The tabulating machine was a machine designed to assist in tabulations. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the 1890 U.S. Census. ... Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was an German-American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards in order to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data. ... The Eleventh United States Census was taken June 1, 1890. ...

The term "Super Computing" was first used by the New York World newspaper in 1929^[1] to refer to large custom-built tabulators IBM made for Columbia University. For other uses, see Supercomputer (disambiguation). ... The New York World was a newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ...

1860 census

The 1860 census had taken seven years to tabulate, and by the time the figures were available, they were clearly obsolete. Due to rapid growth of the U.S. population from 1860 to 1890, primarily because of immigration, it was estimated that the 1890 census would take approximately thirteen years to complete—an immense logistical problem. Since the U.S. Constitution mandates a census every ten years to apportion taxation between the states and to determine Congressional representation, a faster way had to be found. ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... Year 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar). ... The United States Census of 1860 was the eighth Census conducted in the United States. ... Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Syng inkstand, with which the Constitution was signed The Constitution of the United States is the supreme... A tax is an involuntary fee paid by individuals or businesses to a state, or to functional equivalents of a state, including tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements. ... A U.S. state is any one of the 50 states which have membership of the federation known as the United States of America (USA or U.S.). The separate state governments and the U.S. federal government share sovereignty. ... US Congressional apportionment for states in 2000 The membership of the United States House of Representatives changes each decade following the decennial United States Census. ...

Hollerith had been inspired by a railway ticket. Conductors used a hole punch to mark information on a ticket (for example, the destination and age of the traveler). Hollerith realized the card would act as an electrical insulator, except where the holes were punched. Ticket (unseparated) of the Kurkino in Berchtesgaden CeBIT Home 1998 student day ticket with barcode A Parisians transport ticket A ticket to the 2003 Rugby World Cup sporting event. ... A train Conductor // The Conductor is the railway employee charged with the management of a freight, passenger, or various other types of train, and is also the direct supervisor of the trains Train Crew (brakeman, flagman, ticket collector, assistant conductor, on board service personnel). ... // Definition An Insulator is a material or object which resists the flow of heat (thermal insulators) or electric charge (electrical insulators). ...

Hollerith used punched cards which were the same size as 1887 U.S. paper currency, as receptacles of that size were readily available. (Cards of the same size were used for computing until punch cards were phased out in the 1980s, but punch card voting systems using the same sized cards lasted into the 21st century). The cards were coded for age, state of residence, sex and other information, and clerks could punch holes in the card to enter information from returns. Punched cards (or Hollerith cards, or IBM cards), are pieces of stiff paper that contain digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. ... A large-sized note is a bill of any denomination of U.S. currency printed between 1863 and 1929. ... Year 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... USD redirects here. ...

Hollerith's machine was rather simple. A set of spring loaded wires were suspended over the card reader. The card sat over several pools of mercury, one pool corresponding to each hole in the card. When the wires were pressed onto the card, holes allowed the wire to dip in the mercury, completing an electric circuit, which would advance a counter and set off a bell to let the operator know the card had been read. Simultaneously, a receptacle would open for storage of the card, the choice of receptacle depending on the information in the card^[2]. This article is about the element. ...

Coding the cards and entering them into the counter could be done by clerks. As such, the process was much faster than assembling census returns by hand. With Hollerith's machine, the 1890 census was completed in eighteen months, after the count was double-checked.

Following the 1890 census

The advantages of the technology were immediately apparent for accounting and tracking inventory. Hollerith started his own business in 1896, founding the Tabulating Machine Company. In 1911, four corporations, including Hollerith's firm, merged to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR). In 1924 CTR was renamed IBM. IBM developed faster and faster tabulators until the invention of the electronic computer in the 1940s. It has been suggested that Accounting scholarship be merged into this article or section. ... Inventory is a list of goods and materials, or those goods and materials themselves, held available in stock by a business. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... This article is about the machine. ... The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949. ...

With successive stages or cycles of punched-card processing, fairly complex calculations could be made if one had a sufficient set of equipment. One could roughly think of each stage as an SQL clause: SELECT (filter columns), then WHERE (filter cards, or "rows"), then maybe a GROUP BY for totals and counts, then a SORT BY; and then perhaps feed those back to another set of SELECT and WHERE cycles again if needed. Still, a human operator usually had to store, load, and monitor the various card stacks over each stage. After the passing of the mechanical computing era in the 1950's, the card stacks would eventually be replaced by magnetic tape, drums, disks, and "core" memory. SQL (IPA: or ) is a computer language designed for the retrieval and management of data in relational database management systems, database schema creation and modification, and database object access control management. ...

Models and Time-Line

The first automatic feed tabulator, operating at 150 cards/minute, was developed in 1906^[3].

IBM 301 (Type IV) Accounting Machine: From the IBM Archives:

The 301 (better known as the Type IV) Accounting Machine was the first card-controlled machine to incorporate class selection, automatic subtraction and printing of a net positive or negative balance. Dating to 1928, this machine exemplifies the transition from tabulating to accounting machines. The Type IV could list 100 cards per minute.

IBM 401: From the IBM Archives:

The 401, introduced in 1933, was an early entry in a long series of IBM alphabetic tabulators and accounting machines. It was developed by a team headed by J. R. Peirce and incorporated significant functions and features invented by A. W. Mills, F. J. Furman and E. J. Rabenda. The 401 added at a speed of 150 cards per minute and listed alphanumerical data at 80 cards per minute.

IBM 405 (photo): From the IBM Archives:

Introduced in 1934, the 405 Alphabetical Accounting Machine was the basic bookkeeping and accounting machine marketed by IBM for many years. Important features were expanded adding capacity, greater flexibility of counter grouping, direct printing of entire alphabet, direct subtraction and printing of either debit or credit balance from any counter. Commonly called the 405 "tabulator," this machine remained the flagship of IBM's product line until after World War II. Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

IBM 407 was introduced in 1949. The IBM 407 Accounting Machine was the culmination of a long line of IBM tabulating equipment, dating back to the days of Herman Hollerith. ...

See also

• List of IBM products#Tabulators, Accounting machines
• British Tabulating Machine Company
• Powers Accounting Machine Company
• Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd aka. "Acc and Tab"

For early use of tabulators for scientific computations see The following is a list of products from the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation and its predecessor corporations, beginning in the 1890s, and spanning punched card machinery, time clocks, and typewriters, via mainframe computers and minicomputers, to microprocessors, PCs, laptop PCs, and more. ... The British Tabulating Machine Company (IBM) was a firm which manufactured and sold Hollerith punched-card machines and other data-processing equipment. ... Powers Accounting Machine Company (also known as Powers Tabulating Machine Company) was an early 20th century tabulating_machine company. ... Powers-Samas was a British company who sold punched card equipment. ...

• Leslie Comrie
• Wallace John Eckert

Leslie John Comrie (15 August 1893 – 11 December 1950) was an astronomer and a pioneer in mechanical computation. ... Wallace John Eckert (June 19, 1902 – August 24, 1971) was a statistician and computational specialist at the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau at Columbia University. ...

Notes

External links

• Columbia University Computing History: Hollerith & IBM Tabulators and Accounting Machines
• IBM Archives: Electric tabulating machines (1930)
• IBM Archives: Electric accounting machines (1932)