Electromechanical data processingIn 1941, a report was written about possible applications of electromechanical calculation to large commercial data-processing needs. In particular, Edmund C. Berkeley was considering the needs of insurance company calculations. He was an actuary at the Prudential Insurance Company. He had in mind the potential usefulness of George Stibitz's Complex Number Calculator. The Prudential Mutual Assurance, Investment and Loan Association, founded 30 May 1848, was the first of the great industrial life insurance companies that eventually was handling the insurance policies of millions of people, but at first had only human computers (i.e., manual methods) to handle them. By 1877, 300 clerks were reviewing 2,500,000 policies were assisted by 24 Thomas de Colmar arithometers. Stibitz was a research mathematician at Bell Telephone Labs whose Complex Number calculator was operation on 8 Jan 1940.« |
