Herman Hollerith

Born

February 29, 1860

Died

November 17, 1929 (aged 69)

Known as

inventor, businessperson, statistician, mathematician, computer scientist, engineer

Herman Hollerith was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine for punched cards to assist in summarizing information and, later, in accounting. His invention of the punched card tabulating machine, patented in 1884, marks the beginning of the era of mechanized binary code and semiautomatic data processing systems, and his concept dominated that landscape for nearly a century.

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