Background
Burroughs was born on January 28, 1855, in Auburn, New York, United States.
Burroughs was born on January 28, 1855, in Auburn, New York, United States.
Burroughs received a limited education in local schools in Auburn and in Lowell.
He commenced work at the age of 15. From 1877 to 1881 he was a clerk at the Cayuga County National Bank in Auburn. He also worked in his father's shop and other machine shops in St. Louis. Having worked in a bank and being interested in machinery, Burroughs sought to develop a machine that would overcome inaccuracies and save time in bookkeeping. He completed his first crude adding machine in 1885, but due to imperfections, it met with no success. In 1886 he organized the American Arithmometer Company in St. Louis, and two years later he had sufficiently improved the machine to obtain his first patent. By 1892 he had perfected it, and began producing the first practical adding and listing machine. He was awarded the John Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1897. Burroughs died in Citronelle on September 14, 1898. In 1905 the name of his company was changed to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company.