Burroughs Corporation records. Patent and trademark records

The first Burroughs Corporation patent was applied for by William S. Burroughs on January 10, 1885 and it was granted on August 21, 1888. He was not alone, however, as several people both in the United States and elsewhere had applied for patents for various calculating devices, including Dorr E. Felt, who invented the Comptometer. There is confusion as to whether Burroughs or Felt actually had the "first" adding machine. Burroughs filed his application for a patent was about a year and a half earlier than Felt's, but Felt's patents were granted in 1887. Burroughs' machine also had several unique features not found on other machines including: a single lever stroke that computed the answer and printed it on paper, printing (or listing) of individual items, self-correction and checking before finally pulling the lever, and the dash pot to regulate the operating mechanism and compensate for the different styles of lever pulling by the operators.