Berezin filed a patent for 'Control means with record sensing for an electronic calculator.'
On February 24, 1956, Evelyn Berezin filed U.S. patent application US 2,973,141, titled "Control means with record sensing for an electronic calculator." This invention concerned mechanisms that allowed electronic calculators to sense and respond to recorded data, an important step toward automated, programmable business machines.
The mid-1950s were a formative period for electronic calculators, as the industry transitioned from purely mechanical adding machines to devices incorporating electronic logic. Berezin's control-sensing innovation helped calculators interact more intelligently with stored records, a precursor to the data-driven systems that would define computing in subsequent decades.
This patent, filed less than two months after her arithmetic device patent, illustrates the rapid pace of Berezin's inventive output during this era. Working largely without the institutional recognition given to her male peers, she nonetheless built a substantial and technically sophisticated patent portfolio. Her control-sensing work for electronic calculators would prove foundational to the more complex data-processing and information-transfer systems she developed in the following decade, ultimately culminating in her design of real-time systems for airlines and banks, and eventually the Data Secretary word processor.