Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

230 home officeFacing vigorous competition and in declining health,Hollerith sold his patent rights to the company that eventuallyevolved into IBM, the company that would cometo dominate the market for tabulators, calculators, andother office machines. The punched card, often called theHollerith card, would become a natural choice for computerdesigners and would remain the principal means ofdata and program input for mainframe computers untilthe 1970s.Further ReadingAustrian, G. D. Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Giant of InformationProcessing. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.Kistermann, F. W. “The Invention and Development of the HollerithPunched Card.” Annals of the History of Computing, 13,245–259.Russo, Mark. “Herman Hollerith: The World’s First StatisticalEngineer.” Available online. URL: http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/hollerith. Accessed August 7, 2007.The Hollerith tabulator and sorter box, invented by Herman Hollerithand used in the 1890 U.S. census. It “read” cards by passingthem through electrical contacts. (Hulton Archive / GettyImages)The peripatetic Hollerith soon got a job with the U.S. PatentOffice, partly to learn the procedures he would need to followto patent his tabulator. He applied for several patents,including one for the punched-card tabulator. He tested thedevice with vital statistics in Baltimore, New York, and thestate of New Jersey.Hollerith’s mature system included a punch device thata clerk could use to record variable data in many categorieson the same card (a stack of cards could also be prepunchedwith constant data, such as the number of the census district).The cards were then fed into a device something likea small printing press. The top part of the press had anarray of spring-loaded pins that connected to tiny pots ofmercury (an electrical conductor) in the bottom. The pinswere electrified. Where a pin encountered a punched holein the card, it penetrated through to the mercury, allowingcurrent to flow. The current created a magnetic field thatmoved the corresponding counter dial forward one position.The dials could be read after a batch of cards was finished,giving totals for each category, such as an ethnicityor occupation. The dials could also be connected to countmultiple conditions (for example, the total number of foreign-borncitizens who worked in the clothing trade).Aided by Hollerith’s machines, a census unit was ableto process 7,000 records a day for the 1890 census, aboutten times the rate in the 1880 count. Starting around 1900,Hollerith brought out improved models of his machinesthat included such features as an automatic (rather thanhand-fed) card input mechanism, automatic sorters, andtabulators that boasted a much higher speed and capacity.Hollerith machines soon found their way into governmentagencies involved with vital statistics, agricultural statistics,and other data-intensive matters, as well as insurancecompanies and other businesses.home officeThe widespread use of the personal computer and associatedperipherals such as printers has made it more practicalfor many people to do at least part of their work fromtheir homes. In addition to traditional freelance occupationssuch as writing and editing, many other businessesincluding consulting, design, and sales can now be conductedfrom a home office. Computer hardware and softwaremakers began to target a distinctive market niche thatis sometimes referred to as SOHO (Small Office / HomeOffice), thus including both actual home offices and smallcommercial offices.As a market, the SOHO has somewhat different requirementsthan the large offices traditionally served by majorcomputer vendors:• Relatively modest PCs as compared to heavy-duty fileservers or workstations• Peripherals shared by two or more PCs (although theplummeting price of printers made it common to provideeach PC with its own printer)• The need for a small “footprint”—that is, minimizingthe space taken up by the equipment. Multifunctionperipherals (typically incorporating printer, scanner,copier, and perhaps a fax machine) are a popular solutionto this requirement.• A simple local network (see local area network)with shared Internet access• Low-end or midrange software (such as MicrosoftWorks or Office Small Business edition as opposed tothe full-blown Office suite)• Application for collaboration and productivity deliveredvia the Web (such as Google Apps) may also bean attractive alternative.• Available installation and support (since many homeusers lack technical hardware or system administrationskills)