2.3K views · 20 reactions | #OTD in 1889, Herman Hollerith received a patent for his mechanical tabulator. Hollerith's machine revolutionized #DataProcessing for the 1890 Census. We continued to use improved versions of the technology until the 1950s. Learn more about #Hollerith and his invention: https://www.census.gov/library/photos/1880/herman-hollerith.html #CensusHistory #OTD #OnThisDayInHistory | U.S. Census Bureau | Facebook

The 1880 U.S. census took nearly a decade to process by hand, a crisis that threatened the entire system. Faced with an even larger population for the 1890 count, the Census Office was on the verge of failure. The results would be obsolete before they were even finished. Enter Herman Hollerith. He invented an electromechanical tabulating machine that read data from punched cards. It was a revolutionary idea for its time. This single invention reduced the processing time for the 1890 census to ju