| The Electronic Tabulating Machine | |
| By the end of the 19th
century, U.S. Census officials were concerned about the time it took to
tabulate the count of the continuously increasing number of Americans.
The Constitution requires counting be done every 10 years. The Census of
1880 took 9 years to compile, and the figures were inaccurate by the time
they were published.
To solve this problem, Herman Hollerith invented a calculating machine that used electricity rather than the mechanical gears. Punched cards were used instead. The cards were then inserted into the machine and metal pins were used to open and close electrical circuits. If a circuit was closed, a counter was increased by one. Holleriths machine was immensely successful. The general count of the population, then 63 million, took only 6 weeks to calculate, while the full statistical analysis took 7 years! Hollerith and some friends formed a company that sold his invention all over the world. It was originally called Calculating-Tabulating-Recording, the company eventually became known as IBM (International Business Machines)! |
|
|
Herman Hollerith |