Herman Hollerith punched cards tabulator keypunch relays counters 1890 United States Census IBM
In the late 1880s, the American Herman Hollerith invented data storage on punched cards that could then be read by a machine. To process these punched cards, he invented the tabulator and the keypunch machine. His machines used electromechanical relays and counters. Hollerith's method was used in the 1890 United States Census. That census was processed two years faster than the prior census had been. Hollerith's company eventually became the core of IBM.
