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Monday, April 9, 2012

Dr. Herman Hollerith

Dr. Herman Hollerith was a census statistician at the U.S. census bureau in the mid 1880s. At that time, the bureau was still trying to count results from the 1880 census and saw little prospect of completing the count before the next census which was schedules for 1890. Hollerith proposed a mechanised solution to the problem which was based upon equipment handling punched cards. His idea was to code the data by representing it by punched hole combinations on the cards. His machine is called electromechanical punched card equipment or Hollerith's Tabulating Machine or Census Machine. In 1896, he founded the Tabulating Machine Company to make and sell his invention. Later in 1924, this firm merged with others to form the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation which is by far the most popular and biggest company in computer manufacturing.

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