Burroughs was born in Rochester, New York in 1855, after receiving a high school education in 1881 and working in a bank, for health reasons he moved south.

[1] After submitting a patent in 1885 for an adding and listing machine with a full keyboard, on January 20, 1886, Burroughs co-founded the American Arithmometer Company along with Thomas Metcalfe, Richard.

[3][4] In 1894, an article—clearly referring to the Burroughs Registering Accountant—reported that "An ingenious adding machine, recently introduced in Providence banks, is said to be infallible in results, and to do the work of two or three active clerks.

[5] An 1899 discussion of modern banking methods stated that "great assistance has been derived from certain mechanical labor-saving contrivances, among which I will mention the typewriter, the registering accountant or adding machine, and the telephone.

(Bankers' Magazine, Feb. 1899)[6] A 1900 ad stated that Burroughs Registering Accountants had been used "in the largest banks in New York City" for five years.

An internal power struggle soon developed between Joseph Boyer and current President and General Manager Edmund G. Langhorne, who, upon losing took half of the employees with him to Universal Adding Machine,[7] also based in St. Louis.

All employees and their families were moved from St. Louis to Detroit in one day on a special train called the "Clover Leaf Express".

The many models varied in number of columns, the width of the paper onto which they printed, whether they were designed for computations involving fractions, feet and inches, pounds and ounces, etc., and whether they had features such as counters and split keyboards.

During the first decade of the 20th century, Burroughs faced competition from both key-driven calculators and a number of rival adding-listing machines, including Dalton, Pike, Standard, Universal, and Wales.

However, one year before his death he received the John Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute as an award for his invention.