Framed Photograph of Apparatus of Herman Hollerith

This framed and matted photograph shows a laboratory bench. On it is a rolling metal platform, with wheels, that moves along a track. A weight at one end and screw underneath apparently control the motion of the carriage. A mechanism on the right probably controls the motion of the screw. A metal bar attached to the front of the bench carries two movable microscopes. Over and behind the carriage are two metal bars, both of which appear to have rows of evenly spaced metal plugs along the edges. A stylus is above the carriage.

Further apparatus is mounted on the wall on the left. Also on the wall are two photographs, one of a telescope and one of the pier of a telescope.These may be photographs of the 36-inch refractor at Lick Observatory in California. A third photograph shows unidentified apparatus, which may be a tabulating machine. Several light bulbs in the photograph apparently date roughly from 1880 to 1900.

A faint mark at the center of the photograph has been interpreted to read: Geo M Bond. A mark in pencil on the backing of the photograph (now loose from the object) reads: Tab Mach Co.

In the 1880s the mechanical engineer George M. Bond designed a comparator for William M. Rogers of the Harvard College Observatory to use in comparing standards of length. The Tabulating Machine Company was formed by Herman Hollerith in 1896 and merged to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1911. Hence the rough date of 1900 assigned to the image.

Reference:

Leon E. Truesdell, The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census 1890–1940, Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1965, pp. 43–44.

Currently not on view