In a publicity stunt, the UNIVAC computer was used to predict the results of the Eisenhower-Stevenson presidential race. The computer had correctly predicted that Eisenhower would win, but the news media decided to blackout the computer's prediction and declared that the UNIVAC had been stumped. When the truth was revealed, it was considered amazing that a computer could do what political forecasters could not, and the UNIVAC quickly became a household name. The original UNIVAC now sits in the Smithsonian Institution. Illustration: Mary Bellis

• History of Computers

• UK based inventor Stephen let me know that he did peruse my topic on Avoiding Scams and happily reported that he feels good about the company that he would like to work with. Now that's what I like to hear.
• To the person who asked me who invented the telephone, I am of the school of thought that Alexander Graham Bell was the first person to patent the telephone and whose company was the first to bring telephone services successfully to the marketplace.
• I would like to thank the editor of Inventique (I say visit them), the free e-mailed monthly newsletter of the Wessex Round Table of Inventors based in Southampton Solent University, England - for letting me know about the newsletter and the website.