Tabulating machine

The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed to assist in summarizing information and, later, accounting. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the 1890 U.S. Census. It spawned a class of machines, known as unit record equipment, and the data processing industry.

The term "Super Computing" was used by the New York World newspaper in 1931 to refer to a large custom-built tabulator that IBM made for Columbia University.

1890 census

The 1880 census had taken seven years to process, and by the time the results were available, they were clearly obsolete. Due to rapid growth of the U.S. population from 1880 to 1890, primarily because of immigration, it was estimated that the 1890 census would take approximately 13 years to complete — an immense logistical problem. Since the U.S. Constitution mandates a census every ten years to apportion representatives and direct taxes between the states, a faster method was necessary.