(j3.2006) Do you want a copy of this?

[Van Snyder]

On Tue, 2011-04-12 at 15:29 -0700, Dan Nagle wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> It looks popular enough, you could post it to the j3 site,
> perhaps in Tutorials?

OK, I put it there.

~member/Tutorials/"Hollerith letter on punched card technology.pdf"

Van

> On Apr 12, 2011, at 17:13 , Bill Long wrote:
> 
> > Yes, please.  Thanks Van.
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Bill
> > 
> > 
> > On 4/12/11 3:53 PM, Van Snyder wrote:
> >> I've received a scan of a letter from Herman Hollerith to somebody named
> >> Wilson (no first name given), dated 7 August 1919.  My friends at Haus
> >> zur Geschichte der IBM Datenverarbeitung in Sindelfingen believe Wilson
> >> was director of data processing at the US Census Bureau during WW II.
> >> 
> >> It gives some insight into how Hollerith came up with the idea for
> >> punched cards, and some of the work he did between 1880 and 1919.
> >> 
> >> Interestingly, he mentions paper tape, and explains why he rejected it.
> >> "My idea at the time was to use a strip of paper and punch the record
> >> for each individual in a line across the strip.  then I ran this strip
> >> over a drum and made contacts through the hole to operate counters.
> >> This you see gave me an ideal automatic feed.  The trouble was however
> >> that if for example you wanted any statics [sic] regarding chinamen you
> >> would have to run miles of paper to count a few chinamen....  I then
> >> abandoned the continuous strip and took up individual cards."
> >> 
> >> Let me know if you want a PDF.
> >> 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Bill Long                                           longb at cray.com
> > Fortran Technical Support    &                 voice: 651-605-9024
> > Bioinformatics Software Development            fax:   651-605-9142
> > Cray Inc./Cray Plaza, Suite 210/380 Jackson St./St. Paul, MN 55101
> > 
> > 
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