Columbia University Computing History   

Hollerith Integrating Tabulator

Hollerith Integrating Tabulator
Hollerith Integrating Tabulator (1896); Source: Geoffrey Austrian, Herman Hollerith [44]; CLICK to magnify.
Designed between 1888 and the mid-1890s, debuting in 1896, used in the 1900 US Census and also by the US War Department, various railroad companies, etc.

"Hollerith's almost volcanic bursts of activity were spurred by immediate needs. To handle the large aggregate totals demanded by farm statistics and railroad accounting, he developed an 'integrating tabulator' housing separate adding machines—the upright units—that could simultaneously add totals recorded in separate areas, or fields, of a punched card. In contrast, his census machine [of 1890] could only tally, or add up, one and one over and over again." [44]

Columbia University Computing History Frank da Cruz / fdc@columbia.edu This page created: 1 January 2004 Last update: 3 April 2021