Tabulating Machine

Herman Hollerith invents the Tabulating Machine in the late 1880s. Inspired by railway ticket punchers, Hollerith develops a process where punched cards are read to produce an electric circuit of individual results for tabulation. Using the new machines, the 1890 U.S. Census data is processed in a little over three months as compared to two years for the previous census count. The Hollerith computer cards are used by computers up until the 1980s.