Note This eBook is a reprint of the original 1982 publica�on—cataloged below—except that several paragraphs of the original Preface have been updated, and a new ISBN has been assigned. ISBN 9781483572819 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publica�on Data Austrian, Geoffrey Herman Hollerith, forgo�en giant of informa�on processing. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Hollerith, Herman 2. Electronic data processing—Biography. 1. Title. QA76.2.H64A97 001.6’092’4 [B] 81-7752 ISBN 0-231-05146-8 AACR2 Columbia University Press New York Guildford, Surrey Copyright © 1982 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Book designed by Ken Venezio. P 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 C 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 Clothbound edi�ons of Columbia University Press books are Smyth-sewn and printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Signatures of Hollerith family members at the book signing, 1982. To my mother, Beryl S. Austrian, who also broke the mold. Reviews “Based on deep research into manuscripts and original sources, Austrian's biography of Hollerith is a major contribu�on to American scien�fic, technological, business, and social history” –I. Bernard Cohen, Harvard University “A fascinia�ng introduc�on to the dawning of the computer age as seen through the life and works of one of its great pioneers … required reading for anyone interested in the evolu�on and future of compu�ng systems.” – John Pfeiffer “… an excellent portrait of a complex man. Hollerith the inventor, frustrated entrepreneur, family man, loyal friend and suffering enemy came alive to me. This is an important book.” –Henry Tropp, Humbolt State University “… a highly informa�ve and well wri�en account of one of the most important compu�ng pioneers in American history.” –Business History Review “This lively and absorbing study of Herman Hollerith, inventor of punched- card machinery, has sorley been needed. It fills the gap in our knowledge of American technological, economic, and business history” –The Journal of American History Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1.Discovering the Census Problem 2.Instructor at M.I.T. 3.Grounding as a Patent Expert 4.Experiments with Air Brakes 5.Trials for a Census System 6.1890: Bea�ng the Mills of the Gods 7.Taking the Census Abroad 8.Se�ng Up Shop in Georgetown 9.Railroad Experiments 10.Persuading the Russians 11.Taking on the Central 12.The Russian Census 13.The Tabula�ng Machine Company 14.1900: Pu�ng Informa�on on the Assembly Line 15.Probing the Commercial Market 16.Ge�ng Started in Britain 17.“My Row with North” 18.Commercial Success 19.An Unusual Compe�tor: the Government 20.Enter Mr. Powers 21.The Growing Impasse 22.Tabula�ng Machine Co. v. Durand 23.Hollerith Sells Out 24.A Life of Leisure 25.The Rise of IBM Notes Selected Bibliography Following Page Index Following Page Preface The use of computers is taken so much for granted today that it would be difficult to envision our modern society without them. They are used to simulate the ac�ons of our economy, make longrange weather forecasts, land planes at busy airports, and monitor the heartbeat, blood pressure, and other vital signs of pa�ents in hospital intensive care units. We carry pocket calculators, cos�ng a few dollars, that employ the circuitry that computers use. Advances in the microelectronic technology computers use are so rapid that the cost of compu�ng has fallen by some 15 to 20 percent a year, leading to a hypergrowth industry, composed of hundreds of firms, that tends to render its own products obsolete within a handful of years. The velocity of progress is such that it allows li�le �me for introspec�on, for a recogni�on that many of the ideas behind modern data processing systems date back to earlier �mes, to inventors such as Bri�sh mathema�cian Charles Babbage, who tried unsuccessfully to build calcula�ng machines organized very much like today’s computers. Standing like a giant among these pioneers, but almost totally unknown, is the American inventor Herman Hollerith, the subject of this book. Where does an industry’s fledgling technology come from? What needs does it seek to fill? How do its customs and prac�ces evolve? Who are its first customers? What determines the early uses for its products? By what means is its equipment developed? How is it sold, installed, and serviced? More fundamentally, what must take place for a major new industry to be born? Working in the electromechanical technology of his day, Herman Hollerith answered many of these ques�ons for the early data processing industry, just as surely as did Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Alva Edison for their respec�ve fields. Hollerith’s pioneering punched card tabula�ng machines made it possible for the first �me for government and business to process large amounts of informa�on in an efficient, economic, and �mely way—to act on the basis of current facts, as one of his associates put it, before they became ancient history. Hollerith’s basic equipment—his punches, tabulators, and sorters— are as crude, compared to modern computers, as the first “cats-whisker” radio receivers are to today’s radio and television sets. In retrospect, his inven�ons may be different in kind, as well as in degree, from today’s computers. Yet, born while Lincoln was President, Hollerith le� behind a profitable business embodying a viable technology. Refined, added to, and improved by others over the years, it became part of the sure stream that flowed into the development of the first electronic computers. Similarly, the uses he established for his machines, such as inventory control and sales analysis, became the bread-and-bu�er jobs for the new electronic machines when they came along. In the course of his business, Hollerith set down the beginnings of an industry not only in the United States but in many countries overseas. And many of the customers that he convinced to try his equipment remain among the most innova�ve users of data processing equipment today. The familiar punched card that Hollerith se�led on as a prac�cal medium for holding informa�on nearly a hundred years ago—but never claimed to invent—is becoming increasingly obsolete today. But when cultural anthropologists are si�ing through the remnants of our civiliza�on a thousand years from now, they may well fasten upon it as a hallmark of our age. Why is Hollerith virtually unknown, even in his own country? Part of the answer lies in the character of the man. He was devoted to his work, his family, and li�le else. Intensely private, he eschewed the use of adver�sing, and even of salesmen, to promote his machines. Like Babbage, he was also embi�ered by his unfortunate experiences with his own government and, possibly for this reason, withdrew further into his private world. Finally, he sold his business in 1911 to a small company, later to be renamed IBM. Under the forceful leadership of Thomas J. Watson, it would soon become celebrated throughout the world, and, without intending to, it would eclipse its early beginnings.