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• The Datatron Project ▼
  • Detailed Chronology
  • Prices and Power Consumption
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  • Component Packaging
  • Maintenance Techniques
• CEC
• ElectroData ▼
  • A Few Key Players
  •    Sibyl Rock
  •    Ed McCollster
  •    Gloria Bullock
• Burroughs ▼
  •    W. S. Burroughs
  •    Scruggs, Metcalfe and Boyer
  •    The Langhorne Brothers
• California Computing ▼
  •    California Computing Overview
  •    The 1948 UCLA Conference
  •    MINIAC - The Greene Computer
  •    The Solder Girls
• A B205 Emulator

Burroughs 205 Home Page
Site Change Log

This site is constantly being updated as I discover new information about the Datatron and the people who built it.  I thought the best way to keep visitors informed about new information would be to simply maintain a log of all changes to the site.  That is what follows on this page.  There is a major gap between December of 2010 and October of 2013.  See this post on my B205 blog for an explanation.

The information on this page is sorted from newest to oldest so you can always come here, glance at the top of the change list  and see if there is something new of interest to you.

My Burroughs 205 Blog includes anecdotes and notes about B205 sites, programmers and experiences.  These come from you!  Feel free to add comments to the blog posts or send me an e-mail about your experiences!  See the very top of this or any other page on the site for links to the blog or to find my e-mail address.

Change Log

• Added two Jerry Foster patents to the Development Chronology page. 11/8/2021
• Moved site hosting to Dreamhost.  6/19/2021
• Added another Ernst Selmer Patent to the Development Chronology page. 8/31/2018
• Updated the Gloria Bullock page with news of her passing and link to obituary. 6/24/2018
• Added a page for Gloria Bullock, the first Datatron programmer, and programming instructor. 2/26/2017
• Added "Breaking News" to the home page with a screen grab and link to Paul Kimpel's B205 emulator post on the Burroughs 205 Blog.  1/26/2015.
• Noted the presence of Andrew Kay (later of Kaypro computers) on the 1948 UCLA Computing Conference page. 9/6/2014.
• Created a page for the Langhorne family of Salem, Virginia.  JC, EG and JT Langhorne figured prominently in the early management of Burroughs Adding Machine Comopany (known as American Arithmometer at the time). 9/3/2014.
• Added the Solder and The Solder Girls page.  Updated the MINIAC page to identify Mary (Finigan) Greene as George Greene's wife. 11/22/2013.
• Added the Marchant MINIAC or Greene Computer page. 11/18/2013.
• Corrected Garden and Williams description on the 1948 UCLA Conference page. 10/29/2013.
• Added the 1948 UCLA High Speed Computing Conference page. 10/24/2013
• Began adding "Burroughs" pages, W. S. Burroughs and Scruggs, Metcalfe and Boyer. 10/16/13
• Added the first of the California Computing pages. 10/15/13
• Revised, restructured and modernized the site to improve readability and to use horizontal navigation bars for links between pages. 10/14-16/2013.
• Added the link to Ernst Selmer's video description of his first day at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. 12/19/10
• Noted the presence on CEC's board of two Cal Tech faculty members.  Also clarified some wording on CEC's base business.  12/19/10
• Added two of Duncan N. MacDonald's patents for the Datatron's Keypad and the Datafile system.  Also credited him for the Datafile design.  12/19/10.
• Correctly labeled the "breadboard computer" on the main page as the Burroughs Laboratory Computer built in Philadelphia by Burroughs engineers between May, 1950 and 2/19/51.  I had previously labeled this as the Datatron breadboard.  Many thanks to Anthony Young, author of Lunar and Planetary Rovers for correctly identifying it. 11/19/2010 
• Removed "undoubtedly" from "McCollister ... undoubtedly brought the name with him." 08/11/10.
• Added a link to Jim Paquin's patent and his "Silent Key" notice. 08/11/10.
• Added a paragraph with links on the connection of several Datamation staff to ElectroData. 08/11/10.
• Added a link to the video interview of Don Knuth's story about writing the ALGOL compiler on the Languages page.  06/09/10.
• Added the link to the James Carter Movie appearances website for the Datatron.  Noted Sibyl Rock's letter to the editor of Computers and Automation.  04/19/2010
• Added information on McCollister's opera interests to his page along with the count of district sales offices.  Added links to key Datatron patents on the Chronology page.  Added links to Knuth's documentation of the ALGOL compiler on the Languages page.  12/18/2009.
• Added photo of Datafile to home page and photo of Peter Toma with Datatron on pricing page.  Made minor additions to the Portland Datatrons on the Maintenance Page. 11/27/2009
• Added the table of MTBF for Electrodata and many other computers to the maintenance page.  10/30/2009
• Added prices for the IBM peripherals and the information about Peter Toma and machine translation.  Corrected some remaining failures to capitalize the "D" in ElectroData.  Also corrected the designation of "Field Engineers" not "Customer Engineers" as pointed out by long-time Burroughs employee, Loren Wilton.  10/29/2009
• Added the photo of "Dr. K.W." at the Oregon Centennial to the maintenance page, along with the history of all four Portland Datatrons. 9/23/09.
• Minor additions to the Ed McCollister page.  8/24/09
• Created the Edwin S. McCollister page.  Added a reference to the first football bowl game forecast on the home page.  Noted use of a Datatron by Tom Lazear.  Corrected a reference to Burroughs activities in Philadelphia thanks to Loren Wilton, former tech writer in Pasadena.  All on  8/21/09.
• Added the Frederic Withington Cardatron manual reference on the pedigree list. 04/16/2009
• Added "Ease of Programming"  paragraph to the home page and included Ida Rhodes on the pedigree list of consultants. 4/4/2009
• Added two more pictures to the hardware package page.  Created the Sibyl Rock page. 3/31/2009
• Fixed more of those darned typos.  Added a couple of links and details to Huskey and Selmer on the Chronology page.  Added an explanation of the CEC project numbering scheme. 03/14/2009
• Added the Datatron Programming Language Page 03/13/2009
• Added some additional links and narrative to the Berry, Huskey and Selmer section.  01/10/2009
• Clarified the fact that Harry Huskey worked at Teddington, England in 1947 and added a link to his autobiography on Amazon.com  Added a link to the Flexowriter entry at the museum of the University of Amsterdam.  Also added a link to Tom Kilburn's description of the development of the index register - thanks to Dik Leatherdale of the (British) Computer Conservation Society for this information.  01/08/2009
• Added the hardware package page with photos courtesy of Bob Kubic, 12/18/08.  Also caught a couple of grammar issues and added the salary of electrical engineers in 1955-56 on the pricing page.
• Added two photos on this page courtesy of Norton Bell.  Added two additional pages containing highlights from the development project and pricing data, 10/29/08
• Added more detail and two photos about the 1952-1955 era, 8/29/08
• Added the link to the VIP Club's list of customers and delivery dates.  Added the reference to the Charles Babbage Institute's Datatron papers.  Corrected two name spellings, 8/3/08
• Added a few links and some "white space", 6/12/2008
• Corrected a few spelling errors and added the specific number of Datatron memos at IBM, 4/23/08
• Added Maintenance Page and link, 4/18/08
• Initial Publication, 3/26/2008