UNIVAC I

The Univac (Universal Automatic Computer) was delivered to the Census Bureau in 1951 and was used to predict the 1952 presidential election. With a sample of just 1% of the voting population it predicted that Eisenhower would win. Something nobody would believe, but Univac was right!

It was built by Remington-Rand (which had purchased the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1950).

Univac used 5,000 vacuum tubes, weighed 16,000 pounds, and could perform about 1,000 calculations per second.

It was the first American commercial computer, as well as the first computer designed for business use.

The first few sales were to government agencies, such as the A.C. Nielsen Company, and the Prudential Insurance Company. The first UNIVAC for business applications was installed at the General Electric Appliance Division, to do payroll, in 1954.

A total of 46 Univacs were eventually built and sold.