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Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was an American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine for punched cards to assist in summarizing information and, later, in accounting.
During a short stint compiling manufacturing statistics for the US Census Office, Herman Hollerith grew frustrated with the organization’s manual process of counting questionnaires. The tedious, error-prone labor was creating an operational nightmare for an overtaxed agency.
In the late 1880s, inventor Herman Hollerith, who was inspired by train conductors using holes punched in different positions on a railway ticket to record traveler details, invented the recording of data on a machine-readable punched card.
Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the 1890 U.S. Census. Later models were widely used for business applications such as accounting and inventory control. It spawned a class of machines, known as unit record equipment, and the data processing industry.
In the early part of the century, Herman Hollerith’s punched card tabulator emerged as an electromechanical marvel. While automating data processing, it revolutionized business and commercial processes and inspired a generation of novel technical and conceptual advances.
Learn how Herman Hollerith invented a system of punched cards and tabulators to process Census data, and how his company evolved into IBM. Explore the related companies and products in France, Germany, and Britain.
Description. By the late 19th century, the U.S. government no longer could compile all the statistics it needed by hand. The engineer Herman Hollerith designed a tabulating machine to count Americans by machine. Hollerith tried out his machine by compiling mortality statistics for the city of Baltimore on cards like this one.
