The subtitle of Before the Computer is "IBM, NCR, Burroughs, & Remington Rand And The Industry They Created 1865-1956".

This book reminds us that the computer had parents and grandparents! For instance, one critically important technology, not just to the development of the computer but to society in general, was the typewriter. The typewriter opened up the business world to women and created an entirely new opportunity for employment.

IBM was created from a scale company, a punch clock company, and a tabulating machine company (the only electric product of the three).