Punched card machine patent | Techday, January 8th
On this TECHDAY in history, on January 8th 1889, Herman Hollerith successfully patented his Hollerith Tabulating Machine, a punch card calculator that won a contest as the most efficient means of compiling the 1890 US census. Census takers used a small paper card with holes punched out on it to track populations. Fed the card through a press that sensed the holes and the wire passing through closes an electrical current, signifying one person counted.
Seven years later Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company. At the peak period, there were at least four more companies in the same area of operations, antagonizing the Tabulating Maching Company. This was the one of 4 companies that merged to form International Business Machines (IBM).
Generally, punched cards remained in wide use during the 20th century, in the data processing industry. The data processing systems used the cards for data input, storage and output. Even early digital computers had equipped punched card readers, meaning it was still a medium for computer programs.
Today, they are obsolete as a storage medium. In the voting process, though, their use still applies as a record medium.
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Author: PC-GR
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