History of Computers - Electronic Tabulating Machine
Page created by William Brown
The 1890 Census posed a problem to the US government. A recent population explosion in the US drove the estimated time required to tabulate the census to 13 years- problematic because the constitution required a census to be completed every 10 years.[1] From this problem arose the first electronic computation device, the Electronic Tabulating Machine.
Contents
Overview
The Electronic Tabulating Machine was invented by Herman Hollerith for the purpose of tabulating the 1890 US census. The machine allowed for the census to be completed in one year, against estimations of up to 13 years if the census was done by hand. With the invention of the Electronic Tabulating Machine came the simultaneous invention of the punch card for entering data, a method of data entry that lasted into the 1980's in computing, and into the 21st century for voting.[1] The electronic tabulating machine had a simple mechanism for counting.Holes were punched into a card relating to age, sex, state, etc. The cards were then put into a slot in which the cards were sitting on pools of mercury with circuits in them. A lever was then pulled down causing spring loaded wires either to dip into the mercury pools where there were holes in the cards, or be stopped by the paper. The wires that dipped into mercury completed a cirucuit, and caused an electromagnet to turn one of the 40 dials on the machine. The amounts on the dials were recorded at the end of the day, then reset for the next day.[2]
Significance
The Electronic Tabulating Machine was the first computing device to use electricity. Its introduction of the punchcard information system was standard until until punch cards were phased out in the 1980's. The ability to enter data electronically allowed for a large increase in the speed of any record keeping applications. The Electronic Tabulating Machine was also the first device introduced by what would become IBM. The Electronic Tabulating Machine opened the door to ideas of automatic record-keeping and calculations.
