Who Was Herman Hollerith?

The Man Who Revolutionized Data Processing

The Problem

The census. The United States Constitution requires that a census be taken every 10 years. The reason given is so that representation in the House of Representatives can be properly apportioned. The first census was taken in 1790 and as the years went by more and more information was required in addition to just counting. There were so much data collected in the census of 1880 that almost a full decade was needed to process all the results. If nothing changed the 1890…