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Consolidation into CTR
Charles Flint organizes the merging of four companies, The Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, the Bundy Manufacturing Company, and the Computing Scale Company of America into the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) -
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Innovation
1920 saw IBM's group of inventors and engineers produce new and innovative products to the technology market, such as the first printed (non handwritten) tabulator and electric keypunch system. -
CTR Becomes IBM
Thomas Watson changes the company's name from CTR to International Business Machines (IBM) after managing to grow CTR from a $4 million organization to an $11 million company over his first 10 years as president of the company. -
IBM Card
A large focus of the company, time cards, were reformatted into an 80-column punch card that was able to hold two times the information on it than previous versions. This card was called the "IBM card" and set the standard for other time card manufacturers. -
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The Great Depression
During the Great Depression of the 1930's, Watson chose to "gable on the future", and rather than reducing the amount of IBM employees, he chose to grow the company with both salesmen and engineers. During this time, Watson also introduced one of the first benefit packages to its employees (life insurance, paid vacations), along with starting IBM's own research facility. -
Social Security Act of 1935
The Social Security Act of 1935 was called "the biggest accounting operation of all time", and due to IBM's full force view of the Great Depression, they were the only company that had enough product stocked and man power to supply the country with the necessary equipment for this Act, propelling IBM to the top of the industry charts. -
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IBM During World War II
IBM, along with other manufacturers, had to shift production from time recording equipment to war related products, such as weaponry and engine parts. Watson opened several new factories across the country to help with war efforts, and started a fund for the families of war casualties. The IBM Electric typewriter that was connected to a radio transmitter was used heavily during the war using Signal Corps to relay messages back and forth. -
IBM's First Research Lab
On Columbia University's campus in an old fraternity house, IBM opened their first research facility called the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory. -
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IBM 701 and 650
IBM's involvement with MIT Labs granted them access to the groundbreaking computer research being done during the 1950's. In 1952, IBM released the IBM 701, their first step into the computer industry. A year later in 1953, IBM released the IBM 650 which was smaller and designed for business and scientific purposes, and quickly became the most popular computer system of the 1950's. -
SAGE Air Defense System
The dawn of the Cold War created a partnership between the Department of Defense, MIT's Lincoln Laboratories, and IBM, creating the SAGE Interceptor, a system used to detect aircraft that was build in 1954. IBM then became the primary computer hardware company for the SAGE project that was used until 1984. -
First Change in Leadership
The failing health and death of Thomas J. Watson Sr. from 1952-56 left the presidency of IBM in the hands of his oldest son, Thomas J. Watson Jr. Watson Jr. restructured the quickly growing company to better suit the new computing era that the world was entering post WWII, focusing on data storage drives and transistor technology. -
FORTRAN
As the computing world began its massive expansion, computer programming languages were being developed in order to bridge the gap between human language and computer logic. In 1957, IBM developed FORTRAN, which would become the most widely used programming language for that time. -
Landing on the Moon
Throughout the 1960's, IBM had continued working with the government on space exploration related projects (Space Race), while continuing their own developments. In 1969, NASA utilized IBM computers and team members to conduct America's first moon landing. -
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Another Era of Mass Invention
The mid 70's through the 1980's were a critical time for IBM, while they were still under contract with the government and took part in projects such as the Enterprise Space Shuttle that was equipped with an IBM AP-101 computer and IBM hardware, they also honed in on research and development. Key products to come out of this period were data encryption (1977), a copy/print unit (1979), LASIK eye surgery (1981), and Antivirus software (1987), to name just a few. -
IBM's First Portable Computer
The 1970's were an era of software and the beginning of making computers smaller and more portable, something we still see in the computer industry today. In 1975, IBM released the IBM 5100, the first desktop style computer that was mainly used still in business and scientific settings. -
Thinkpad Notebook Computers
The Thinkpad line of notebook personal computers were groundbreaking for their significantly smaller size and weight, were much more portable, and designed for day to day use by an average consumer. -
IBM's Supercomputer
In 1997, IBM developed Deep Blue, a supercomputer that would come to be known as the first computer that was able to defeat the World Chess Champion at the time, Garry Kasparov. -
Watson wins Jeopardy!
Another win for computer programs against humans, IBM's supercomputer Watson competed on the gameshow Jeopardy! and won. This was another benchmark for artificial intelligence and computer logic and speed against humans.
