Tabulating machine

The tabulating machine (English Tabulating Machine or as a booking engine ( Accounting Machine) referred to ) is used to evaluate possibly, but not necessarily pre-sorted and / or premixed hole cards. The tabulating machine is its own genre. After the first performance evaluation of machine inventor Herman Hollerith in 1887, a steady and differentiated even after the task development / specialization took place.

The IBM 407 was introduced in 1949 a sophisticated tabulating. The era of tabulating machines had reached the end. In the 1950s to 1970s, the machines were gradually replaced by computers such as the IBM 1959, introduced in 1401. The IBM 604, a hybrid solution that was offered in 1948 by IBM. In order to distinguish to the established concept of data processing electronic data processing was introduced in the former data centers with the use of computers the term.

The advantage of the tabulating machine, inextricably linked with the hole card, was the sophisticated, inexpensive, proven and existing technology. Your demise marked the advent of inexpensive mass storage on electromagnetic technology, such as magnetic bank card, magnetic drum, magnetic tape, floppy disk and magnetic disk. It was replaced by the increasingly cheap and better programmable computer.

The controversial in the 2000 presidential election in the U.S. in Florida voting machine based on a cardboard perforated ballots and counting machines, which are related to tabulating machines.

• 2.1 counting
• 2.2 Add, Subtract
• 2.3 Multiplication / Division

• 3.1 reading
• 3.3 Punching / Stamping

• 4.1 Soldered
• 4.2 Pegboard
• 4.3 Group Control
• 4.4 break
• 4.5 RPG

Data entry

Manual input

Data entry was done manually at the beginning of each hole card has been inserted by hand into the machine and removed by hand after the evaluation again.

Automatic input

The automatic document feeder, the hole card in the Tabulating Machine Company supplied the Tabulating in 1906. A speed of 150 cards per minute is recorded.

Process

Count

The first tabulating machine was originally designed and used for the 1887 census in the United States. Here punched cards were inserted by hand and counted the data according to the program. The wired program also allowed the counting of combinations of individual data ( for example: number of female color over 50 in NY or LA).

Add, Subtract

From the 1920s, these devices contain adders, the " after Zählradprinzip of Leibniz and make parallel added and subtracted a little later ." Thus the area of ​​application extended, because addition and subtraction are basic skills that are required for account management in accounting or storage position.

Multiplication / Division

1936, the multiplication and division was integrated. The " D11- age" begins. This enabled processes such as invoicing (quantity times price), payroll (hours times money) or interest calculation.

In the cited sources there is evidence that American scientists have " ballistic " calculations performed with this machine end of the 30s, a skill that today would rather trust the computer.

From the fifties was the electromechanically slow Multiplication / Division to attached additional computers, outsourced based on tube technology. " Multiplications and divisions need several times more time than simple direct offsets. To reduce this time dramatically, you could connect the " electronic computer " BULL GAMMA 3. "

Output

Read

The data output took place in the early form of readable counters. The storage bar operators on forms or Spickzetteln among others by ink on paper.

In 1920, a CTR a "printing tabulator ", a printing tabulator. This increased the speed and avoiding sources of error, the operators had previously read the meters and must lead to, among other tallies on the results.

Were first produced by line printers endless tables, so gave in 1936 a further development, "Row Machine (s) " who steered the " form feed " and was able to create, for example, multi-page invoices, with the on the first sheet of letterhead with address and invoice items and to subsequent pages of the claim transfer with another account positions followed.

An example from the 1950s is seen here " pressure mechanism of the tabulating machine " in Heribert Müller ", the printers were often part of the tabulating machine, rarely peripherals.

Punching / stamping

Another way to output the results, was to them to punch with keypunch on punch cards. The monthly billing data were interesting for accounting on punch cards. Thus, the open item accounting and the payment was settled with another punch card stacks.

Programming

Soldered

The programs were inflexible, since they were originally soldered.

Pegboard

• Later, they were mated with cables on a patch panel,
• And in later further development realized through exchangeable plug boards.

Only in the last stage of development of different applications such as payroll, billing, etc. could flexibly "driven" are ..

The pegboard was changed simply.

Control group

By 1914, the group control was introduced which set out the "group moderate treatment of hole cards ". Next " It allows ... play sorted the figures ".

" Around 1930, " the tabulating BK ( the "Bank" ) was presented "They had three so-called intermediate transitions that depend allowed by the control group, among other sum transfers and cross additions ".

"The key was their internal architecture: counting and writing works with eleven points, an advanced three-stage control group ( 20 columns ) and an advanced programming with the now nine instead of three intermediate gears. In addition, the intermediate transitions could ( depending on results ) repeated and multiplied in number, " " high-tech of the 30s "Heading for tabulating D11.

Break

The principle of electro-mechanical pegboard programming was to take specific data fields of the read punched cards in counter or recording mechanism to link from the counters by controllable functions to the rest and to line up the data generated in the counters in order to make the contents of the next output line. Possible functions were in addition to the basic arithmetic operations and branches, especially the so-called " break " by querying a " group field ".

RPG

" RPG: Bridge of the pegboard to the database " describes the transition of programming from the tabulating machine ( Pegboard ) to the Report Generator on the example of the system IBM 1401 in 1959.