Monklands Memories - Airdrie & Coatbridge areas

Honeywell

Honeywell was founded in 1906 by Mark C Honeywell.

In 1954, the company acquired Doelcam Corp., a maker of gyroscopes. Over the next two decades, the company constantly improved gyroscopes, making them more sensitive and precise while reducing their size and weight.

In 1955, a joint venture called Datamatic Corporation, was established with Raytheon Corp. that marked Honeywell's entry into the computer business. The company's first computer system, the D-1000, weighed 25 tons, took up 6,000 square feet and cost $1.5 million. 

Honeywell bought out Raytheon's share in 1960 and the business name changed to Electronic Data Processing (EDP).  The business became a Honeywell division. The computer itself was called the Honeywell 800, later updated to the Honeywell 1800.

In 1963, Honeywell introduced a small business computer, the Honeywell 200, to compete with IBM's 1401. That began a product line that continued until the early 1970s. The company's name was officially changed to Honeywell Inc. even though it had been casually referred to as such for nearly 40 years.

Honeywell also purchased minicomputer pioneer Computer Control Corporation, renaming it as Honeywell's Computer Control Division. Through most of the 1960s, Honeywell was one of the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" of computing. IBM was "Snow White," while the dwarfs were the seven significantly smaller computer companies. Later, when their number had been reduced to five.
By the 1970s, General Electric and RCA had left the business, the remainder were known as "The Bunch", after their initials: Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data Corporation, and Honeywell.

In 1970, Honeywell merged its computer business with General Electric's to form Honeywell Information Systems, which performed well in mainframe markets.

In 1986, the personal computer emerged and the company formed Honeywell Bull, a global joint venture with Compagnie des Machines Bull of France and NEC Corporation of Japan. Its ownership level was gradually decreased until, in 1991, Honeywell was no longer in the computer business. The digital computer knowledge was then applied to its traditional field of automation control, integrating sensors and activators.

In 1991 Honeywell's computer division was sold to Groupe Bull.

Group of Management students c 1973

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