© Mark Ollig
CBS began its coast-to-coast televised broadcast of the presidential election results between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower, Tuesday evening, Nov. 4, 1952.
Its coverage showcased analysis in determining the presidential election’s outcome using an electronic digital computer called UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer).
The UNIVAC, a large mainframe computer manufactured by the Remington Rand company, was designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.
CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite began reporting the presidential election results while seated at his anchor desk.
Nearby, a teletype machine transmitted information from what Cronkite called “The electronic brain UNIVAC.”
Cronkite introduced fellow CBS newscaster Charles Collingwood, seated in front of what appeared to be a computer operator console.
“This is the face of a UNIVAC. A UNIVAC is a fabulous electronic machine which we have borrowed to help us predict this election from the basis of the early returns as they come in,” Collingwood said to the national television audience.
“This is not a joke or a trick,” added Collingwood. “It’s an experiment. We don’t know. We think it’ll work. We hope it will work.”
Unbeknownst to the viewers, Collingwood was seated in front of a UNIVAC console simulator with a cabinet full of randomly blinking lights.
Programmers were operating the working UNIVAC computer 100 miles away at the University of Philadelphia. A CBS remote camera crew reported from there.
The UNIVAC computer took up a lot of physical space. Its equipment cabinets were approximately 25 feet wide by 50 feet in length, and it weighed 29,000 pounds.
The computer’s 2.25 MHz clock processed 1,905 operations per second.
On Nov. 4, 1952, at 7:30 p.m. CST, with a small number of the total votes counted, the UNIVAC predicted the 1952 presidential election winner would be Dwight Eisenhower by a considerable number of votes.
The CBS network executives were hesitant to share UNIVAC’s prediction with a national television audience, because public opinion polls showed Stevenson ahead of Eisenhower.
Collingwood told the CBS audience that “the machine couldn’t make up its mind.”
Some CBS insiders speculated the electronic-brained computer would turn out to be a failure.
After the final vote tallies, CBS admitted around midnight that UNIVAC had earlier correctly predicted Eisenhower would win in a landslide over Stevenson.
In 1952, 266 out of 531 electoral votes were needed to win the presidency.
UNIVAC’s first set of electoral vote numbers predicted Eisenhower with 438, and Stevenson with 93.
The actual electoral vote tally ended up with Eisenhower receiving 442, and Stevenson taking 89.
The computer predicted 32,915,000 votes for Eisenhower; the official count was 33,778,963, placing the UNIVAC projection 3 percentage points in the accuracy rating category.
Stevenson received 27,314,992 votes.
Farrell Dobbs from Minnesota was on the 1952 presidential election ballot and received 10,306 votes.
Cronkite quoted former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen (who was in the CBS studio) saying, “It looks as if General Eisenhower will be elected with the greatest popular vote in history.”
In a somewhat related story, as a youngster growing up during the 1960s, I regularly watched Saturday morning cartoons (usually with a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal).
One cartoon featured Wile E. Coyote building a “do-it-yourself UNIVAC Electronic Brain,” hoping it would be able to think of a way to capture the elusive Road Runner.
I decided to build a UNIVAC computer of my own, which would answer questions (for a modest fee, of course).
Using a small cardboard box, I cut out a rectangular opening on the front, large enough to insert a sheet of paper, and cut a smaller space for depositing a dime.
Plenty of silver, representing a metallic cabinet, and several colorful “thinking computing lights” were crayoned on UNIVAC’s cardboard surface.
I placed sheets of paper and a few sharpened pencils next to the box.
Along the top of the box, using a black crayon, I wrote in large bold letters: “UNIVAC COMPUTER.”
“Write your question on a piece of paper. Insert paper in opening along with a dime for your answer. Thank you, UNIVAC computer,” I jotted down on a piece of paper taped to the side of the box.
I collected the questions (and dimes) and went into the family den, where the World Book Encyclopedias were located.
I placed the written answers next to the cardboard box, where the questioners retrieved them.
My family, especially my dad, got a kick out of this enterprising operation.
So, who is going to win this year’s presidential election?
I want to think the original UNIVAC (now in the Smithsonian Institution) would accurately predict the outcome.
Collingwood, describing the UNIVAC Nov. 4, 1952, can be watched at https://vimeo.com/52980654.
View a little over 31 minutes of the 1952 CBS presidential broadcast at http://tinyurl.com/CBS1952.
Stay safe out there.
