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.Univac-I. The control console is on the left, the processor at the rear, and the magnetic tape units on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNIVAC-I

March 1951 - Delivered to Census Bureau

 

UNIVAC-II

1952 - Univac II delivered to GE.  First non-government commercial use of a computer.

 

 

CBS-TV used a UNIVAC to predict the outcome of the 1952 presidential election.  At 9pm EST, with only 7% of the vote in, UNIVAC predicted

Electoral votes: Eisenhower 438 to Stevenson 93.  The final official election tally was 442 to 89.

 

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In 1946, two University of Pennsylvania professors, Eckert & Mauchly, had shown the world their ENIAC, the nation's first general purpose electronic computer.  That evolved into Univac-1, the world's first commercial computer, which was shipped to the U.S. Census bureau in 1951.  Soon the Sperry-Rand Corp plant at 19th & Allegheny Ave in North Philadelphia was turning out a stream of computers.  The company grew so quickly that it moved in the early 1960's to Blue Bell, PA, where its successor, Unisys Corp., still has headquarters. [Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan 1, 2000]