Early punched card equipment: 1880-1951 [Scanning Our Past]

Punched card tabulating equipment, invented and developed by Herman Hollerith, was the first mechanized means for compiling and analyzing statistical information. For over half a century, its continued improvement created and expanded the global information processing industry. This month begins a series of reprints from the IEEE Global History Network's STARS articles, which can be found online. STARS is an online compendium of invited, peer-reviewed articles on the history of major developments in electrical and computer science and technology. Some light editing has been done, along with the addition of a few illustrations, to make the article more suitable for a journal publication.1 Punched card tabulating equipment.