Herman Hollerith tabulating machine

Herman Hollerith previously worked in the census office and experienced first-hand how broken the process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting on that data was. So he built a machine that counted the stored data at a far greater speed and with far higher accuracy than they’d been able to before.

Hollerith’s machine was used in the 1890 census. In just two years, the job was done, saving the government $5 million.

Hollerith began to see the potential for using the data on the cards for other information. He found adjacent businesses for the storage and tabulation of large data sets.