Tabulating Machines III

Chapter Tabulating Machines III

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, as the American popula• tion continued to grow and ever more detailed population statistics were demanded, the standard manual techniques of tabulating and analyzing the ten-yearly U.S. National Census returns became more and more inadequate. The earliest mechanical assistance was pro• vided by the Seaton machine which was introduced for the 1870 Census and used extensively during the 1880 Census [1]. This was a simple device, consisting of a set of rollers on which Census tabulation forms could be mounted, which assisted the Census clerks by bringing corresponding sections of several forms into convenient physical jux• taposition. ADr. JOHN SHAW BIlliNGS was in charge of the planning of the work on the vital statistics for the 1880 Census. Also involved in this Census, but in a much more junior capacity, was HERMAN HOLLERITH who in 1879 at the age of 19 had been appointed an assistant to Professor WIlliAM TROWBRIDGE of Columbia University, a Chief Special Agent in the Census Office. Several differing accounts have been written of the relative roles of BIlliNGS and HOLLERITH in the invention of a punched card tabulating system. It is generally agreed that in 1880 BIlliNGS encouraged HOLLER• ITH to investigate the development of a mechanised tabulation system, but, for example, some accounts have BIlliNGS making the specific suggestion that the system be based on the Jacquard card principle [2]; others have HOLLERITH getting the idea of representing logical and numerical data by holes punched in cards after seeing a conductor punching a railway ticket so as to indicate the physical appearance of the ticket holder [3). In any case, from then on BIlliNGS seems to have taken no further active interest in the problem, and HOLLERITH can be given full credit for the development of the punched card system. HOLLERITH'S first patent applications for an electric data tabulating system were made in 1884, but these were allowed to lapse and were re-entered, the actual patents being granted in 1889 [4). The applica• tions were originally based primarily on the use of continuous strips of perforated paper (which would have precluded sorting), but the appli• cations were later revised so as to cover the use of individual punched cards. The first practical use of the system was for mortality statistics in Baltimore in 1887, followed by use in New Jersey and New York, and international interest was soon attracted. However the important first

127 step as regards the U.S. National Census was taken when a competi• tion, involving the retabulation of sample data from the 1880 Census, was held between HOllERITH's system and two rival (non-mechanical) systems. The Hollerith system was an easy winner with respect to both speed and accuracy, and HOllERITH gained the contract to supply his equipment for the 1890 Census [5]. The article by HOllERITH describing his equipment, an extract from which is reprinted here, served also as his doctoral thesis, for which he received a Ph.D. from Columbia University. The equipment it describes was that used during the 1890 Census except that cards were punched using the 'pantograph' punch [6]. This punch enabled the operator to punch a series of holes in a card at positions corresponding to marks on a template - as with the other machines comprising the tabulating system, cards had to be inserted in the machine and removed by hand. The 1890 Census which involved the punching of some 56,000,000 cards [7] was a great success, although at first the new system was strongly criticised because the American population turned out to be somewhat smaller than had been generally expected. During the next few years HOllERITH was honoured by many coun• tries, and accounts of his system appeared in many scientific and technical journals, especially in Europe. The system was soon in use in a number of other countries, the first being Austria where it was used for the December 1890 Census, and where five years later a plugboard tabulator control somewhat similar to a manual telephone exchange was developed by SCHAFFLER [8]. The first attempt at commercial use of HOllERITH's system was for accounting at the offices of the New York Central Railroad in 1895. As a result of this the need to provide the tabulator with the ability to add, rather than just count, became apparent, and HOllERITH developed a mechanism which used an eletromagnetic version of the Leibniz stepped reckoner [9]. The 1900 U.S. Census saw several improvements in the system. notably the addition of automatic card handling mechanisms to the tabulators and sorters. and the development of a decimal (manual) key-punch of a design which is still occasionally seen in use today [10]. After this Census relations between HOllERITH and the Census Bureau deteriorated, and the Bureau began to manufacture its own equip• ment for the 1910 Census, when over 100 tabulators, some with automatic card feed mechanisms. were used [11]. The person in charge of this work was JAMES POWERS who circumvented HOllERITH 'S patents by producing a mechanical card reading apparatus. He retained the patent rights and formed his own company which eventu• ally merged with Remington Rand in 1927. In 1911 HOllERITH sold his own company, the Tabulating Machine Company, which he had formed in 1896, and it was shortly afterwards merged with two other com• panies to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. This company. under the direction of THOMAS J. WATSON from 1914. became the International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. There had been other early work on punched card systems. Indeed an actuary, J. K. GORE. developed automatic card punches and

128 sorting machines in the early 1980's which were used successfully for many years thereafter by the Prudential Life Insurance Company [12]. Another little-known American inventor, J. R. PIERCE, developed a sys• tem in 1910-1911 which included machines for simultaneously print• ing and punching cards. The patents covering his system were brought by IBM in 1922 when he joined the company [13]. At about this date the Japanese also developed and built a series of tabulating machines, but these were destroyed in an earthquake [14]. During the 1920's and 1930's punched card systems developed steadily, aided no doubt by the stimulus of competition, not only in the U.S.A. but also in Britain, where the Hollerith and Powers-based systems continued to be marketed under the names of their original inventors. Unfortunately the people involved in this work did not in general publish technical papers and their work has received little public recognition. Thus full appreciation of the contribution of IBM development engineers, such as J. W. BRYCE, one of the most prolific inventors of his era, will probably have to await an analysis of the patent literature. However it has been recorded that his work at IBM included a self-regulating electric time recording system, an automatic multiplying punch, an accounting machine capable of sub• traction, data recording using magnetized spots or pencil marks on cards, and using photographic film, and a counter read-out and emitter which permitted the transfer of balances in an accounting machine [15]. One inventor whose work has been documented [16] is GUSTAV TAUSCHEK , a self-taught Viennese engineer, with more than 200 patents in the computing field to his credit. While working for Rheinische Metall- und Maschinenfabrik he designed and built a punched card electromechanical accounting machine [17]. His other patents, many of which were filed whilst he was under contract to IBM during the 1930's, also included a "reading-writing-calculating machine" which used photocells to compare printed input characters with templates held on photographic film, a number storage device using magnetised steel plates, and an electromechanical accounting machine designed for use in small banks, capable of storing the records of up to 1 0 ,000 accounts. The state of development of the various rival punched card sys• tems during the mid-1930's is well documented in the extract from the thesis by COUFFIGNAL, a translation of which appears on pages 145- 154. (For convenience, sections and figures have been re-numbered.) In this COUFFIGNAL also describes the Synchro-Madas Machine, one of several such systems built on the Continent, which attempted to supplement the very limited calculating capabilities of standard punched card sys• tems. (The Campos machine that he mentions, which was entirely manual in operation, was marketed by Powers-Samas [18] as a com• petitor to punched card systems of accounting. It had, for its time, a surprisingly large storage capacity [19], so that many book-keeping functions could be cdrried out on stored data without the need for extensive intermediate input and output.)

129 One other system involving a set of inter-linked punched card machines. though very different in concept and scale to the Synchro• Madas machine. is worth mentioning. This is the Remote-Control Accounting system which was experimented with in a Pittsburgh department store. also in the mid-1930's [20]. The system involved 250 terminals connected by telephone lines to 20 Powers card punch/tabulators and 15 on-line typewriters. The terminals transmit• ted data from punched merchandise tags which was used to produce punched sales record cards. later used for customer billing. The type• writer terminals were used for credit authorisation purposes. The intended peak transaction rate was 9.000 per hour. Even during the 1920's punched card systems were used not only for accounting and the compilation of statistics. but also for complex statistical calculations [21]. However what is generally recognised as the first important scientific application of punched card systems was made by L. J. COMRIE in 1929 [22]. COMRIE was Superintendent of H. M. Nautical Almanac Office until 1936. and then founded the Scientific Computing Service. He made a speciality of putting commercial com• puting machinery to scientific use. and introduced Hollerith equip• ment to the Nautical Almanac Office. His calculations of the future positions of the Moon. which involved the punching of half a million cards. stimulated many other scientists to exploit the possibilities of punched card systems. One such scientist was WAllACE J. ECKERT. an astronomer at Colum• bia University. which already had been donated machines for a Statist• ical Laboratory by IBM in 1929. including the "Statistical Calculator" . a specially developed tabulator which was the forerunner of the IBM Type 600 series of multiplying punches. and of the mechanisms used in the Harvard Mark I machine. With assistance from IBM in 1934 ECKERT set up a scientific computing laboratory in the Columbia Astronomy Department. a laboratory which was later to become the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau. In order to facilitate the use of his punched card equipment ECK• ERT developed a centralised control mechanism. linked to a numerical tabulator. a summary punch. and a multiplying punch. so that a short cycle of different operations could be performed at high speed [23]. The control mechanism which was based on a stepping switch enabled many calculations. even some solutions of differential equations. to be performed completely automatically. The potential of a system of interconnected punched card machines. controlled by a fully general-purpose sequencing mechan• ism. and the essential similarity of such a set up to BABBAGE 's plans for an Analytical Engine. were fully appreciated by VANNEVAR BUSH [24]. who shortly afterwards set up the Rapid Arithmetical Machine Project (see Chapter 7). An attempt was in fact made to build a system of inter• connected punched card machines in Germany during the war; these plans. which never reached fruition. are described in the paper by DREYER and WALTHER . the final reprint in this chapter. However. by this stage. in the United States much more ambitious efforts were being

130 made to apply the expertise of punched card equipment designers - this is the subject of Chapter 5. on AIKEN and IBM. Notes l. MERRIAM (1903).

2. WIUCOX (1926). quoting HOllERITH .

3. HOllERITH. V. (1971).

4. MURPHY (1968).

5. TRUESDElL (1965).

6. MAR'MN. T.C. (1891).

7. HOllERITH. V. (1971).

8. CHEYSSON (1892). RAUCHBERG (1892). ZEMANEK (1970).

9. ANON (1920).

10. MERRIAM (1903). MURPHY (1968).

11. DURAND (1913). TRUESDElL (1965).

12. EAMES (1973). ANON (1938).

13. ANON (1910b. 1933. 1938).

14. TAKAHASHI and SHOJI (1924).

15. ANON (1949).

16. NAGLER (1966).

17. TAUSCHEK (1930).

18. CUR'MS (1932).

19. COUFFIGNAL gives its capacity as one thousand numbers. CAMPOS (1944) gives a detailed description of a version of the machine with a mechanical store hold• ing two hundred 13-digit numbers. accessed by means of numerical store addresses.

20. WOODRUFF (1938).

21. SNEDECOR (1928).

22. COMRIE (1932).

23. BRENNAN (1971). ECKERT. W.J. (1940).

24. BUSH (1936). 131