The First Computer War - Abdication | 4

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2018

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Episode 1 the UNIVAC successfully predicted that Eisenhower would win the 1952 election. In Philadelphia, a champagne hangover quickly settled in over the Remington Rand building, the company elated at its success. But over at IBM, a company that doesn't allow its employees to drink, they’re working, furiously. And Watson Jr. is ready to take the 701 to market in a few months. Visiting the 701 is soon the hottest ticket in town, and The Watsons and IBM sit back to watch. They feel the momentum shifting back in IBM’s favor once again.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon music.
0:04.8	Download the app today.
0:07.9	It is November, 1952, just days after the election that vaults Dwight David Eisenhower into
0:14.5	the White House.
0:16.4	We're in Philadelphia at the Remington Rand Building, where a company-wide champagne hangover
0:21.3	is settling in.
0:23.2	The whole company has been celebrating since election night when Remington Rand's Univac
0:27.8	computer accurately predicted the results of an election hours before it was over.
0:33.9	And now, the Univac is a sensation.
0:37.0	Today's newspaper headlines are calling it an electric brain, and the public believes
0:41.6	the Univac is the leading computer in the world.
0:44.7	IBM, the giant of data processing for decades, suddenly seems like old news.
0:51.4	So James Rand, owner of Remington Rand, wants to press the advantage and bury his long
0:57.5	time nemesis.
0:59.8	He calls a meeting with J. Pressper Eckert, the brilliant physicist who helped create the
1:04.4	Univac.
1:06.0	Rand is hard driving and crass.
1:08.4	Eckert is a rump old academic idealist.
1:11.2	We've got the wind behind us, Eckert.
1:13.6	The publicity is all in our favor.
1:15.6	We have to move fast.
1:16.9	I'm not sure what you mean.
	...

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