Information Technology Industry TimeLine

-1944 1945-1963 1964-1974 1975-1994 1995-

The present TimeLine page differs from similar pages available on the Internet because it is focused more on the industry than on "inventions".  It was originally designed to show the place of the European and more specifically the French computer industry facing its world-wide competition. Most of published time-line charts either consider that everything had an American origin or they show their country patriotism (French, Italian, Russian or British) or their company patriotism.

It includes three kinds of entries : 

 By no means, the list should be considered exhaustive and it is planned to add to it in the future. Readers are invited to request for corrections or additions to the author. 
While a few dates are recorded with precision, other may be as imprecise as one year. For instance, companies mergers may require many months to be concluded. Inventions may be credited of the patent filing or approval. Operation of  a system may be dated as day of shipment or of its actual commissioning by the customer. Products may be introduced not simultaneously in several countries. In addition, sources may contradict each other. The wording generally used in this time-line is "introduction" for announcement by the manufacturer. Actual "delivery" could be significantly later; sometimes, it never occurred. "Shipment" means delivery of hardware, but actual "operation" may be significantly delayed.
While over 2400 milestones are recorded here, there is still a lack of coverage of important fields (peripherals, electronic consumer goods, software companies), several countries are not yet given the rank they deserve.

This page and its companions focus essentially on the computer industry and its relations with other information processing technology in general. It has been extended of some aspects of the electronics industry that was the cradle of many companies. and inventions of the information technology. 

Pre-1945 period is actually the pre-historic era of that industry. Several inventions had taken place in Europe and USA. However, it has to be remarked that, almost exclusively in the USA, a calculator industry and a punched card industry was born in the first part of the century. One possible reason for this incentive for mechanization of clerical tasks in the USA might be related to the scarcity of workers, even in a country of immigration. It also underscores the general consensus for increase of productivity in the U.S. even in the depression periods. 
The development of telephone and telegraph operators occurred on a worldwide basis, but the influence of American investors was generally dominant, although in all countries, governments decide to administrate or strictly regulate the telecommunications operations.

Date

IBM

other USA

France

rest of the world

?     invention of abacus by Chinese
50 BC       Julius Caesar uses symmetrical enciphering by substitution
1585       Blaise de Vigenère invents polyalphabetic enciphering
1623       Wilhelm Schikard, at University of Tübingen, invents a calculating machine used by Kepler
1642     invention by Blaise Pascal the Pascaline calculator  
1694       mechanical calculator of Gottfried Leibnitz
1792     invention of wireless semaphore telegraph by Claude Chappe, 
in 1794 he used Tachygraphe machine renamed Télégraphe in 1798 		 
1800       invention of Pile de Volta battery by Alessandro Volta at Pavia
1804     Jacquard's automatic loom using punched cards  
1820 introduction of Thomas Arithmometer  
1836       invention of electro shock at Havana by  the Garibaldian adventurer Antonio Meucci 
1837     law giving to the French kingdom the monopoly of communications, it will  the base for future communications until the late 1990s  
24 Jul 1837       demonstration of telegraph by Cooke and Wheatstone
1838     Charles Babbage's differential analyzer
1841       invention by Wheatstone of the first type printing telegraph
1842       Facsimile transmission (Fax) was first pioneered by Alexander Bain and patented as chemical telegraph
24 May 1844   first operation of Samuel Morse telegraph between New-York and Philadelphia    
1846       foundation of Electric Telegraph Company in UK by Sir William Fotherhill Cooke and Joseph Lewis Ricardo
1847       foundation of Siemens und Halske by Johann Georg Halske, Werner and Johann  Georg Siemens in Berlin
1848       facsimile demonstrated by Bakewell
1849       foundation of British Electric Telegraph Company
1850       first trans Channel cable between France and UK
1855       merge of Electric Telegraph with International Telegraph Company
1855   Antonio Meucci établishes a telephone link inside its appartment in New York    
1864       foundation of Telcon (Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company). by Sir John Pender
1865       experiences of Facsimile by Caselli in Italy
1865       foundation of Anglo-American Telegraph Company by John Pender 
1865 creation by 20 states of ITU International Telegraph Union
1865       foundation of River Plate Telegraph Company by John Proudfoot to operate telegraph through Rio de la Plata between Montevideo and Buenos Aires
1866     introduction of fac-simile developed by Meyer in French telegraph system  
1866       operation of a transatlantic telegraph cable between Valentia (Ireland) and Newfoundland
an initial attempt failed in 1858
1868       Indo-European Company established in Germany for establishing a cable between England and India
1869       start of telegraph service in Japan between Tokyo and Yokohama
1869   Elisha Gray and Enos N. Barton found Gray & Barton company at Cleveland OH    
1869       foundation of British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company by John Pender for laying a cable between Britain and India
1870       nationalization of domestic telegraph companies in UK into Post Office
28 dec 1872   filing by Antonio Meucci of an invention notice to operate a telephone , not  renewed after 1873    
1872   Gray and Barton renamed Western Electric Manufacturing Company in Chicago    
1872       establishment of Eastern Telegraph Company regrouping telegraph companies of John Pender.
1872       foundation of Eastern Telegraph Company by John Pender
1872   erection of Western Union Telegraph building in New-York that will become AT&T's Headquarters    
1873     integration of Posts and Telegraph in a single administration  
1873       merge between John Pender's British Indian Extension, The China Submarine and the British Australian, into Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company (E.E.A. & C.)
1873   Invention of QWERTY keyboard on typewriters by Christopher Sholes
Sholes'  patents were acquired by the rifle arms producer Remington Rand in 1973 producing N°1 Remington's typewriter 		   
1875       establishment of Tanaka Seizo-sho (Tanaka Engineering Works), Japan's first manufacturer of telegraphic equipment by Hisashige Tanaka
Tanaka will eventually become Shibaura then Toshiba
27 Feb 1876   formation by Thomas Sanders, Gardiner G. Hubbard and Alexander Graham Bell of the Bell Patent Association    
10 Mar 1876   Alexander Graham Bell files a telephone patent "Improvements in Transmitters and Receivers for Electric Telegraph"    
1876       foundation of Ericsson by Lars Magnus Ericsson
1877     invention of a 5-bits code by Emile Baudot....
 .. also named CCITT #1
1877 invention of microphone by Hugues    
1 Aug 1877   foundation of  Bell Telephone Company, that had then 778 telephone subscribers    
26 Oct 1877       first telephone line in Berlin Germany with Siemens und Halske devices
1878   creation of American Speaking Telephone Company by Western Union to compete with Bell Telephone Company    
1878     creation of the French Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs  
1878   Theodore Vail named Bell Telephone Company  CEO    
12 Feb 1878   creation by Thomas Sanders of New England Telephone Company    
1878     introduction of telephone  
17 Feb 1879   creation of National Bell Telephone Company to provide service in all the US, based on Elisha Gray's patents
it will be dissolved by a court decree in 1903 		   
1879     merge of three telephone companies to form Société Générale du Téléphone
1879   creation of Thomson-Houston by Elihu Thomson and Edwin M. Houston    
Apr 1880   incorporation of American Bell Telephone Company,    
1880   incorporation of Dodge Manufacturing Company, the future Rockwell    
1881       establishment of K.Hattori the predecessor of Seiko by Kintaro Hattori
Feb 1882   agreement between Western Electric and American Bell, by which Western Electric will be exclusive supplier of Bell     
26 Apr1882       establishment of Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company  by American Western Electric in Antwerp, Belgium
1884 Foundation of NCR National Cash Register by John Patterson    
~1884       incorporation of G.Binswanger and Company, in London for reselling electrical goods.
it will eventually become GEC then Marconi plc
1884 Hermann Hollerith files a patent on electromechanical tabulation      
1885   incorporation of American Telephone and Telegraph Company in New-York, a  long-distance company, by Theodore Vail as president and Edward J. Hall as general manager    
1885   AM Butz files a patent on thermostat leading eventually to Honeywell creation    
1885       establishment of Ministry of Communications in Japan
23 Apr 1886   creation of Butz Thermo-Electric Regulator Co., Minneapolis, by Albert Butz    
1886   Incorporation of American Arithmometer Company at Saint-Louis MO by Williams Burroughs  
1886       creation in London of General Electric Apparatus Company (G.Binswanger).headed by Hugo Hirst
1887 Introduction of Comptometer by Felt & Tarrant Co of Chicago    
1887       discovery of electromagnetic waves by Heinrich Hertz
1888   Introduction of its adder-lister by William Seward Burroughs    
1888   introduction of a coin-operated telephone, invented by William Grey     
1889 the U.S.Census Office selects Hollerith's punched card proposal for the 1890 Census      
1889       establishment of Halifax and Bermudas Telegraph Company to exploit cables to Nova Scotia and Hamilton, Bermuda
1889       foundation of playing cards producer Nintendo by Fusajiro Yamauchi
1889       General Electric Apparatus Company renamed GEC General Electric Co. Ltd, manufacturing insulating materials
1889     nationalization of Société française du téléphone  
1890       start of telephone service in Japan
1890       foundation of Ateliers de Téléphone et d'Electricté d'Anvers (ATEA) 
1891   invention of Strowger telephone switch    
1891       foundation of a lighting lamp company by Gerard Philips at Eindhoven, Netherlands
1891   foundation of Stanford University by Governor Leland Stanford at Palo Alto    
1892   foundation of General Electric by a merge between Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric Company    
1893     creation of CFTH Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston  
1893   Consolidated Temperature Controlling Co acquires Butz patents & assets and is renamed Electric Heat Regulator Co    
1894 end of operations concerning  the 1990 census      
1894   installation of a small workshop in Camden NJ by Eldridge Johnson    
1895       first wireless transmission by Guglielmo Marconi
1895 use of Hollerith's tabulator by the New York Central Railway.
Five machines were accepted in Sep 1986 		     
1895       incorporation of Northern Electric & Manufacturing Company Limited, from mechanical department of Bell Canada
May 1896       foundation of British Thomson-Houston Company Ltd by the firm Laing, Wharton and Down, as a reseller of American Electric Co (later GE) lightning products
3 Dec 1896 incorporation of Hollerith's business into Tabulating Machine Company (TMC), development of an automatic card sorter      
1897       incorporation of Marconi's Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company.in London
1897     invention of CRT Cathode-Ray Tube by Karl-Ferdinand Braun
1897   Milo G Kellog founds Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company    
1897     invention of a wireless telegraph system by Eugène Ducretet  
1898   death of Williams Burroughs    
1898   W.H. Sweatt buys Consolidated Temperature Controlling Co and renames it Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company    
31 May 1898     incorporation of Compagnie Générale d'Électricité (CGE) by Pierre Azaria  
17 Jul 1899       foundation of Nippon Electric Company, a joint venture with Western Electric, by Kunihiko Iwadare
1899   creation of Wireless Telegraph Company of America by G. Marconi    
1899     invention of Télégraphone by Valdemar Poulsen, the first magnetic recorder  
1899       merge of Western and Brazilian Telegraph Company and the Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Company founding Western Telegraph Company in Brasil
1899   foundation of Brown Telephone company at Abilene TX, 
Brown eventually will become United Utilities in 1942 and Sprint in 1986
1899 Development of a numeric keypunch by Eugene A. Ford for TMC      
31 dec 1899   AT&T becomes the holding company of Bell system    
1900 Hollerith sells 20 sorters to the Census Office for the 1900 census.      
1900       Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company is renamed Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company
1900       plant of British Thomson-Houston established at Rugby
1901       first transatlantic radiotelegraph message by Marconi between London and Newfoundland
1901   foundation in Cleveland of Cleveland Cap Screw Company later named Thompson the ancestor of TRW  
1901   Joy Morton and Howard Krul found Morkrum, ancestor of Teletype     
1901       NEC establishes Mita plant in Tokyo
1902 Hollerith develops a tabulator with automatic card feed. The reader pin-box was vertical using mercury cups contacts.      
1902       invention of photo-electric cell by Arthur Korn in Germany
1902   first machine with automatic multiplication and division  by Rechnitzer    
1903       foundation of Telefunken in Germany
1904       Foundation of The Tabulator Ltd, in United Kingdom. by Robert Porter and Sir Ralegh Phillports
It was reincorporated as British Tabulating Company (BTM) in 1907
1905   American Arithmometer Company changed name to Burroughs Adding Machine Company, headquartered at Detroit MI    
1905 U.S. Bureau of Census cancels TMC's annual contract. Directors of Census Bureau found the Census Machine shop    
1905 Hiring of Eugene Ford by TMC. He remained at Uxbridge, MA      
1906 introduction of Hollerith Type I tabulator and of vertical sorter      
1906   Mark Honeywell, in Wabash Indiana, founds Honeywell Heating Specialty Co, inc to manufacture heated water generators    
1906   Lee De Forest invents the triode, opening the way for the era of electronics    
1907   Census Machine Shop hires James Powers to develop an improved keypunch    
29 Oct 1907       re-incorporation of British Tabulating Machine
29 Oct 1908       foundation of Olivetti & C SpA at Ivrea (Italy) by Camillo Olivetti, to manufacture typewriters
1909     creation of separate telegraph and telephone departments in France  
1909       opening of Marconi's regular radio-telegraph transatlantic service
1910       fac-simile using phot-elctric cell made by Korn between Berlin, London and Paris
1910 Hollerith sues Powers,  for modifying Hollerith's sorters. TMC  will stick subsequently to a rental-only policy      
1910     creation of SFRE Société Française Radio Électrique by Émile Girardeau  
1910   Elmer Sperry founds Sperry Gyroscope    
1910       foundation of Hitachi by Namihei Odaira as an electrical repair shop
Nov 1910       creation of German Hollerith DEHOMAG in Berlin by Willy Heidinger
1911   incorporation of Powers Accounting Machine Company 
Powers introduces a mechanical printing tabulator 		   
1911       BTM designs a special census machine for the British Cebsus
15 Jun 1911 incorporation of Computing Tabulating-Recording-Company in New-York      
1911       first Olivetti typewriter M1
1911 H. Hollerith sells TMC to Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. His own shares were paid $1 million.      
1912 CTR's time recording division's plant at Endicott NY starts to  produce tabulators      
1912     foundation of Sharp by Tokuji Hayakawa
1913 Wiliam Coolidge from General Electric invents the X-Ray tube at Niskayuna, close to Schenectady NY
1913   AT&T accepts the regulating "Kingsbury Commitment "to decommit from telegraph communications and sells its shares of Western Union Telegraph Company in 1914    
4 May 1914 Thomas J. Watson joins CTR as general manager, coming from NCR.      
1914   Powers introduces a printing tabulator    
1914 CTR sets up a product development lab in New-York City on 6th Avenue near Pennsylvania Station, headed by Eugene Ford.      
1914     creation of Laboratoire national de TSF by General Ferrié  
1914       merge of Northern Electric with a rubber-coated wire manufacturer
1915 hiring of Clair D. Lake, an automotive designer by CTR.
 Lake will replace Ford as manager of the New-York lab in 1916. 		     
1915       establishment of Accounting and Tabulating  Corporation (Acc and Tab) of Great Britain, a subsidiary of Powers Accounting
25 Jan 1915   first transcontinental telephone line    
1916 hiring of Fred M. Carroll , from NCR, a printer designer by CTR
His project of a printing tabulator will be abandoned for the Lake's project in 1920, but Carroll designs a successful rotary punched-cards production machine 		     
1917 Introduction of an electric reset of the tabulator's accumulators. Introduction of a verifier machine, to control keypunches      
9 Apr 1917   US Navy takes over all radiocommunications for the duration of WWI    
1917 Hiring of James Wares Bryce as supervisory engineer at Endicott, NY      
11 dec 1917       foundation of Plessey by W.O Heyne to manufacture pianos
31 Jul 1918   proclamation by US President Wilson of control by the US Post Office of telephone and telegraph systems in the United States 
this decision will be reversed on July 30th 1919 		   
1918       Arthur Scherbius, in Germany, creates a prototype of Enigma enciphering machine
3 Jan 1919       Prudential takes over Acc and Tab in UK
23 Jun 1919       Fredrik Rosen Bull bids a punched card machine to Storebrand, a Norwegian insurance company.
1919   discovery of flip-flop vacuum tube by W H Eccles and F W Jordan    
1919     creation of CSF Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil as the holding company of SFRE  
1 Aug 1919   the Bell system returns to the private sector    
oct 1919   incorporation of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) using General Electric and Marconi patents    
8 Nov 1919   introduction of first machine switching exchange by Bell at Norfolk VA    
1919   retirement of Theodore Vail from AT&T CEO and replacement by Harry Tayer    
1919 Lake redesign the adding mechanism of tabulators and puts the plugboard on the front of the machine.
He also introduces a patented "automatic group control" 		     
1920 Benjamin M Durfee, a CTR maintenance engineer at Cleveland, is moved to Endicott to work on Type I tabulators.
He will in 1924 supervise the assembling of tabulators in Paris, France. 		     
1920 introduction of Hollerith Type 3 printing tabulator      
1920   foundation of Fairchild Aerial Company by Sherman Mills Fairchild in New-York    
1920     acquisition by ITT of Le Matériel Téléphonique LMT  
1920   creation of ITT by Sosthenes Behn by acquiring small telephone companies in Port-Rico and Cuba    
Aug 1921       Delivery of first FR Bull's machine in Norway
1921       opening of BTM Letchworth factory 
1921       creation of Schaub Elektrzitätgesellschaft at Berlin Charlottenburg by Georg von Schaub
1921   Willis-Graham Act on communications confirming  the Kingsbury Commitment    
1921     creation of Compagnie Des Lampes by CFTH and Compagnie Générale d'Électricité (CGE)   
1922 CTR acquires a firm headed by J. Royden Pierce, with an engineering shop at 25th Street, near Lexington Ave in New-York City, NY.
Bryce  joins Pierce at 25th Street lab. 		     
1922   establishment of a RCA electronics lab in the Bronx NY by Alfred Goldsmith    
1922   foundation of Signal Gasoline Company by Sam Mosher    
1922     Powers creates a asusidiary in France Société anonyme des machines à statistiques (SAMAS), with a factory in Saint-Denis  
1922       acquisition of ATEA by Automatic Telephone Equipment Company of Liverpool, ATEA renamed Antwerp Telephone and Electric Works
1922   Powers introduces an alphabetic printer    
1922       Plessey starts to subcontract radio sets for Marconiphone
1922   foundation of Raytheon by Laurence K. Marshall and Vannevar Bush, at Cambridge, as American Appliance Company; it becomes Raytheon in 1925    
2 Aug 1922   death of Alexander Graham Bell, at 75    
1923   Morkrum becomes Teletype corporation    
14 Feb 1924 CTR changes its name into International Business Machines (IBM)      
Jan 1925     Knuth-Andreas Knutsen replaces F Bull.  
1925 Introduction of 400cpm IBM Type 80 horizontal  sorter, designed by Ford, rehired in 1923      
1925     Compagnie Générale des Câbles de Lyon. acquires Compagnie Générale d'Électricité   
1925   introduction of Raytheon "gaseous rectifier"    
1925       British Western Electric becomes STC Standard Electric and Cables
1925       introduction of regeneration on telecommunications lines by Eastern Telegraph Company
1925       NEC enters ITT group
16 Oct 1925       incorporation of G.Schaub Apparetebau GmbH
1925   Walter Gifford becomes CEO of Bell System    
1925     first automatic telephone switching system in Paris provided by ITT  
1925   Western Electric Research Laboratories become Bell Telephone Laboratories   international operations of Western Electric are sold to ITT
1925       first demonstration of television on a CRT tube in Germany
1926   death of Charles Ezra Scribner, chief engineer of Western Electric    
1926     CFTH sells its telephone assets (CTTH)  to ITT  
1926   creation of NBC National Broadcasting Corporation, a subsidiary of RCA    
1926       Operation of cryptographic Funksschüsselmaschine C (Enigma) by German Kriegsmarine
~1926       Automatic Electric of Chicago takes over ATEA renamed Automatique Electrique de Belgique
1927 incorporation of Remington Rand by combining Remington Typewriter Company, Rand Kardex Bureau, Inc., the Dalton Adding Machine Company, the Safe Cabinet Company, and the Powers Accounting Machine Corporation    
1927       Philips launches radio lamps
1927   Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company and Honeywell Heating Specialty Co. merged to form the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co    
1927 Generalization of "automatic group control " feature on tabulators      
1927   cross-license agreement between IBM and Remington unsuccessful negotiation between Bull and Powers  
1928 Introduction of 80-columns card format, using rectangular punched holes, in numeric form only.. Replacement of 45-columns round holes cards Introduction of IBM 301 Accounting Machine (type IV tabulator), featuring handling of negative numbers by automatic recomplementation on X row operating at 100 cpm      
Feb 1928     Emile Genon sells Bull rights to the Swiss company Egli  
1928       NEC built its photo-telegraphic equipment
1928   Signal Gasoline change name into Signal Oil & Gas    
1928     creation of Alsthom,  by CFTH and Alsacienne de Construction Mécanique, headed by Auguste Detoeuf from CFTH  
1928   invention of cathode-ray tube by Vladimir Zworykin
future leader of RCA 		   
25 Sep 1928   creation of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation , the future Motorola, by Paul Galvin in Chicago, after acquisition of bankrupt Stewart Storage Battery Company,    
1928   operation of the Differential analyzer at MIT by Vanevar Bush    
1929 Death of Hermann Hollerith, at 69      
1929       BTH British Thomson-Houston merge with AEI, Metrovick, Ferguson Pailin and Edison Swann under General Electric (US) patronage. AEI remains a separate company
1929     acquisition of Etablissement Ducretet by CFTH  
1929 move of IBM's 25th street lab to 25 Varick St., still in New-York City      
1929   Incorporation of Sperry Gyroscope Company    
1929       shipment of NEC's Type A telephone switching system to Japan's Ministry of Communications
1929       merge of Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies and of Marconi's radio operations into Imperial and International Communications Limited
1929       acquisition by Imperial and International Communications of Indo-European Company
1929   RCA acquires Talking Machine Company in Camden, NJ    
Mar 1929     Design of a Bull horizontal sorter by Knutsen  
Dec 1929 Delivery of a IBM Difference Engine, designed by Bryce and Daly for the University of Columbia statistical bureau      
27 Jun 1929   first demo of color TV at Bell Labs in New York    
1930 extension of 80-columns card format to alphanumeric data by IBM      
1930   acquisition of Teletype  Corp by Bell Systems    
1930   David Sarnoff named CEO of RCA    
1930     creation of SAT
1930     creation of Compagnie Générale de Radiologie CGR by CFTH  
1930       discovery of silicon semi-conductor properties by H J Zeeman (Netherlands)
1930   foundation of "Geophysical Service," the future Texas Instruments contractor specializing in reflection seismograph method of oil exploration by: J. Clarence "Doc" Karcher and Eugene McDermott,    
1930 W Wallace McDowell joins IBM from MIT.
He will become laboratory manager in 1942 John C McPherson joins IBM from Princeton Univ.
He will become manager for Future Demands in 1940 		     
9 Mar 1931     Establishment of Egli-Bull in Paris  
1931   AT&T Company introduces public teletypewriter exchange service, TWX    
1931       termination of terrestrial cable operation between England and Teheran
1931 introduction of the first IBM alphabetical accounting machine, designed at Varick Street and manufactured at Endicott.      
Sep 1931     introduction of a Bull numeric printer (120 lpm)  
Oct 1931     Take-over of Egli-Bull by Remington-Rand is rejected under Georges Vieillard impulse  
1931     creation of Samas-Powers France  
1931       standardization of CCITT#2 5 moments encoding (designed by Murray, also named Baudot)
1931     integration of radio official laboratories within PTT  
1931 introduction of a multiply punch machine later known as IBM Type 600.      
Apr 1932     introduction by Bull of T30 tabulator with alphanumeric printer Georges Vieillard becomes general manager of Bull  
1932       introduction of British Powers Power Four range of 40 columns small cards
1932 establishment of Service Bureau Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM      
1932        NEC enters in the Sumitomo Group
1933 introduction of the automatic cross-footing multiplying punch later named IBM Type 601 electric multiplier      
1933 At IBM Endicott, engineering is regrouped in North Street laboratory      
31 Mar 1933     Egli-Bull will become Compagnie des Machines Bull(CMB)  
1933 introduction by IBM of removable plugboards panels      
1933 introduction of IBM Type 285 numeric printing tabulator (150 cpm)      
1933       Adriano Olivetti named general manager of Olivetti
22 Jun 1933     introduction of T50 tabulator by CMB  
1934 introduction of IBM Type 405 alphabetical accounting machine (150 cpm, print at 80 lpm)
Type 405 was in production until after WWII IBM introduces the name EAM Electric Accounting Machines for its tabulators. 		     
1 Jul 1934   Communications Act establishes a regulation by the FCC Federal Communications Commission instead of Interstate Commerce Commission    
1934     introduction of alphanumeric printer AN7 on Bull's tabulators (150 lpm)  
1934   acquisition of Time-O-Stat Controls Corporation by Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator    
1934       Imperial and International Communications is renamed Cables & Wireless
8 Sep 1934     Emile Genon attempts to negotiate a cession to IBM.
This move will be opposed by the Callies family, a card manufacturer, who becomes the majority shareholder. 		 
5 Feb 1935     Jacques Callies named CEO of Compagnie des Machines Bull  
Jun 1935       foundation of Fujitsu Ltd from the Communications Division of Fuji Electric in Kawasaki, Japan
1935   Associated Press installs a country-wide facsimile network in the USA    
1935       introduction of BTM Rolling Total tabulator
Nov 1935     IBM proposes to buy CMB assets, proposal denied by Bull shareholders  
1936       Alan Turing describes a Universal Turing machine
1936     . Henri Guitton et Serge Berline develop magnetron at CFTH  
15 Jun 1936     introduction of Bull ST120 tabulator  
1936   foundation of Telex, Inc to manufacture hearing aids    
1936     installation of Laboratoire national de radioélectricité at Bagneux  
1936       introduction of British Powers-Samas Power One machine featuring small cards
1936 Introduction of first IBM typewriter      
30 Nov 1936   first coaxial cable between New-York and Philadelphia    
1937 introduction of IBM Type 77 collator, the first of this kind.      
1937 creation of Thomas J Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau (IBM, AAS, Columbia University) with Wallace J Eckert      
1937 delivery by IBM to University of Columbia (William J. Eckert) of a special switch associating an electric multiplier 601, a tabulator 285 and a summary punch, for astronomic computations.      
1937   William Hansen and Sigurd and Russell Varian  develop the klystron tube, at Stanford    
20 Jul 1937       death of G Marconi at 63 in Rome
1937 introduction of IBM 805 international test scoring machine designed by Ben Wood     
1937   Atanasoff starts to build his ABC computer WITH Christof Berry. It was never finished. However, its existence allowed Honeywell to successfully challenged Eckert-Mauchly patents filings in 1967.    
1938 Howard H Aiken from Harvard University made specs for a computer known later as ASCC IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator at IBM and Harvard Mk 1 by Harvard      
1938       Zuse Z1 built by Konrad Zuse
1938       establishment of code-breakers service at Bletchley Park (UK) where the Colossus computer was designed
1938       creation of Samsung by Byung-Chull Lee in Korea
1938   founding of Hewlett-Packard by William Hewlett and David Packard, partnership incorporated in August 18th 1947    
1938       introduction of Powers-Samas multiplying punch
1939   invention of Vocoder, an electronic talking machine, by Dudley    
1939       Halifax and Bermudas Telegraph Company's holding company merge with Cables & Wireless
1939       NEC establish a research center in Tamagawa plant
1939   first RCA television    
1939       merge of Shibaura and Tokyo Denki into Tokyo Shibaura Denki, known as Toshiba
Apr 1939       Z2 built by Konrad Zuse
Jan 1940   invention of Complex Number Calculator by George Robert Stibitz    
1940   Broad band carrier systems introduced    
Sep 1940   Stibitz controls from a Teletype at Dartmouth College the Complex Number Calculator at Bell    
Dec 1941       Z3 built by Conrad Zuse and Helmuth Schreyer in Germany
1941     Compagnie des Machines Bull introduces new BS tabulator with removable plugboard panel  
1941   Raytheon becomes leader in magnetrons manufacturing (80% of market share)    
1941       shares of ITT in NEC are confiscated
they will be returned in 1951, but will be sold back to Japanese interests
1941     creation of a telecommunications department in Ministry of PTT in France  
23 Jan 1941     During WWII, Bull is forced to cooperate with Wanderer Werke from Germany.
It also participates to clandestine actions of René Carmille. 		 
5 Mar 1941   foundation of RCA David Sarnoff laboratory in Princeton NJ    
5 Dec 1941     suit won by CEC (IBM France) against Bull, about patenting the 80 columns card, appealed successfully for Bull  in 1946  
1942 Prototype of an electronic multiplier by Phelps at IBM Endicott      
1942       production of first Japan radars at Toshiba
27 Sep 1942   installation of David Sarnoff laboratory     
1943-5 IBM performs special work on card machines to be installed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, discovered in 1946 to be ENIAC.     Build up of the Colossus special computer at Bletchey Park, UK by Max Newman & Tommy Flowers
1943   First No. 4 toll crossbar switching system in the world goes into service in Philadelphia,    
1943       Zuse S2 military computer
1943   Model II Complex Calculator developed at Bell Labs    
Apr 1943   submission of PX project (future ENIAC) by Moore School to US Army    
Dec 1943       first operation of Colossus at Bletchey Park, England
1944 acceptance of ASCC by Harvard University. 
ASCC was designed at Endicott under Clair Lake and was a huge relay technology scientific computer  		Harvard Mark I was the name used in Harvard University for ASCC that Howard Aiken developed with IBM    
4 May 1944     foundation of CNET (Centre National d'Etudes des Télécommunications) research center within French administration of PTT  
1944   foundation of Ampex by Alexander Poniatoff in San Carlos CA    
1944   Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation is separated from Fairchild industries    
Mar 1944       Zuse builds Z4 computer and brings it in Switzerland
Dec 1944 delivery of Aberdeen Relay Calculator by IBM, also a relay technology computer.      

© Jean Bellec 2002

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