 Portable Adding Machine serials would be as follows: The fully mechanical machine performs only one mathematical function: addition.

#Burroughs portable adding machine serial number serial number#

As you may start to see, you can identify the period a machine was built by the serial number alpha character.

#Burroughs portable adding machine serial number series#

Then in 1952, they started over again with the Series identification alpha character in front of the actual number. This continued for all current products until abut 1950, when the "A" was changed to "B".

#Burroughs portable adding machine serial number serial numbers#

So the serial numbers started over again from number 1 with the alpha "A" proceeding the number. It must have been obvious that it was becoming difficult to handle these large numbers. In about 1934, Burroughs serial numbers had reached seven digits long. Burroughs Adding Machine Company traced its founding to William Seward Burroughs who invented and patented the first workable adding and listing machine in St.

The intervening numbers were assigned to other models." Thus, a model will have serial number groups of serials, sometimes in the same year of manufacture. The practice was to reserve a series of 1,000 to 5,000 numbers (more or less), and assign them to one style or model, and when that series was exhausted, a new set, in a different series, would be assigned. "Until 1914-1915, machines were not numbered in sequence. It should be noted that the serial numbers of all early models are comparatively low - in all cases less than 260,000." The serial number is stamped on the front of the base of every machine. So a Class 8 machine would, in later production, become a Series P machine. The Series designations were alpha characters, such as Series P. These type of designations continued for many years, until about 1952, when the "Series" designation was introduced. Style designations were usually a numeric and sometimes alpha characters, such as Style 6 or Style 6x. Within the class of each machine type, there were a variety of styles or models. Each Class of machine was identified with a single number, such as Class 1, Class 2, etc. The following information contained in quotations, is from The American Digest of Business Machines (1924), describing the Burroughs approach for identifying their machine models.Įarly machines were designated in "Classes" with a sub-designation of "Styles" or 'Models".