Remington Rand was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the

UNIVAC UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company an ...

line of

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

s. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington Rand was a diversified conglomerate making other office equipment, electric shavers, etc. The Remington Rand Building at 315

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...

South in New York City is a 20-floor skyscraper completed in 1911. After 1955, Remington Rand had a long series of mergers and acquisitions that eventually resulted in the formation of

Unisys Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It provides digital workplace solutions, cloud, applications, and infrastructure solutions, e ...

History

Remington Rand was formed in 1927 by the merger of the

Remington Typewriter Company E. Remington and Sons (1816–1896) was a manufacturer of firearms and typewriters. Founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York, on March 1, 1873, it became known for manufacturing the first commercial typewriter. History The ...

and Rand Kardex Corporation. One of its earliest factories, the former

Herschell–Spillman Motor Company Complex Herschell–Spillman Motor Company Complex, also known as the Remington Rand, Inc. Complex, is a historic daylight factory complex located at North Tonawanda, Niagara County, New York. The original section was built about 1895 as the powerhouse fo ...

, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2013. ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying photographs''
/ref> Within the first year, Remington Rand acquired the Dalton Adding Machine Company, the

Powers Accounting Machine Company The Powers Accounting Machine was an information processing device developed in the early 20th century for the U.S. Census Bureau. It was then produced and marketed by the Powers Accounting Machine Company, an information technology company founded ...

, the Baker-Vawter Company, and the Kalamazoo Loose Leaf Binder Company. From 1936 to 1937 Remington Rand went on strike, which resulted in violence and the loss of jobs. From 1942 to 1945, Remington Rand was a contract manufacturer of the

M1911A1 The M1911 (Colt 1911 or Colt Government) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal U.S. military designation as of 1940 was ''Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911'' for the ...

.45 caliber semi-automatic pistol used by the United States Armed Forces during World War II. Remington Rand produced more M1911A1 pistols than any other wartime manufacturer. Remington Rand ranked 66th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. In 1950, Remington Rand acquired the

Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation The Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) (March 1946 – 1950) was founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. It was incorporated on December 22, 1947. After building the ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania, Eckert and Ma ...

, founded by the makers of the

ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one packa ...

, and in 1952, they acquired

Engineering Research Associates Engineering Research Associates, commonly known as ERA, was a pioneering computer firm from the 1950s. ERA became famous for their numerical computers, but as the market expanded they became better known for their drum memory systems. They were ev ...

(ERA), both of which were pioneers in electronic computing. At that time, Remington Rand was one of the biggest computer companies in the United States. On June 14, 1951, the company's first computer was introduced, the Univac I (Universal Automatic Computer). Many branches of the U.S. military, including the Air Force and the Army, were among the first to use the computers. When companies started to buy the computers, they would leave the computers at the Remington Rand facility since they were so big and bulky. The Univac I was about the size of a one-car garage, and 46 of them were built and sold for $1 million each. Remington Rand was acquired by

Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...

in 1955 to form Sperry Rand (later shortened to Sperry). However, the brand "Remington Rand" continued as a subdivision for many years. Sperry merged in 1986 with Burroughs to form

. Remington Rand was a regular co-sponsor of the CBS panel show ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

'' throughout much of the show's run.

Strike of 1936–37

Remington Rand had a strike from 1936 to 1937. Remington Rand bought the Noiseless Typewriter Company in 1924, and the Noiseless Typewriter Company kept their company name and their workers were getting paid by Remington Rand. Also in summer 1936,

James Rand Jr. James Henry Rand Jr. (November 18, 1886 – June 3, 1968)"James Henry Rand Dead At 81," ''New York Times,'' June 4, 1968.Ingham, ''Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders,'' 1983. was an American industrialist who revolutionized the b ...

tried to break up the strike by firing union workers and hiring new workers to take their places. Rand Jr. also threatened to close the plant. The strike got so severe that state and local police helped keep the strikers from throwing stones at workers and vehicles. The strike started out by the

Federal Union A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a political union, union of partially Federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central #Federal governments, federal gover ...

, which was affiliated with the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

(AFL). James Rand Jr. used the idea of the

Mohawk Valley Formula The Mohawk Valley formula is a plan for strikebreaking purportedly written by the president of the Remington Rand company James Rand, Jr. around the time of the Remington Rand strike at Ilion, New York in 1936/37. The plan includes discrediting ...

to try to break up the strike. The Mohawk Valley Formula was used to spread propaganda about the union strikes. The propaganda was done by spreading out rumors and bashing the union strikers for hurting their families, by having no income coming to their households since they are out of work. The propaganda was also often used to call the union strikers communist or anarchist, to make the public hate the union strikers. The

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...

(NLRB), which has a professional

strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...

system, came in and tried to help the strikers and Remington Rand to reach a deal. The NLRB had strikebreakers come in and the strikebreakers had many different tactics to help the strikers return to work and work out a deal. The strikebreakers brought techniques that involved propaganda, which would spread demoralizing rumors among striking employees. The strikebreakers would also use missionaries to go to the employees' homes and persuade them to return to work. The missionaries would dress as Remington Rand's personnel department to help persuade the employees. In 1937, the NLRB decided in favor of the workers, and the board ordered Rand to stop interfering with employees' unions and the right to organize. After the strike was broken in summer 1940, the Middletown plant had closed permanently, leaving 1,200 employees without jobs. There were still legal battles being fought for the employees that were in the strike while the plant was closing. The Middletown plant was run by strikebreakers until the closing of the plant in 1940. Today the building is the home of Stubborn Beauty Brewery.

Products

Typewriters

Initially produced by

E. Remington and Sons E. Remington and Sons (1816–1896) was a manufacturer of firearms and typewriters. Founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York, on March 1, 1873, it became known for manufacturing the first commercial typewriter. History The r ...

, Remington typewriters were the first to use the

QWERTY QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created f ...

keyboard layout. Remington had bought the design from its inventor,

Christopher Sholes Christopher Latham Sholes (February 14, 1819February 17, 1890) was an American inventor who invented the QWERTY keyboard, and, along with Samuel W. Soule, Carlos Glidden and John Pratt, has been contended to be one of the inventors of the first ...

. The Remington No.1 was the first model released. All keys were uppercase. Remington spun off Remington Typewriter Company in 1886, and after the 1927 merger, the Remington Rand Corp. continued to manufacture and sell typewriters.

Colt M1911

During World War II, Remington Rand produced 958,764 licensed copies of the

M1911 The M1911 (Colt 1911 or Colt Government) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal U.S. military designation as of 1940 was ''Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911'' for th ...

for the war effort between 1943–1945. These were shipped to the Springfield Armory as each contract was fulfilled. Colt Manufacturing Company was unable to fulfill the demand and was assisted by Remington Rand,

Singer Corporation Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Ma ...

Union Switch & Signal Union Switch & Signal (commonly referred to as US&S) was an American company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which focused on railway signaling equipment, systems and services. The company was acquired by Ansaldo STS (from 2015, Hitachi Rail ...

Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC was an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition, now broken into two companies, each bearing the Remington name. The firearms manufacturer is ''Remington Arms''. The ammunition business is called ''Remingto ...

and the

Ithaca Gun Company The Ithaca Gun Company is a manufacturer of shotguns and rifles originally established in Ithaca, New York, in 1880. History Over the years, Ithaca made numerous firearms, most notably the Ithaca Flues double-barreled shotgun and the Ithaca 37 ...

. After the war all contracts for the 1911A1 were cancelled.

The UNIVAC

The

UNIVAC I The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer design for business application produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the invento ...

''(UNIVersal Automatic Computer I)'' was the second commercial computer made in the United States. It was designed principally by

J. Presper Eckert John Adam Presper Eckert Jr. (April 9, 1919 – June 3, 1995) was an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer. With John Mauchly, he designed the first general-purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC), presented the first course in c ...

and

John Mauchly John William Mauchly (August 30, 1907 – January 8, 1980) was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first co ...

, the inventors of the

. Design work was begun by their company,

, and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. (In the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine was simply known as "the UNIVAC".) The first UNIVAC was delivered to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

on March 31, 1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year. The fifth machine (built for the

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...

) was used by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

to predict the result of the 1952 U.S. presidential election. With a sample of 1% of the voting population it predicted Eisenhower's win. In 1949, Remington Rand designed the Remington Rand 409, a control panel programmed

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

calculator (but not introduced as a product until 1952 as the UNIVAC 60 then in 1953 as the UNIVAC 120 with double the memory). They also sold

systems, beginning with the 1928 acquisition of the

and ending in the 1950s.

Electric razors

Remington Rand also made

electric razor An electric shaver (also known as the dry razor, electric razor, or simply shaver) is a razor with an electrically powered rotating or oscillating blade. The electric shaver usually does not require the use of shaving cream, soap, or water. The ...

s. The

Remington Remington may refer to: Organizations * Remington Arms, American firearms manufacturer * Remington Rand, American computer manufacturer * Remington Products, American manufacturer of shavers and haircare products * Remington College, American c ...

brand of razor was originally produced by a division of Remington Rand, starting in 1937. Sperry Corporation sold the division in 1979 to

Victor Kiam Victor Kermit Kiam II (December 7, 1926 – May 27, 2001) was an American entrepreneur and TV spokesman for Remington Products, and the owner of the New England Patriots football team from 1988–1991. He was well known for his turnaround of Remi ...

, who became the company spokesman of the new

Remington Products Remington Products, commonly known as simply Remington, is an American personal care brand which manufactures hair clippers, electric shavers, epilators, and haircare products. It is a subsidiary of Spectrum Brands and Oak Hill Capital. His ...

Company. His line, "I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company" became one of the more memorable advertising slogans of the early 1980s.

Remington Products to Rayovac

Remington Products was sold in 2003 to the

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

manufacturer Rayovac. Rayovac is now

Spectrum Brands Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. is an American diversified company. Headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin, it was established in 2005 as the successor company to Rayovac Corporation. It is one of the Fortune 500 companies, and among the largest of ...

References

External links

Rowayton Historical Society Web page on Remington Rand operations in Norwalk, Connecticut

Rowayton Historical Society - The first business computer
{{Authority control 1927 establishments in New York (state) 1955 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1927 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York City Defunct technology companies based in New York City Electronics companies established in 1927 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1955 Manufacturing companies established in 1927 Unisys