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Thursday, February 23, 2023

02-22-2023-2253 - Tabulating Machine Company

Tabulating Machine Company

Hollerith's plant in 1893

Herman Hollerith initially did business under his own name, as The Hollerith Electric Tabulating System, specializing in punched card data processing equipment.[23] In 1896 he incorporated as the Tabulating Machine Company and in 1905 reincorporated as The Tabulating Machine Company.[24] Hollerith's series of patents on tabulating machine technology, first applied for in 1884, drew on his work at the U.S. Census Bureau from 1879 to 1882. Hollerith initially tried to reduce the time and complexity needed to tabulate the 1890 Census. His development of punched cards in 1886 set the industry standard for the next 80 years of tabulating and computing data input.[25]

In 1896 the Tabulating Machine Company leased some machines to a railway company[26] but quickly focused on the challenges of the largest statistical endeavor of its day – the 1900 US Census. After winning the government contract and completing the project, Hollerith faced the challenge of sustaining the company in non-Census years. He returned to targeting private businesses in the United States and abroad, attempting to identify industry applications for his semiautomatic punching, tabulating, and sorting machines.[27] Flint bought the business for $2.3 million (of which Hollerith got $1.2 million) in 1911.[citation needed] 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing-Tabulating-Recording_Company

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