Record of Punching Cards at the New York Central for the Month of April 1904
Record of Punching Cards at the New York Central for the Month of April 1904
- Description
- From 1895 inventor Herman Hollerith wooed the New York Central Railroad as a commercial customer for his tabulating machines. This small paper card records his success. It reports that in April 1904, key punch operators at the Central punched a total of 428,502 cards, averaging 258 cards per clerk per hour. The record for one clerk was 70,535 cards punched, averaging 413 cards per hour.
- Reference: G. D. Austrian, Hermann Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing , New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 111–141.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- sheet
- date made
- 1904
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall:.1 cm x 9 cm x 5.6 cm; 1/32 in x 3 17/32 in x 2 7/32 in
- ID Number
- 1977.0114.08.01
- accession number
- 1977.0114
- catalog number
- 1977.0114.08.01
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Estate of Herman Hollerith, Jr.
- subject
- Mathematics
- Railroads
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Computers & Business Machines
- Tabulating Equipment
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. We apologize for the interruption. If you have a question relating to the museum's collections, please first check our Collections FAQ. If you require a personal response, please use our Contact page.