At a time when Internet use is closely tracked and social networking sites supply data for targeted advertising, Lars Heide presents the first academic study of the invention that fueled today’s information revolution: the punched card. Early punched cards helped to process the United States census in 1890. They soon proved useful in calculating invoices and issuing pay slips. As demand for more sophisticated systems and reading machines increased in both the United States and Europe, punched cards served ever-larger data-processing purposes. Insurance companies, public utilities, businesses, and governments all used them to keep detailed records of their customers, competitors, employees, citizens, and enemies. The United States used punched-card registers in the late 1930s to pay roughly 21 million Americans their Social Security pensions, Vichy France used similar technologies in an attempt to mobilize an army against the occupying German forces, and the Germans in 1941 developed several punched-card registers to make the war effort—and surveillance of minorities—more effective. Heide’s analysis of these three major punched-card systems, as well as the impact of the invention on Great Britain, illustrates how different cultures collected personal and financial data and how they adapted to new technologies. This comparative study will interest students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including the history of technology, computer science, business history, and management and organizational studies.
Author(s): Lars Heide
Series: Studies In Industry And Society
Edition: 1
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Year: 2009
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF 6x9 Format | Full TOC
Pages: 376
Tags: Punched Card Systems: United States; Information Technology: United States; Punched Card Systems: Europe; Information Technology: Europe
Cover
HalfTitle
Series Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
1 | Punched Cards and the 1890 United States Census
Processing Census Schedules
Systems for Processing the 1890 Census
Herman Hollerith
The Problem Of U.S. Census Processing and the Shaping Of the First Punched-Card System
2 | New Users, New Machines
Hollerith's Innovations in the 1890s
Early Challengers
The 1900 Census and Hollerith's Break with the Census Bureau
Business Market Breakthrough and Standardization
Punched Cards and World War
Reshaping Punched Cards
3 | U.S. Challengers to Hollerith
The Census Bureau Machine Shop
Powers Accounting Machines
Remington Rand
John Royden Pierce’s Punched-Card Systems
A Challenger’s Possibility
4 | The Rise of International Business Machines
The Computing Tabulating Recording Company
The Patent License to Powers
Shaping Equipment for Bookkeeping
Reshaping Punched Cards
5 | Decline of Punched Cards for European Census Processing
Early Punched-Card Users in Europe
Dynamics of Punched-Card Diff usion in the 1890s
6 | Punched Cards for General Statistics in Europe
Slow Start of Punched Cards in Britain
The Quick Success of Punched Cards in Germany
The Late Start of Punched Cards in France
Dynamics of Technology Transfer and Adoption
7 | Different Roads to European Punched-Card Bookkeeping
Germany: Numeric Punched-Card Bookkeeping
France: Alphanumeric Accent in Punched-Card Bookkeeping
Dynamics of Distinctions in Europe
8 | Keeping Tabs on Society with Punched Cards
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Social Security Program
The Vichy Mobilization Register
Managing Resources during the War in Germany
The Punched-Card Industry’s Choice of Development Strategy
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix | Financial Information: Tables and Figures
Notes
Introduction
Chapter One: Punched Cards and the 1890 United States Census
Chapter Two: New Users, New Machines
Chapter Three: U.S. Challengers to Hollerith
Chapter Four: The Rise of International Business Machines
Chapter Five: Decline of Punched Cards for European Census Processing
Chapter Six: Punched Cards for General Statistics in Europe
Chapter Seven: Diff erent Roads to European Punched-Card Bookkeeping
Chapter Eight: Keeping Tabs on Society with Punched Cards
Essay on Sources
Archives on Producers
Patents
Archives on Users
Studies of Office Technologies
Index
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