Return to Lecture Notes Notes about Hollerith
Hollerith Tabulating Machine
Hollerith tabulating equipment used in the Eleventh
Census of the United States in 1890.
Counting, sensing, punching and sorting units are shown. Cards containing 288 locations at which
holes could be punched ran under a set of steel contact brushes which
completed an electric circuit wherever holes appeared. The 1890 census handled the records of
63 million people and 150,000 minor civil divisions. The Hollerith system proved highly
successful, and the superintendent of the census was able to announce the
total population just a month after all returns arrived in Washington. Full results were published within 18
months, whereas the 1880 census had required over seven years to obtain
full resultes. (Photo: IBM)
(Punch
cards)
1890’s
(Click this image to see an enlarged view - Then click
"Back" at top left on screen)
Punch Card used during most of the 20th century