Editing Herman Hollerith (section)

==Electromechanical tabulation of data==
{{Main|Unit record equipment}}
At the suggestion of [[John Shaw Billings]], Hollerith developed a mechanism using electrical connections to increment a counter, recording information.<ref>{{cite book | last = Lydenberg | first = Harry Miller | author-link = Harry M. Lydenberg | title = John Shaw Billings: Creator of the National Medical Library and its Catalogue, First Director of the New York Public Library | publisher = American Library Association | year = 1924 | pages = 32 }}</ref> A key idea was that a datum could be recorded by the presence or absence of a hole at a specific location on a card. For example, if a specific hole location indicates ''marital status'', then a hole there can indicate ''married'' while not having a hole indicates ''single''. Hollerith determined that data in specified locations on a card, arranged in rows and columns, could be counted or sorted electromechanically. A description of this system, ''An Electric Tabulating System (1889)'', was submitted by Hollerith to [[Columbia University]] as his doctoral thesis,<ref>{{cite web |title=An Electric Tabulating System |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/hh/}}</ref> and is reprinted in [[Brian Randell]]'s 1982 ''The Origins of Digital Computers, Selected Papers''.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last = Randell | editor-first = Brian | title = The Origins of Digital Computers, Selected Papers |edition=3rd | publisher = Springer-Verlag | year = 1982 | isbn = 0-387-11319-3}}</ref> On January 8, 1889, Hollerith was issued U.S. Patent 395,782,<ref name=HPatent>{{Cite patent|country=US|number=395782|status=patent|title=Art of compiling statistics|inventor=Herman Hollerith|pridate=1884-09-23|gdate=1889-01-08}}</ref> claim 2 of which reads:

[[File:HollerithMachine.CHM.jpg|thumb|Replica of Hollerith tabulating machine with sorting box, circa 1890. The "sorting box" was an adjunct to, and controlled by, the tabulator. The "sorter", an independent machine, was a later development.{{sfn|Austrian|1982|pp=178–179}}]]
<blockquote>The herein-described method of compiling statistics, which consists in recording separate statistical items pertaining to the individual by holes or combinations of holes punched in sheets of electrically non-conducting material, and bearing a specific relation to each other and to a standard, and then counting or tallying such statistical items separately or in combination by means of mechanical counters operated by electro-magnets the circuits through which are controlled by the perforated sheets, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.</blockquote>