Tabulating machine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The tabulating machine was an electrical device designed to assist in summarizing information and, later, accounting. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the 1890 U.S. Census. It spawned a larger class of devices known as unit record equipment and the data processing industry.
The term "Super Computing" was first used by the New York World newspaper in 1929[1] to refer to large custom-built tabulators IBM made for Columbia University.
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[edit] 1890 census
The 1880 census had taken seven years to tabulate, and by the time the figures were available, they were clearly obsolete. Due to rapid growth of the U.S. population from 1880 to 1890, primarily because of immigration, it was estimated that the 1890 census would take approximately thirteen years to complete—an immense logistical problem. Since the U.S. Constitution mandates a census every ten years to apportion taxation between the states and to determine Congressional representation, a faster way had to be found.
In the late 1880s Herman Hollerith, inspired by conductors using holes punched in different positions on a railway ticket to record traveler details such as destination and age, invented the recording of data on a machine readable medium. Prior uses of machine readable media had been for control (Automatons, Piano rolls, looms, ...), not data. "After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards..."[2] Hollerith used punched cards with round holes, 12 rows and 24 columns. His machines used relays (and solenoids) to increment mechanical counters. A set of spring loaded wires were suspended over the card reader. The card sat over pools of mercury, pools corresponding to the possible hole positions in the card. When the wires were pressed onto the card, punched holes allowed wires to dip into the mercury pools, completing electric circuits, which would advance counters and set off a bell to let the operator know the card had been read. Simultaneously, a receptacle would open for storage of the card, the choice of receptacle depending on the information in the card[3].
Hollerith's method was used in the 1890 census. The cards were coded for age, state of residence, sex and other information, and clerks punched holes in the cards to enter information from returns. The census results were "... finished months ahead of schedule and far under budget".[4]
[edit] Following the 1890 census
The advantages of the technology were immediately apparent for accounting and tracking inventory. Hollerith started his own business in 1896, founding the Tabulating Machine Company. In that year he introduced the Hollerith Integrating Tabulator, which could add numbers coded on cards, not just count the number of holes. Cards were still read manually using the pins and mercury pool reader. 1900 saw the Hollerith Automatic Feed Tabulator used in that year's U.S. census. A wiring panel was incorporated in the 1906 Type 1. [5]
In 1911, four corporations, including Hollerith's firm, merged to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR). Printers and removable plugboards appeared in the 1920s. In 1924 CTR was renamed International Business Machines (IBM). IBM developed faster and faster tabulators culminating in the 1949 IBM 407. Tabulating machines continued to be used well after the introduction of commercial electronic computers in the 1950s. After the passing of the mechanical computing era in the 1960s, punched cards were still used for input, but were replaced by magnetic tape, and later magnetic disks for manipulation and data storage.
With successive stages or cycles of punched-card processing, fairly complex calculations could be made if one had a sufficient set of equipment. (In modern data processing terms, one can think of each stage as an SQL clause: SELECT (filter columns), then WHERE (filter cards, or "rows"), then maybe a GROUP BY for totals and counts, then a SORT BY; and then perhaps feed those back to another set of SELECT and WHERE cycles again if needed.) A human operator had to retrieve, load, and store the various card decks at each stage.
[edit] Models and Time-Line
The first automatic feed tabulator, operating at 150 cards/minute, was developed in 1906[6].
IBM 301 (Type IV) Accounting Machine: From the IBM Archives:
The 301 (better known as the Type IV) Accounting Machine was the first card-controlled machine to incorporate class selection, automatic subtraction and printing of a net positive or negative balance. Dating to 1928, this machine exemplifies the transition from tabulating to accounting machines. The Type IV could list 100 cards per minute.
IBM 401: From the IBM Archives:
The 401, introduced in 1933, was an early entry in a long series of IBM alphabetic tabulators and accounting machines. It was developed by a team headed by J. R. Peirce and incorporated significant functions and features invented by A. W. Mills, F. J. Furman and E. J. Rabenda. The 401 added at a speed of 150 cards per minute and listed alphanumerical data at 80 cards per minute.
IBM 405 (photo): From the IBM Archives:
Introduced in 1934, the 405 Alphabetical Accounting Machine was the basic bookkeeping and accounting machine marketed by IBM for many years. Important features were expanded adding capacity, greater flexibility of counter grouping, direct printing of entire alphabet, direct subtraction and printing of either debit or credit balance from any counter. Commonly called the 405 "tabulator," this machine remained the flagship of IBM's product line until after World War II.
IBM 407 was introduced in 1949. It was later adapted to serve as an input/output peripheral for a number of early electronic calculators and computers. Its printing mechanism was used with the IBM 1130 through the mid-1970s.
[edit] See also
- List of IBM products#Tabulators, Accounting machines
- British Tabulating Machine Company
- Powers Accounting Machine Company
- Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd aka. "Acc and Tab"
For early use of tabulators for scientific computations see
[edit] References
- Randell (ed.), Brian (1982). The Origins of Digital Computers, Selected Papers, 3rd ed. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-11319-3. Chapter 3, Tabulating Machines, has Hollerith's 1889 doctoral thesis, An Electric Tabulating System and Couffignal's 1933 Calculating Machines: Their Principles and Evolution.
- Fierheller, George A. (2006). Do not fold, spindle or mutilate: the "hole" story of punched cards. Stewart Pub.. ISBN 1-894183-86-X. http://www.gfierheller.ca/Do_Not_Fold/Do_Not_Fold_Web.pdf. An accessible book of recollections (sometimes with errors), with photographs and descriptions of many unit record machines. The chapter It all adds Up describes IBM tabulators and accounting machines.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Eames, Charles; Eames, Ray (1973). A Computer Perspective. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. p. 95.. Page 95 identifies the article as "Super Computing Machines Shown". New York World. March 1, 1920.. However the article shown on page 95 references the Statistical Bureau in Hamilton Hall and an article at the Columbia Computing History web site states that such did not exist until 1929. See The Columbia Difference Tabulator - 1931
- ^ Columbia University Computing History - Herman Hollerith
- ^ IBM Archive: Hollerith Tabulator & Sorter Box
- ^ U.S. Census Bureau: Tabulation and Processing
- ^ http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/tabulator.html
- ^ IBM Archive: 1906
