Brief History Of Linux (#8) Let's all holler for Hollerith In 1890 the US Congress wanted to extend the census to collect exhaustive demographic information on each citizen that could be resold to marketing companies to help pay for the newly installed gold-plated toilets on Capitol Hill. Experts estimated that the 1890 Census wouldn't be completed until 1900. It was hoped that an electronic tabulating machine using punchcards designed by Herman Hollerith would speed up the process. It didn't quite work out that way. An infestation of termites ate their way through the wooden base of Hollerith's machines, and then a wave of insects devoured several stacks of punchcards. Also, some Hollerith models had the propensity to crash at the drop of a hat... literally. In one instance, the operator dropped his hat and when he reached down to pick it up, he bumped the machine, causing it to flip over and crash. These flaws

Brief History Of Linux (#8)

Let's all holler for Hollerith



In 1890 the US Congress wanted to extend the census to collect exhaustive

demographic information on each citizen that could be resold to marketing

companies to help pay for the newly installed gold-plated toilets on

Capitol Hill. Experts estimated that the 1890 Census wouldn't be completed

until 1900. It was hoped that an electronic tabulating machine using

punchcards designed by Herman Hollerith would speed up the process.



It didn't quite work out that way. An infestation of termites ate their

way through the wooden base of Hollerith's machines, and then a wave of

insects devoured several stacks of punchcards. Also, some Hollerith

models had the propensity to crash at the drop of a hat... literally. In

one instance, the operator dropped his hat and when he reached down to

pick it up, he bumped the machine, causing it to flip over and crash.



These flaws meant that the census was delayed for several years. However,

the system was, in the words of one newspaper reporter, "good enough for

government work", a guiding principle that lives on to this very day and

explains the government's insistence on using Windows-based PCs.



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