Punch Card CreatorNov. 17, 1929 Dr. Herman Hollerith, the creator of the electric tabulating machine and founder of a company that would later become IBM, dies of a heart attack at the age of 69.Hollerith’s invention was the first that used punched holes in tape?then cards?to sort and re-sort data. The government used Hollerith’s invention to tabulate the 1890 census. The project took three years, instead of the seven years it took in the 1880 count. Punch-card technology ended up as a staple of information processing systems through the late 1970s.Hollerith was a science star who also displayed great business acumen. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he went to City College of New York at age 15 and graduated from the Columbia School of Mines at 19. His work for the U.S. Census after college introduced him to the tabulating challenge. In 1882, as a mechanical engineering instructor at MIT, he started to develop his own counting machine using punched paper tape. The position of a punched hole on the tape represented a data point; a tape-reading machine gave the results. His first patent came in 1884. The success of the 1890 census would eventually lead to his recording tabulating machine sales in Europe and Canada. In 1897, Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Co., which after some mergers became International Business Machines Corp. Or, IBM to you and me. Related content feature Expedia poised to take flight with generative AI CTO Rathi Murthy sees the online travel service’s vast troves of data and AI expertise fueling a two-pronged transformation strategy aimed at growing the company by bringing more of the travel industry online. By Paula Rooney Jun 02, 2023 7 mins Travel and Hospitality Industry Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence case study Deoleo doubles down on sustainability through digital transformation The Spanish multinational olive oil processing company is immersed in a digital transformation journey to achieve operational efficiency and contribute to the company's sustainability strategy. By Nuria Cordon Jun 02, 2023 6 mins CIO Supply Chain Digital Transformation brandpost Resilient data backup and recovery is critical to enterprise success As global data volumes rise, business must prioritize their resiliency strategies. By Neal Weinberg Jun 01, 2023 4 mins Security brandpost Democratizing HPC with multicloud to accelerate engineering innovations Cloud for HPC is facilitating broader access to high performance computing and accelerating innovations and opportunities for all types of organizations. By Tanya O'Hara Jun 01, 2023 6 mins Multi Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe