IBM 405
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Data processing equipment |
| Founded | 1896 |
| Founder | Herman Hollerith |
| Fate | Merged into Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) in 1911 |
| Successor | Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), later IBM |
| Products | Tabulating machines, punched card equipment |
The tabulating machine was an electromechanical apparatus created by Herman Hollerith to compile information encoded on punched cards, originally designed for the 1890 U.S. Census. Its use later broadened to include commercial functions such as accounting and inventory control, leading to the development of the unit record equipment industry and the early data processing field.
The phrase "Super Computing" appeared in the New York World in 1931 to refer to a large custom tabulator constructed by IBM for Columbia University.
1890 census
Processing the 1880 census required eight years.[1] To comply with constitutional requirements for conducting censuses every ten years, which influenced congressional representation and taxation, more efficient processing techniques were necessary.
In the late 1880s, Herman Hollerith, inspired by railway conductors’ use of punched tickets to record passenger details, devised a machine-readable data encoding system. Transitioning from paper tape to punched cards, he standardized cards featuring round holes arranged in 12 rows and 24 columns, with specific dimensions.[2] His tabulator operated using electromechanical solenoids and spring-loaded wires suspended above mercury pools aligned with possible hole positions. When wires passed through holes into mercury pools, electrical contacts activated counters and sorting mechanisms.[3] The device contained 40 counters with dials capable of registering up to 9,999, programmable through relay logic to tally particular hole patterns or combinations (such as married couples).[4] Sorting bins would open based on data interpreted from the cards.[5]
Hollerith’s technology was employed during the 1890 census, where clerks used keypunch machines to record demographic information onto roughly 100 million cards. These cards were processed by machines only four times throughout the entire operation.[2] The U.S. Census Bureau reported that results were delivered months ahead of schedule and at a significantly reduced cost.[6]
Following the 1890 census
The advantages of this technology quickly became apparent for accounting and inventory management purposes. Hollerith established The Hollerith Electric Tabulating System, concentrating on punched card data processing machinery. In 1896, he founded the Tabulating Machine Company and introduced the Hollerith Integrating Tabulator, which could sum numbers on punched cards rather than merely counting holes. Punched cards continued to be read manually using pins and mercury pool readers. The 1900 U.S. census utilized the Hollerith Automatic Feed Tabulator, and a control panel was incorporated into the 1906 Type 1 model.
In 1911, a merger of four companies, including Hollerith’s enterprise, resulted in the formation of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). That same year marked the establishment of Powers Accounting Machine Company, which developed devices initially created at the Census Bureau. The first prototype of a Bull tabulator emerged in 1919. The 1920s saw the introduction of tabulators equipped with printing functions and removable control panels. CTR was renamed International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924. Powers was acquired by Remington Rand in 1927, and in 1933 The Tabulating Machine Company merged into IBM. These corporations advanced increasingly faster and more complex tabulators, culminating in models such as the IBM 407 (1949) and Remington Rand 409 (1952). Despite the arrival of commercial electronic computers in the 1950s, tabulating machines remained operational for many years afterward.
Numerous tabulator functions transitioned to computers like the IBM 1401, supported by programming languages such as FARGO and RPG designed to replicate tabulator control panel logic and operational cycles.
Operation
A fundamental tabulating device processed cards individually, printing chosen data fields onto fan-fold paper, occasionally rearranged, and summed punched numbers into counters known as accumulators. Initial versions required operators to manually read accumulator dials to obtain totals; subsequent models incorporated direct total printing. Cards with designated punches could serve as master cards, influencing processing logic. For instance, customer master cards combined with sorted item cards enabled the printing of invoices that displayed billing information from the master card followed by detailed items and their prices, with totals printed upon encountering the next master card.
By performing multiple punched-card processing cycles, intricate computations became feasible through the use of several machines. Each phase mirrored functions analogous to modern SQL commands—SELECT for column filtering, WHERE for row (card) filtering, GROUP BY for aggregations such as sums and counts, and SORT BY—and these steps could be repeated as necessary. Operators manually handled card decks between each stage.
Selected models and timeline
Hollerith's first tabulators compiled mortality data for Baltimore, Jersey City, and New York City in 1886.
The Tabulating Machine Company (TMC) developed its initial automatic feed tabulator in 1906, capable of processing 150 cards per minute.
In 1920, TMC released its first tabulator equipped with printing capabilities.
The TMC Type IV Accounting Machine (later known as IBM 301), introduced in 1928, was the pioneering card-controlled device featuring class selection, automatic subtraction, and printing of net positive or negative balances. It processed cards at a rate of 100 per minute.
The IBM 401, launched in 1933, represented an early advancement in alphabetic tabulators and accounting machines, handling addition at 150 cards per minute and listing alphanumeric data at 80 cards per minute. This machine was developed under the leadership of J. R. Peirce and integrated innovations contributed by A. W. Mills, F. J. Furman, and E. J. Rabenda.
Introduced in 1934, the IBM 405 Alphabetical Accounting Machine became IBM's premier bookkeeping device for many years. It offered increased adding capacity, flexible grouping of counters, direct alphabet printing, direct subtraction functions, and the ability to print debit or credit balances from any counter.
IBM’s 402 and 403 models from 1948 updated the design principles of the 405.
The Bull Gamma 3 (1952) could be connected with tabulators or card read/punch units to expand processing functionality.
The IBM 407 Accounting Machine, unveiled in 1949, dominated IBM’s unit record product lineup for nearly thirty years. It was adapted as an input/output peripheral for early electronic calculators and computers; its printing mechanism was utilized in the IBM 716 line printer for the IBM 700/7000 series and later with the IBM 1130 until the mid-1970s. The IBM 407 was discontinued in 1976, marking the conclusion of IBM's unit record era.
See also
- British Tabulating Machine Company
- Powers Accounting Machine Company, Powers Accounting Machine
- Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd ("Acc and Tab")
For early scientific use of tabulators see
Further reading
A user-friendly overview featuring images and explanations of numerous unit record devices, including IBM's tabulators and accounting machines, presented in the chapter titled It all adds Up.
Chapter 3, entitled Tabulating Machines, contains selections from Hollerith's 1889 publication An Electric Tabulating System as well as Couffignal's 1933 work Calculating Machines: Their Principles and Evolution.
- Black, Edwin (2001) IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation, Crown Publishing, ISBN 0-609-80899-0.
This thoroughly researched book explores IBM's partnership with Nazi Germany, focusing on how tabulating technology was employed to identify, monitor, and deport Jewish populations during World War II, resulting in substantial financial gains for IBM.
External links
- ↑ U.S. Census, 1880#Results
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedHollerithRSS - ↑ Columbia University Computing History
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedminesquarterly - ↑ "IBM Archives: Hollerith Tabulator and Sorter Box".
- ↑ "Tabulation and Processing". U.S. Census Bureau.