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forinti
> During a short stint compiling manufacturing statistics for the US Census Office, Herman Hollerith grew frustrated with the organization’s manual process of counting questionnaires.

Go out to the world and do something, however boring it may seem. You've got more chances of having a bright ideia than if you stay home just thinking.

danrecht
Fun fact: Hollerith did his initial work on this during his brief stint as a mechanical engineering instructor at MIT so (if you squint) this is the first MIT compute hardware spinout.
steelkilt
Another fun fact: The USAF data center I worked at in 1987 was still using punched cards and paper tape.
jp57
While spitting out numbers, these machines generated exorbitant profits over decades for the company that would become known as IBM.

Funny that IBM would describe its own profits as “exorbitant”. A little truth in advertising for once?

mac3n
In the "Hollerith Tabulator/Sorter, 1890", the machine counts and chooses an output tray. The operator acts solely as card transport.