How the US census led to the primary knowledge processing firm 125 years in the past

This electromechanical machine, used in the 1890 U.S. census, was the first automated data processing system.

Enlarge / This electromechanical machine, used within the 1890 U.S. census, was the primary automated knowledge processing system. (credit score: Michael Hicks (CC BY 2.0))

The US Structure requires {that a} inhabitants depend be carried out at first of each decade.

This census has all the time been charged with political significance, and continues to be. That’s clear from the controversies within the run-up to the 2020 census.

But it surely’s much less broadly identified how necessary the census has been in creating the US laptop business, a narrative that I inform in my ebook, Republic of Numbers: Surprising Tales of Mathematical People via Historical past. That historical past contains the founding of the primary automated knowledge processing firm, the Tabulating Machine Firm, 125 years in the past on December 3, 1896.

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