High-Technology Calculation in the Early 20th Century: Punched Card Machinery in Business and Government
Arthur L. Norberg · Technology and Culture · 1990
Information-handling techniques changed dramatically in the last quarter of the 19th century with the introduction of mechanical contrivances for counting and for analyzing data. Calculators could perform all four basic arithmetical functions;' bookkeeping machines, similar in most respects to calculators, could generate various types of ledgers; and tabulating systems could analyze data stored on punched cards.2 The effect of the tabulating system was substantially different from that of other business machines, such as desk calculators,