Joseph E. Boyer (c. 1848 – October 24, 1930) was an American

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

.Staff report (October 25, 1930). J.A. Boyer Dead; A Noted Inventor; Chairman of Board of Burroughs Adding Machine Company Succumbs to Pneumonia. He Started as Machinist. To His Financial Ability Was Ascribed Rise of His Firm--Devised Pneumatic Hammer. ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Boyer was President of the J. Boyer Machine Co. in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

. He helped William Seward Burroughs I develop the

adding machine An adding machine is a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations. Consequently, the earliest adding machines were often designed to read in particular currencies. Adding machines were ubiquitous office ...

and was the inventor of the first successful

rivet gun A rivet gun, also known as a rivet hammer or a pneumatic hammer, is a type of tool used to drive rivets. The rivet gun is used on rivet's ''factory head'' (the head present before riveting takes place), and a bucking bar is used to support th ...

. As the third president of the

American Arithmometer Company The American Arithmometer Company was an American manufacture organized in St. Louis, Missouri in 1886 by William S. Burroughs that produced adding machines. History Burroughs was born in Rochester, New York in 1855, after receiving a high schoo ...

, in the first of a series of business moves designed to eliminate the competition, in 1903 he secretly agreed to acquire the Addograph Manufacturing Company. Then in 1905 Boyer relocated the entire company from St. Louis to

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

at which point the company name was changed to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. He served as president until 1920. Joseph Boyer, then President of the American Arithmometer Company, was quoted as saying:

There was Burroughs with his great idea, greater than any of us could fully appreciate, and with his meager capital of $300. Long before the first model was actually begun his money was gone. But as his resources dwindled, his courage grew. I used to leave him at his bench in the evening and find him still there in the morning. When the first machine proved a failure, Burroughs made another model. Finally, the third model seemed to meet his standards. He could make it perform mathematical wonders, so a lot of 50 machines was made. However, when untrained operators ran the machines, they got the most amazing results. People began to question Burroughs' judgment and doubt his ability. Everyone but Burroughs was ready to quit. Yet the inventor himself was undaunted, demonstrating his contempt for imperfection by tossing the 50 machines, one by one, out of a second-story window. Then he began work on a new model. Night after night he worked feverishly, 24 hours a day, 34 hours at a stretch. Then, at last, the wonderful governor that has made the machine foolproof was invented. Burroughs was jubilant. His machine was perfect. His faith had been justified.

Boyer died of pneumonia in Detroit.

References

External links

Joseph Boyer profile
via Harvard Business School * 1840s births 1930 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Michigan Burroughs Corporation people 19th-century American inventors 20th-century American inventors {{US-inventor-stub