It was a daring scheme and one that none but a dreamer would undertake to construct in the method shown. There have in later years been some successful ten-key recording machines made and sold, but they were of a very different design and principle.
There have also been several adding attachments made and sold that could be adjusted to a regular commercial typewriter that are claimed to be dependable, but none of these machines were early enough to be claimed as the first operative recording-adding machine, or the first adding machine in which the principle used for the legible recording of the numerical items used in the machines of today may be found.
First Practical Recorders
The fact that Barbour, Baldwin, Pottin, Ludlum and Burroughs attempted to produce a recording-adding machine shows that as far back as 1872, and at periods down to 1888, there was at least in the minds of these men a conception of the usefulness of such a machine, and the fact that there were five with the same thought is fairly good evidence of the need for a machine of this class.
Burroughs a bank clerk
In some of the human-interest articles issued through the advertising department of the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. it is stated that Wm. Seward Burroughs was a bank clerk prior to his efforts at adding machine construction. It is conceivable, therefore, that his first efforts at adding machine invention should be directed toward the production of a machine that would be of service in the bank for the bringing together of the loose items of account that are to be found in the form of checks, drafts, and the like, by printing a record of the items and their totals during the process of adding them together.
Felt interested in recorder Art
It is not surprising, therefore, that a manufacturer of a successful calculating machine should, through his contact with the trade, come to the conclusion that there was use for a machine of this class in the banks. As proof of this, we find that an application for a recording-adding machine patent was filed January 19, 1888, by D. E. Felt, which was allowed and issued June 11, 1889.
