Burroughs, William Seward

William Seward Burroughs, (born January 28, 1855, Auburn, New York, U.S.—died September 15, 1898, Citronelle, Alabama), American inventor of the first recording adding machine and pioneer of its manufacture.

After a brief education, Burroughs supported himself from the age of 15. In 1880 he began working in his father’s shop in St. Louis, Missouri, constructing models for castings and working on new inventions. At that time he decided to construct a machine for solving arithmetical problems and, with financial help from an acquaintance, Thomas B. Metcalfe, completed his first calculating machine (1885), which, however, proved to be commercially impractical. But, with Metcalfe and two other St. Louis businessmen, he organized the American Arithmometer Company in 1888; after much trial and error he patented a practical model in 1892. Although the machine was a commercial success, he died before receiving much money from it. A year before his death he received the John Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute as an award for his invention. In 1905 the Burroughs Adding Machine Company was organized in Michigan as successor to the American Arithmometer Company. His grandson, American author William S. Burroughs, was named after him.