Invented in 1980 by Herman Hollerith, the tabulating machine is known as one of the earliest artifacts in computing. Designed for the processing of data in the census that was carried out in the United States for the year 1890.
And then it is used in the accounting work area and in other professional areas, increasing its range of action. We will be talking about the tabulating machine in this section, I invite you to continue reading this wonderful story about the tabulating machine.
What is the tabulating machine?
The tabulating machine was created in 1890, at that time it was invented in order to help with the census of people in the country. This machine could reduce the time of data analysis, to achieve mechanize the process and make it faster. Obviously before even being able to How to install Microsoft Office online in Windows 10, the machine represents the main alternative.
For this reason, the tabulating machine was a revolution in data processing, since at this time it was thought that doing this process manually would take more or less 10 years to complete.
When using the tabulating machine to carry out the census, it only took about 6 months for the process to be completed. At this time the tabulating machine was in charge of carrying out the process mechanically.
When the process was finished, an alarm sounded and another card was inserted. Therefore, workers could place the complete tabulator cards according to the type of information provided. Something like an ultimatum similar to activating the bedtime or bedtime alarm on iPhone iOS.
The function as such of the tabulating machine is to process the information with a mechanical binary method, currently we observe the same in computing but in a computerized way.
What is it for? How does it work?
You should know that the tabulating machine for this time worked with mercury, the punched cards were placed on top of the tank where the mercury was. On top of both cables were placed in the form of a spring, these were in charge of looking for the places where the card was punched. In these pierced locations, mercury was housed to indicate the exact location of the piercing.
In the event that there were no holes in the card, these cables could not record any type of information on the card. In this way it was possible to save information on the card, and therefore, tabulated reports could be obtained faster than doing manual work.
The machine had a binary reading system, this information was saved on the card according to the information that was previously supplied. It was mainly used for quick censuses, but later it was refined to be used in accounting, it could read more than 250 cards per minute.
About a year later, it was again refined to add the addition function. Therefore, it began to be used in business, obtaining very good results. The success generated by the tabulating machine lasted until the 1940s, when mechanical elements were changed to electronic ones, ushering in the computer age.
Tabbing Machine Parts
Within the parts of the tabulating machine is the player that was used to duplicate the results of the cards. The counter that was also known as a calculator, where the cards were placed so that they were counted arithmetically and accurately.
Another element was the classifier that was used to place the cards in a certain sequence in such a way that the possible results could be constituted. Without a doubt it was more complicated than creating documents, slides and spreadsheets in Google Docs or even the simple fact of printing a Gmail email or image from an Android cell phone.
The tabulator that was possibly the most important element of the machine, since the definitive information of the previous data capture could be obtained.
Another element that had different functions was the interleaver. But the most important is to order and arrange, in sequence, the cards that were punched. The element that dealt with the input of the mechanized process was the card reader. This is the place where you enter the card that has the information with the data that you need to place in the table.
Currently the tabulating machine is a computerized electronic process. It can be said that the binary codes that help in the computer field are already installed directly in the computer programs. Therefore, you no longer have to worry about creating binary codes to use programs or create applications. Because this is done automatically by the programs.