history.navy.mil/photos/images/h96000/h96566kc.htm).
Soon after ENIAC become functional, Mauchly and Eckert formed the Electronic Control Corporation
(ECC) and received contracts from the government to design and build a computer for the Bureau of the Census.
ECC developed financial difficulties and as a result sold its patents to, and became an employee of, the
Remington Rand Corporation. In 1951 Remington Rand delivered the Universal Automatic Computer
(UNIVAC) to the census bureau.
UNIVAC was the fastest computer of the time and was the only commercially available general-purpose
computer. It contained only 5000 vacuum tubes and was more compact than its predecessors. UNIVAC
computers were sold to government agencies, the A.C. Neilson Company (market researchers), and Prudential
Insurance. By 1957 Remington Rand had sold over 40 machines.
Probably what made UNIVAC most famous was its use by CBS to predict the results of the 1952 presidential
election. Opinion polls predicted that Adalai Stevenson would beat Dwight D. Eisenhower by a landslide.
UNIVAC??™s analysis of early returns, however, showed a clear victory for Eisenhower. Newscasters Walter
Cronkite and Charles Collingwood questioned the validity of the computer??™s forecast, so they postponed
announcing UNIVAC??™s prediction until very late.
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