Thomas John Watson Sr. (February 17, 1874 – June 19, 1956) was an American businessman who was the chairman and CEO of
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
.
[ He oversaw the company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's management style and corporate culture from John Henry Patterson's training at NCR. He turned the company into a highly effective selling organization, based largely on ]punched card
A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a stiff paper-based medium used to store digital information via the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Developed over the 18th to 20th centuries, punched cards were widel ...
tabulating machine
The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed to assist in summarizing information stored on punched cards. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the U.S. Census, 1890, 1890 U.S. Cens ...
s.
Watson authorized providing Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
with data processing solutions and involved IBM in cooperation throughout the 1930s and until the end of World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, profiting from both the German and American war efforts. A leading self-made industrialist, he was one of the richest men of his time when he died in 1956.
Early life and career
Thomas J. Watson was born in Campbell, New York, in the state's Southern Tier
The Southern Tier is a geographic subregion of the broader Upstate New York, Upstate region of New York (state), New York State, geographically situated along or very near the state border with Pennsylvania. Definitions of the region vary wide ...
region, the fifth child and only son of Thomas and Jane Fulton White Watson. His four older siblings were Jennie, Effie, Loua, and Emma. His father farmed and owned a modest lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
business located near Painted Post, a few miles west of Corning. Thomas worked on the family farm in East Campbell and attended the District School Number Five in the late 1870s. As Watson entered his teen years he attended Addison Academy in nearby Addison.
Having given up his first job—teaching—after just one day, Watson took a year's course in accounting and business at the Miller School of Commerce in Elmira, New York
Elmira () is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. ...
. He left the school in 1891, taking a job at $6 a week as bookkeeper for Clarence Risley's Market in Painted Post. One year later he joined a traveling salesman, George Cornwell, peddling organs and pianos around the farms for William Bronson's local hardware store. When Cornwell left, Watson continued alone, earning $10 per week. After two years of this life, he realized he would be earning $70 per week if he were on a commission. His indignation on making this discovery was such that he quit and moved from his familiar surroundings to the relative metropolis of Buffalo.
Watson then spent a very brief period selling sewing machines for Wheeler and Wilson. According to his son Thomas J. Watson Jr.'s autobiography:
One day my dad went into a roadside saloon to celebrate a sale and had too much to drink. When the bar closed, he found that his entire rig—horse, buggy, and samples—had been stolen. Wheeler and Wilson fired him and dunned him for the lost property. Word got around, of course, and it took Dad more than a year to find another steady job.
Watson would later enforce strict rules at IBM against alcohol consumption, even off the job. According to Tom Jr.: This anecdote never made it into IBM lore, which is too bad, because it would have helped explain Father to the tens of thousands of people who had to follow his rules.
Watson's next job was peddling shares of the Buffalo Building and Loan Company for a huckster named C. B. Barron, a showman renowned for his disreputable conduct, which Watson deplored. Barron absconded with the commission and the loan funds. Next Watson opened a butcher shop in Buffalo, which soon failed, leaving Watson with no money, no investment, and no job.
NCR
Watson had a newly acquired NCR cash register in his butcher shop, for which he had to arrange transfer of its installment payments to the shop's new owner. On visiting NCR he met its Buffalo branch manager, John J. Range, and asked him for a job. Determined to join the company, he repeatedly called on Range until, after a number of abortive attempts, he finally was hired in November 1896, as sales apprentice to Range.
Led by John Patterson, NCR was then one of the leading selling organizations, and Range became almost a father figure for Watson and was a model for his sales and management style. Under Range's guidance Watson became the most successful salesman in the East, earning $100 per week. In a 1952 interview Watson claimed he learned more from Range than anyone else. Four years later, NCR assigned Watson to run the struggling NCR agency in Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...
. As an agent, he got 35% commission and reported directly to Hugh Chalmers, the second-in-command at NCR. In four years Watson made Rochester effectively an NCR monopoly by using the technique of knocking the main competitor, Hallwood, out of business, sometimes resorting to sabotage of the competitor's machines. As a reward, he was called to the NCR head office in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
.
In 1912, the company was found guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce and consequently prohibits unfair monopolies. It was passed by Congress and is named for S ...
. Patterson, Watson, and 26 other NCR executives and managers were convicted for illegal anti-competitive sales practices and were sentenced to one year of imprisonment. Their convictions were unpopular with the public because of the efforts of Patterson and Watson to help those affected by the Great Dayton Flood
The Great Dayton Flood of 1913, part of the Great Flood of 1913, resulted from flooding by the Great Miami River reaching Dayton, Ohio, and the surrounding area, causing the greatest natural disaster in Ohio history. In response, the Ohio Gener ...
of 1913, but efforts to have them pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
were unsuccessful. However, their convictions were overturned on appeal in 1915 on the grounds that important defense evidence should have been admitted.
Head of IBM
Charles Ranlett Flint, who had engineered the amalgamation (via stock acquisition) forming the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was a holding company of manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems; it was subsequently known as IBM.
In 1911, the financier and noted trust organizer Charles R. Flint, called the ...
(CTR) found it difficult to manage the five companies. He hired Watson as general manager on May 1, 1914, when the five companies had about 1,300 employees. Eleven months later Watson was made President when court cases relating to his time at NCR were resolved. Within four years revenues had been doubled to $9 million. In 1924, he renamed CTR to International Business Machines. Watson built IBM into such a dominant company that the federal government filed a civil antitrust
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
suit against it in 1952. IBM owned and leased to its customers more than 90 percent of all tabulating machines in the United States at the time. When Watson died in 1956, IBM's revenues were $897 million, and the company had 72,500 employees.
Throughout his life, Watson maintained a deep interest in international relations, from both a diplomatic and a business perspective. He was known as US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
's unofficial ambassador in New York and often entertained foreign statesmen. In 1937, he was elected president of the International Chamber of Commerce
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC; French: ''Chambre de commerce internationale'') is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. ICC represents over 45 million businesses in over 170 countries who have interest ...
(ICC) and at that year's biennial congress in Berlin stated that the conference keynote would be "World Peace Through World Trade." That phrase became the slogan of both the ICC and IBM.
Dealings with Nazi Germany
In 1937, as President of the International Chamber of Commerce, Watson met Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. During the 1930s, IBM's German subsidiary was its most profitable foreign operation. A 2001 book by Edwin Black, '' IBM and the Holocaust'', claims that Watson's pursuit of profit led him to personally approve and spearhead IBM's strategic technological relationship with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
. It describes how IBM provided the tabulating equipment Hitler used to round up the Jews. His Hollerith punch-card machines are in the Holocaust Museum today. The book describes IBM's punch cards as "a card with standardized holes", each representing a different trait of the individual. The card was fed into a "reader" and sorted. Punch cards identified Jews by name. Each one served as "a twentieth-century bar code
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly ref ...
for human beings". In particular, critics point to the Order of the German Eagle medal that Watson received at the Berlin ICC meeting in 1937, as evidence that he was being honored for the help that IBM's German subsidiary Dehomag
Dehomag was a German subsidiary of IBM and later a standalone company with a monopoly in the German market before and during World War II. The word was a syllabic abbreviation for Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen GmbH (). ''Hollerith'' refers to the ...
(Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH) and its punch card machines provided the Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
regime, particularly in the tabulation of census data (which included the location of Jews). Another study argues that Watson believed, perhaps naively, that the medal was in recognition of his years of labor on behalf of global commerce and international peace. lease add a precise citation page/sup>
Because of his strong feelings about the issue, Watson wanted to return his German citation shortly after receiving it. When Secretary of State Hull advised him against that course of action, he gave up the idea until the spring of 1940. Then Hull refused advice, and Watson sent the medal back in June 1940. Dehomag's management disapproved of Watson's action and considered separating from IBM. This occurred when Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941, and the German shareholders took custody of the Dehomag operation. However, during World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, IBM subsidiaries in occupied Europe never stopped delivery of punch cards to Dehomag, and documents uncovered show that senior executives at IBM world headquarters in New York took great pains to maintain legal authority over Dehomag's operations and assets through the personal intervention of IBM managers in neutral Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, directed via personal communications and private letters, which confirms the close ties between the company’s headquarters and its subsidiaries throughout the war.
Dealings with the United States
During this same period, IBM became more deeply involved in the war effort for the U.S., focusing on producing large quantities of data processing equipment for the military and experimenting with analog computer
An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computation machine (computer) that uses physical phenomena such as Electrical network, electrical, Mechanics, mechanical, or Hydraulics, hydraulic quantities behaving according to the math ...
s. Watson Sr. also developed the "1% doctrine" for war profits which mandated that IBM receive no more than 1% profit from the sales of military equipment to U.S. Government. Watson was one of the few CEOs to develop such a policy.
In 1941, Watson received the third highest salary and compensation package in the U.S., $517,221, on which he paid 69% in tax.
Watson had a personal interest in the progress of the war. His eldest son, Thomas J. Watson Jr., joined the United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...
and became a bomber pilot. He was soon hand-picked to become the assistant and personal pilot for General Follet Bradley, who was in charge of all Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (),3,000 Hurricanes and >4,000 other aircraft)
* 28 naval vessels:
** 1 Battleship. (HMS Royal Sovereign (05), HMS Royal Sovereign)
* ...
equipment supplied to the Soviet Union from the United States. Watson Sr.'s youngest son, Arthur K. Watson, also joined the military during the conflict.
Post-World War II
Watson worked with local leaders to create a college in the Binghamton area, where IBM was founded and had major plants. In 1946, IBM provided land and funding for Triple Cities College, an extension of Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
. Later it became known as Harpur College, and eventually evolved into Binghamton University
The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university in Binghamton metropolitan area, Greater Binghamton, New York, United States. It is one of the four uni ...
.
After World War II, Watson began work to further the extent of IBM's influence abroad and in 1949, he created the IBM World Trade Corporation in order to oversee IBM's foreign business.
Watson retired in May 1956 and his oldest son, Thomas J. Watson Jr., became IBM's CEO. Watson Sr. died on June 19, 1956, in Manhattan, New York City
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entire ...
and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York, is the cemetery, final resting place of numerous famous figures, including Washington Irving, whose 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is set in the adjacent burying ground of the ...
in Sleepy Hollow, New York
Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States.
The village is located on the east bank of the Hudson River, about ...
.
Personal life
Watson married Jeanette Kittredge, from a prominent Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
, railroad family, on April 17, 1913. They had two sons and two daughters.
# Thomas Watson Jr. succeeded his father as IBM chairman and later served as ambassador to the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
under Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
# Jeanette Watson Irwin married businessman John N. Irwin II, later ambassador to France
# Helen Watson Buckner became an important philanthropist in New York City
# Arthur K. Watson served as president of IBM World Trade Corporation and later, as ambassador to France
As a Democrat (after his criminal indictment by the Taft Administration), Watson was an ardent supporter of Roosevelt. He was one of the most prominent businessmen in the Democratic Party. He was considered Roosevelt's strongest supporter in the business community.
Watson served as a powerful trustee of Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
from June 6, 1933, until his death. He engineered the selection of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
as its president and played the central role in convincing Eisenhower to become president of the university. Additionally, he served as a trustee of Lafayette College
Lafayette College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 18 ...
and is the namesake of Watson Hall, a campus residence hall.
In 1936 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that IBM, together with Remington Rand, should cease its practice of requiring its customers to buy their punch cards from it alone. The ruling made little difference because IBM was the only effective supplier to the market, and profits continued undiminished.
In 1937, Watson was awarded the Order of the German Eagle by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. Watson was also president of the International Chamber of Commerce
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC; French: ''Chambre de commerce internationale'') is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. ICC represents over 45 million businesses in over 170 countries who have interest ...
in 1937; the medal was awarded while the ICC was meeting in Germany that year.
In 1939, he received an honorary degree in Doctor of Commercial Science from Oglethorpe University
Oglethorpe University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brookhaven, Georgia, United States. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder ...
.
In the 1940s, Watson was on the national executive board of the Boy Scouts of America
Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...
and served for a time as an international Scout commissioner. E. Urner Goodman recounts that the elderly Watson attended an international Scout commissioners' meeting in Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, where the IBM founder asked not to be put on a pedestal. Before the conference was over, Goodman relates, Watson "... sat by that campfire, in Scout uniform, 'chewing the fat' like the rest of the boys". He received the Silver Buffalo Award
The Silver Buffalo Award is the national-level distinguished service award of Scouting America. It is presented for noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth on a national basis, either as part of, or independent of the Scouting program. The ...
in 1944. His son, Thomas Jr., later served as national president of the Boy Scouts from 1964 to 1968. He was also inducted into the Steuben County, New York
Steuben County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 93,584. Its county seat is Bath. Its name is in honor of Baron von Steuben, a Prussian general who fought on the American si ...
Hall of Fame. Throughout his life Watson continued to own and enjoy the family farm on which he was born. In 1955 he and his wife gave it, along with one million dollars, to the Methodist Church for use as a retreat and conference center, to be named Watson Homestead in memory of his parents. Watson Homestead became independent of the church in 1995, and continues as a conference and retreat center. The one-room school that Watson attended as a child is still on the grounds.
Watson was chairman of the Elmira College
Elmira College is a private college in Elmira, New York, United States. Founded as a Timeline of women's colleges in the United States#First and oldest, college for women in 1855, it is the oldest existing college granting degrees to women that ...
centennial committee in 1955 and donated Watson Hall, primarily a music and mathematics academic building.
Watson was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(1960) and the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
(1984).
He was posthumously inducted into the Junior Achievement
JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide is a global non-profit youth organization. It was founded in 1919 by Horace A. Moses, Theodore Vail, and Winthrop M. Crane. JA works with local businesses, schools, and organizations to deliver experiential ...
U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1990.
Famous attribution
Although Watson is well known for his alleged 1943 statement, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers," there is scant evidence he said it. Author Kevin Maney tried to find the origin of the quote, but has been unable to locate any speeches or documents of Watson's that contain this, nor are the words present in any contemporary articles about IBM.
One of the first attributions is in the German magazine ''Der Spiegel
(, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' of May 22, 1965, stating that IBM boss Thomas Watson had not been interested in the new machines initially, and when the first commercial calculation behemoths appeared in the early 1950s, filling whole floors with thousands of heat generating vacuum tubes, he estimated the demand by the US economy at a maximum of five.
Later attributions may be found in ''The Experts Speak'', a book written by Christopher Cerf and Victor S. Navasky in 1984. Cerf and Navasky quote from a book written by Morgan and Langford, ''Facts and Fallacies''. Another early article source (May 15, 1985) is a column by Neil Morgan, a ''San Diego Evening Tribune'' writer who wrote: "Forrest Shumway, chairman of The Signal Cos., doesn't make predictions. His role model is Tom Watson, then IBM chairman, who said in 1958: 'I think there is a world market for about five computers. The earliest known citation on the Internet is from 1986 on Usenet
Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...
in the signature of a poster from Convex Computer Corporation as I think there is a world market for about five computers' —Remark attributed to Thomas J. Watson (Chairman of the Board of International Business Machines), 1943". All these early quotes are questioned by Eric Weiss, an editor of the ''Annals of the History of Computing'' in ACS letters in 1985.
There are documented versions of similar quotes by other people in the early history of the computer. In 1946 Sir Charles Darwin (grandson of the famous naturalist), head of Britain's NPL (National Physical Laboratory), where research into computers was taking place, wrote: it is very possible that ... one machine would suffice to solve all the problems that are demanded of it from the whole country.
In 1985 the story was discussed on Usenet (in net.misc), without Watson's name being attached. The original discussion has not survived, but an explanation has; it attributes a very similar quote to the Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
mathematician Professor Douglas Hartree
Douglas Rayner Hartree (27 March 1897 – 12 February 1958) was an English mathematician and physicist most famous for the development of numerical analysis and its application to the Hartree–Fock equations of atomic physics and the c ...
, around 1951:
I went to see Professor Douglas Hartree, who had built the first differential analyzers in England and had more experience in using these very specialized computers than anyone else. He told me that, in his opinion, all the calculations that would ever be needed in this country could be done on the three digital computers which were then being built—one in Cambridge, one in Teddington
Teddington is an affluent suburb of London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Historically an Civil parish#ancient parishes, ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and situated close to the border with Surrey, the district became ...
, and one in Manchester. No one else, he said, would ever need machines of their own, or would be able to afford to buy them.
Howard H. Aiken
Howard Hathaway Aiken (March 8, 1900 – March 14, 1973) was an American physicist and a pioneer in computing. He was the original conceptual designer behind IBM's Harvard Mark I, the United States' first programmable computer.
Biography
...
made a similar statement in 1952:
Originally one thought that if there were a half dozen large computers in this country, hidden away in research laboratories, this would take care of all requirements we had throughout the country.
The story already had been described as a myth in 1973; the ''Economist'' quoted a Mr. Maney as "revealing that Watson never made his oft-quoted prediction that there was 'a world market for maybe five computers.
Since the attribution typically is used to demonstrate the fallacy of predictions, if Watson had made such a prediction in 1943, then, as Gordon Bell
Chester Gordon Bell (August 19, 1934 – May 17, 2024) was an American electrical engineer and manager. An early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), from 1960–1966, Bell designed several of their PDP machines and later served as ...
pointed out in his ACM 50 years celebration keynote, it would have held true for some ten years.
The IBM archives of Frequently Asked Questions notes an inquiry about whether he said in the 1950s that he foresaw a market potential for only five electronic computers. The document says no, but quotes his son and then IBM President Thomas J. Watson Jr. at the annual IBM stockholders meeting, April 28, 1953, as speaking about the IBM 701
The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer and its first series production mainframe computer, which was announced to the public on May 2 ...
Electronic Data Processing Machine, which it identifies as "the company's first production computer designed for scientific calculations". He said that "IBM had developed a paper plan for such a machine and took this paper plan across the country to some 20 concerns that we thought could use such a machine. I would like to tell you that the machine rents for between $12,000 and $18,000 a month, so it was not the type of thing that could be sold from place to place. But, as a result of our trip, on which we expected to get orders for five machines, we came home with orders for 18." Watson Jr. later gave a slightly different version of the story in his autobiography, where he said the initial market sampling indicated 11 firm takers and 10 more prospective orders.
Famous motto
" THINK" – Watson began using "THINK" to motivate, or inspire, staff while at NCR and continued to use it at CTR. International Business Machines's first U.S. trademark was for the name "THINK" filed as a U.S. trademark on June 6, 1935, with the description "periodical publications". This trademark was filed fourteen years before the company filed for a U.S. trademark on the name IBM. A biographical article in 1940 noted that "This word is on the most conspicuous wall of every room in every IBM building. Each employee carries a THINK notebook in which to record inspirations. The company stationery, matches, scratch pads all bear the inscription, THINK. A monthly magazine called 'Think' is distributed to the employees." THINK remains a part of IBM's corporate culture; it was the inspiration behind naming IBM's successful line of notebook computer
A notebook computer or notebook is, historically, a laptop whose length and width approximate that of letter paper ().
The term ''notebook'' was coined to describe slab-like portable computers that had a letter-paper footprint, such as Epson's ...
s, IBM ThinkPad.[Dell, Deborah; Purdy, J. Gerry. "ThinkPad: A Different Shade of Blue". Sams ] In 2007, IBM Mid America Employees Federal Credit Union changed its name to Think Mutual Bank.
See also
* IBM and the Holocaust
* IBM and World War II
* Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship
* Thomas J. Watson Fellowship
* Thomas J. Watson Research Center
* Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science
* Watson (computer)
IBM Watson is a computer system capable of question answering, answering questions posed in natural language. It was developed as a part of IBM's DeepQA project by a research team, led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named ...
, named in honor of Thomas J. Watson
References
Further reading
* Belden, Thomas Graham; Belden, Marva Robins (1962). ''The Lengthening Shadow: The Life of Thomas J. Watson''. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 332 pp.
* Greulich, Peter E. (2011) ''The World's Greatest Salesman: An IBM Caretaker's Perspective: Looking Back''. Austin, TX: MBI Concepts. . The bulk of the book consists of abridged texts from Watson's ''Men—Minutes—Money''.
* Greulich, Peter E. (2012) ''Tom Watson Sr. Essays on Leadership: Volume 1, Democracy in Business''. Austin, TX: MBI Concepts. (electronic version only)
* Greulich, Peter E. (2012) ''Tom Watson Sr. Essays on Leadership: Volume 2, We Are All Assistants''. Austin, TX: MBI Concepts. (electronic version only)
* Greulich, Peter E. (2012) ''Tom Watson Sr. Essays on Leadership: Volume 3, We Forgive Thoughtful Mistakes''. Austin, TX: MBI Concepts. (electronic version only)
* Maney, Kevin (2003). ''The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM''. John Wiley & Sons.
* Ridgeway, George L. (1938) ''Merchants of Peace: Twenty Years of Business Diplomacy Through the International Chamber of Commerce 1919–1938'', Columbia University Press, 419pp. There is a 1959 revised edition.
* Rodgers, William H. (1969) ''THINK: A Biography of the Watsons and IBM''. New York: Stein and Day.
* Sobel, Robert (2000). ''Thomas Watson, Sr.: IBM and the Computer Revolution''. Washington: BeardBooks.
* Tedlow, Richard S. (2003). ''The Watson Dynasty: The Fiery Reign and Troubled Legacy of IBM's Founding Father and Son''. New York: HarperBusiness.
*
*
*
*
*
* Wilson, John S. (1959). ''Scouting Round the World''. Blandford Press. pp. 186–272.
External links
Oral history interview with Thomas J. Watson Jr.
April 25, 1985, Armonk, New York, Charles Babbage Institute
The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...
, University of Minnesota.
Audio recordings of Thomas J. Watson speaking at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
''The New York Times''. June 20, 1956.
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First Usenet Posting of the misquote
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Thomas J.
1874 births
1956 deaths
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