OPINION: Springfield History: The city's first computer cost $1 million
Franklin Life ordered the
Because so much of its business involved computations, the life insurance industry was one of the earliest computer adopters. Franklin Life was only the second such company to install a Univac -- the giant
"In contrast to
"The relatively small size of Franklin Life, in relation to
Many people outside the company doubted the value of computers. So did some inside it, Cranwill said, especially one vice president. So a Franklin technician worked out the present value of
"Ha, I told you that thing would never work," the vice president said. But the technician rechecked his figures and proved the book was wrong. "From then on the vice president was sold," Cranwill said.
People were so interested in the new technology that Franklin Life built a special viewing room for visitors. The company continued to expand its computational abilities, buying a second Univac in 1959 and a third in 1962 (when the company also put another new technology, the optical scanner, into use).
Franklin Life's first Univac was retired in 1968. Various parts were shipped off to museums, including the
Originally published on SangamonLink.org, the online encyclopedia of the
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