IBM gross income grows by one-third to $60 million and net earnings increase to
$10 million. IBM sets a nominal one percent profit on war products and pays a
stock dividend of five percent. There are 14,207 employees.
IBM announces the Electromatic Model 04 electric typewriter, featuring the
revolutionary concept of proportional spacing. By assigning varied rather than
uniform spacing to different sized characters, the Type 4 recreated the appearance
of a printed page, an effect that was further enhanced by a typewriter ribbon
innovation that produced clearer, sharper words on the page. The proportional
spacing feature became a staple of the IBM Executive series typewriters.
The Munitions Manufacturing Corporation is incorporated.
