Object Details
maker
Hollerith, Herman
Description
During the 1880s the engineer Herman Hollerith devised a set of machines for compiling data from the United States Census. Hollerith's tabulating system included a punch for entering data about each person onto a blank card, a tabulator for reading the cards and summing up information, and a sorting box for sorting the cards for further analysis. The tabulator is shown at the center in the photograph.
Hollerith's tabulating system won a gold medal at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, and was used successfully the next year to count the results of the 1890 Census. His inventions formed the starting point of a company that would become IBM.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of International Business Machines Corporation
ID Number
MA.312895
accession number
171118
catalog number
312895
Object Name
tabulating machine
Physical Description
metal (overall material)
plastic (overall material)
glass (overall material)
oak (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 55 in x 39 1/2 in x 32 in; 139.7 cm x 100.33 cm x 81.28 cm
place made
United States: District of Columbia, Washington
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Computers & Business Machines
Tabulating Equipment
Data Source
National Museum of American History
web subject
Census
Mathematics
related event
United States Census, 1890
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_694410