Editing Powers Accounting Machine

{{Short description|Early 20th-century tabulating machine}}
[[File:Powers-Samas accounting machine.jpg|thumb|A Powers-Samas accounting machine]]
The '''Powers Accounting Machine''' was an information processing device developed in the early 20th century for the [[U.S. Census Bureau]]. It was then produced and marketed by the '''Powers Accounting Machine Company''', an information technology company founded by the machine's developer. The company thrived in the early 20th century as a producer of [[tabulating machine]]s. It was a predecessor to the [[Unisys]] corporation.

==Development==
===Census Bureau {{anchor|History}}===
In 1890, the government began leasing tabulating machines from [[Herman Hollerith]]'s [[Tabulating Machine Company]], to more efficiently, expansively, and accurately produce the national census. In 1900, Hollerith raised the lease pricing. This led the newly formed U.S. Census Bureau to seek other suppliers under its new director, Simon North, in 1903. North returned most of Hollerith's machines, and the Census Bureau began using [[Charles Felton Pidgin|Charles F. Pidgin]]'s tabulators. These machines proved too slow, so the Bureau undertook to develop its own machine for the 1910 census.<ref name="early-machines" /> North secured a $40,000 appropriation for the project.<ref name="Georgia" />

===James Powers{{anchor|JamesPowers}}===
{{Main|James Legrand Powers}}
James Legrand Powers<ref name=census-history/> was a mechanical engineer. He was born in Odessa, Russia, in 1871, and graduated from the Technical School of Odessa. He emigrated to the United States in 1889.<ref name=Georgia />

The Census Bureau hired him as a technician in 1907 to help develop the competing tabulating machine. He had already done early experimental work in office machines, and had several patents to his name.<ref name=Encyclopedia />

Although Hollerith had numerous patents for his tabulators, Powers managed to avoid infringement, by using mechanical sensors on the punch readers, instead of electrical sensors. The new machine was faster, cheaper, more accurate, less error-prone, and less wasteful than Hollerith's or Pidgin's, while maintaining compatibility with Hollerith's [[punched card]] format.<ref name=Georgia /><ref name=census-history/>
<ref name=gap/><ref name=SciAm /> The key advantages of the new machine were feeder mechanisms, and the "whole card punch," an improvement over the character-by-character punch of earlier designs. A second machine was also developed by W. W. Lasker, to automate printing results.<ref name=Georgia />

Powers secured a patent for his version of the tabulating machine, which allowed him to later create a business around the technology he had invented.<ref name=census-history/>

A prolific inventor, he did not restrict himself to office machinery. See, for example, the ''Germproof Drinking Cup''.<ref>The American Stationer and Office Outfitter (April 13, 1918) ''Unique machine for Making Paper Cups'' p.32</ref> The inventor was a member of the Machinery Club and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering through the time of his death on Tuesday, November 8, 1927, at age 57. The New York Times ran a brief paid obituary two days later.<ref name="NYT" />

===First usage===
The United States Census Bureau tested the machine in the real world by allowing the Cuban government to conduct its census in 1908-1909 using prototypes of the new tabulating machine.<ref name=SciAm />

==Corporate==
After successful use in the 1910 census, Mr. Powers formed a corporation to manufacture his machines and sell them commercially. The company was founded in 1911 in [[Newark, New Jersey]]. In 1914, he moved to [[Brooklyn]], [[New York (state)|New York]].
<!-- The following text is the Census Department claim to have done the right thing. Maybe true, maybe not - in any case the Census Dept is NOT an independent 3rd party in this case and cannot be a reference.  Text is incorrect as is, deleted until a trusted source is found .

Because of its better price and capability, it almost put the Tabulating Machine Company out of business, and led to its merger into [[IBM]] and Hollerith's retirement.<ref name=census-Hollerith/>   ----------------------->
Originally known as Powers Tabulating Machine Company, the name was changed to Powers Accounting Machine Company to better target a broad scope of market.

In 1927 the [[E. Remington and Sons|Remington Typewriter Company]] and the [[Kardex Group|Rand Kardex]] Corporation merged, forming [[Remington Rand]] Inc.  Within a year Remington Rand acquired the Powers Accounting Machine Company.<ref>{{cite book |title= A History of Sperry Rand Corporation |publisher= Sperry Rand |year= 1967|pages= 32}}</ref>

In Europe, Powers established European operations in 1915 through the Accounting and Tabulating Machine Company of Great Britain Limited, and in 1929 renamed to [[Powers-Samas]] Accounting Machine Limited (Samas, full name Societe Anonyme des Machines a Statistiques, had been the Power's sales agency in France).<ref>[http://www.computerhistory.org/VirtualVisibleStorage/artifact_frame.php?tax_id=01.02.03.00 Powers-Samas Card Punch], ComputerHistory.org, accessed September 2011</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Cortada |first=James W. |title=Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, & Remington Rand & The Industry they Created 1865—1956 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |date=February 8, 1993 |page=57 |isbn=978-0691048079}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Pugh|first=Emerson W. |title=Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology|page= 259|publisher = [[MIT Press]] |date=March 16, 1995|isbn=978-0262161473}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Van Ness |first= Robert G. |title= Principles of Punched Card Data Processing |publisher= The Business Press |year= 1962 |page=15}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Punched card]]
* [[Unit record equipment]]

==References==
{{Reflist |refs=
<ref name=early-machines>{{cite web|title=Punched Card Tabulating Machines|url=https://www.officemuseum.com/data_processing_machines.htm|website=Early Office Machines|accessdate=19 August 2019}}</ref>

<ref name=census-history>{{cite web|title=History: Tabulation and Processing|url=https://www.census.gov/history/www/innovations/technology/tabulation_and_processing.html|publisher=Census Bureau, United States Federal Government|accessdate=22 February 2012}}</ref>

<!------------
<ref name=census-Hollerith>{{cite web|title=History: Herman Hollerith|url=https://www.census.gov/history/www/census_then_now/notable_alumni/herman_hollerith.html|work=Census Bureau website|publisher=Census Bureau, United States Federal Givernment|accessdate=22 February 2012}}</ref>
---------------->

<ref name=gap>{{cite web|title=Hollerith Biography|url=http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Hollerith.html|publisher=School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland|accessdate=22 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201224926/http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Hollerith.html|archive-date=1 December 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=SciAm>{{cite journal|last=Schlenoff|first=Daniel C.|title=100 Years Ago: Punch Cards and the Census|journal=Scientific American|date=Sep 2009|url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=50-100-150-sept-09|accessdate=22 February 2012}}</ref>

<ref name=Georgia>{{cite web|last=Gray|first=George|title=Remington Rand Tabulating Machines|url=https://wiki.cc.gatech.edu/folklore/index.php/Remington_Rand_Tabulating_Machines|work=Research Community Wiki|publisher=Georgia Tech College of Computing|accessdate=22 February 2012|date=May 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826161017/https://wiki.cc.gatech.edu/folklore/index.php/Remington_Rand_Tabulating_Machines#|archive-date=2012-08-26|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name=Encyclopedia>{{cite book|last=Campbell-Kelly|first=Martin|title=Encyclopedia of Computer Science|year=2003|publisher=John Wiley and Sons Ltd.|location=Chichester, UK|isbn=978-0-470-86412-8|url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1074706&CFID=86278866&CFTOKEN=38677847|edition=4th|<!-- authorlink=Powers, James|--> accessdate=22 February 2012}}</ref>

<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|title=James Powers|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/11/10/118002306.pdf|accessdate=23 February 2012|newspaper=New York Times|date=10 Nov 1927}}</ref> 
}}

[[Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1911]]
[[Category:Companies based in Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Companies based in Newark, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York City]]
[[Category:UNIVAC unit record equipment]]
[[Category:1911 establishments in New Jersey]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1928]]
[[Category:1928 disestablishments in New York (state)]]
[[Category:American companies established in 1911]]
[[Category:American companies disestablished in 1928]]

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