1850 Census

[Dave Fiske]

According to http://weloveschool.com/history.html,
in 1911, Hollerith's company was merged with "the
Tabulating
Company (founded by Hollerith), the Computing Scale "
Company, and the International Time Recording
Company".

The resulting company, the
Computer-Tabulating-Recording
Company (CTR) later merged with IBM.

Hollerith wouldn't have been a player in 1850, but
perhaps
the story goes back to one of these other companies,
since
in a way they also were precursors of IBM.

As to the question of whether any tabulating machines
were used prior to 1890, the sources are conflicting.

The Prologue article says that 1890 "was the first
U.S. census to use Herman Hollerith's electrical
tabulation system," but doesn't mention what
"mechanical"
tabulation may have been used before that.

An excerpt from Michael R. Lavin. Understanding the
Census (Kenmore, NY: Epoch Books, 1996), reads:

"In the late 1800s, a rudimentary mechanical tallying
machine was used and it was followed by the punched
card system invented by Census employee Herman
Hollerith."

The excerpt is available at:

http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~ssoy/federalwebdata/cenbgrnd.htm

However, a GAO report [Decennial Census: Overview of
Historical
Census Issues (Chapter Report, 05/01/98,
GAO/GGD-98-103)]

"All the tallying of the 1880 Census was still done by
hand, and the Bureau recognized then that the solution
to what was becoming a data crisis was mechanization.
Herman Hollerith, a former Bureau employee, developed
an electrical enumerating machine with its punch cards
for the 1890 Census."

http://cronkite.pp.asu.edu/census/gaoreport.htm

Hollerith was not the only one with tabulating
machines:

"Hollerith's system was first tested on tabulating
mortality statistics in Baltimore, New Jersey in 1887
and again in New York City. This punched card system
was in use by the time of the 1890 US census but it
was not the only system to be considered for use with
the census. It won convincingly in competition with
two other systems considered for the 1890 census
showing that it could handle data more quickly."

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hollerith.html


The following site has details on Hollerith's
inspiration
and development of his tabulating machine:

http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/hollerith/



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