On this day in 1890 the United States Census Bureau announced the current population of the country at that time which was over 62 million, a figure tabulated for the first time using the Hollerith Census Machine. The machine was invented by Herman Hollerith and could process almost 10 times the number of census data than a human clerk. Census workers entered data from punched cards into the Punch Pantograph.
Hollerith’s machines greatly minimized the time required to process the census, bringing it down from eight years to six years. They were used in several other censuses throughout Europe, Russia, Canada, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines.
Hollerith formed the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896 which later merged with other companies to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, now known as the International Business Machines Corporation or IBM.
Herman Hollerith – Image taken from Wikipedia