Rench, Carl F.2011-06-172011-06-171984-04-18Carl F. Rench, OH 72. Oral history interview by William Aspray, 18 April 1984, Dayton, Ohio. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. http://purl.umn.edu/107606OH 72https://hdl.handle.net/11299/107606Transcript, 92 pp. Audio file available at http://purl.umn.edu/95249Rench, an NCR employee since l946, surveys the company's growth from a manufacturer of cash registers to one of the largest suppliers of business computers. He begins with NCR's l946 experiments with vacuum tube arithmetic devices, work during the Korean war on the A-1-A bombing navigational system, and the acquisition in 1952 of the Computer Research Corporation. Rench points to Joseph Desch's role in moving NCR into electronics. Rench highlights the major products of the l950s: the Post-Tronic machine for reading magnetic strips on ledger cards and doing financial transactions, and the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) device. He mentions a l959 joint venture with General Electric to produce one of the first all-transistorized business computers. He explains how, in the 1960s, NCR returned to its earlier specialty in peripheral devices, and contrasts this approach with IBM's concentration on the sale of systems. Rench focuses on the company in the early 1970s as a major producer of metal oxide semicon- ductor chips and as a multinational corporation. He discusses at length NCR president William Anderson's decentralization of the company, the resistance among Dayton employees, and the advantages of this policy to the company's livelihood.en-USComputer historySemiconductorsOptical character recognition devicesOffice equipment and supplies industry -- HistoryNCR Post-Tronic (Sorting device)NCR CorporationNational Cash Register CompanyInternational Business Machines Corporation.General Electric CompanyDesch, Joseph R.Computer Research CorporationComputer industry -- United States -- HistoryBanks and banking -- AutomationAnderson, Walter L. (Walter Leonard), 1922-Sorting devicesOral History