Editing Tabulating machine (section)

{{short description|Late 19th-century machine for summarizing information stored on punch cards}}
[[File:HollerithMachine.CHM.jpg|thumb|Hollerith 1890 tabulating machine with sorting box.{{efn|The "sorting box" was controlled by the tabulator.  The "sorter", an independent machine, was a later development. See: {{cite book |last=Austrian |first= Geoffrey D. |title= Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Giant of Information Processing |publisher= Columbia University Press |year= 1982 |isbn= 0-231-05146-8 |pages = 41, 178–179}}}}]]
[[File:Hollerith Punched Card.jpg|right|thumb|Hollerith punched card]]

The '''tabulating machine''' was an [[electromechanical]] machine designed to assist in summarizing information stored on [[punched card]]s. Invented by [[Herman Hollerith]], the machine was developed to help process data for the [[U.S. Census, 1890|1890 U.S. Census]]. Later models were widely used for business applications such as [[accounting]] and [[inventory control]]. It spawned a class of machines, known as [[unit record equipment]], and the data processing industry. 

The term "[[supercomputer|Super Computing]]" was used by the ''[[New York World]]'' newspaper in 1931 to refer to a large custom-built tabulator that [[IBM]] made for [[Columbia University]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Eames |first=Charles |author2=Eames, Ray  |title=A Computer Perspective |year=1973 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location= Cambridge, Mass |page = 95 }}  The 1920 date on page 95 is incorrect, see [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/packard.html The Columbia Difference Tabulator - 1931]</ref> <!--- from [[Supercomputing]] --->