Punched-Card Systems and the Early Information Explosion, 1880–1945
eBook - ePub

Punched-Card Systems and the Early Information Explosion, 1880–1945

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Punched-Card Systems and the Early Information Explosion, 1880–1945

About this book

At a time when Internet use is closely tracked and social networking sites supply data for targeted advertising, Lars Heide presents the first academic study of the invention that fueled today's information revolution: the punched card.

Early punched cards helped to process the United States census in 1890. They soon proved useful in calculating invoices and issuing pay slips. As demand for more sophisticated systems and reading machines increased in both the United States and Europe, punched cards served ever-larger data-processing purposes. Insurance companies, public utilities, businesses, and governments all used them to keep detailed records of their customers, competitors, employees, citizens, and enemies.

The United States used punched-card registers in the late 1930s to pay roughly 21 million Americans their Social Security pensions, Vichy France used similar technologies in an attempt to mobilize an army against the occupying German forces, and the Germans in 1941 developed several punched-card registers to make the war effort—and surveillance of minorities—more effective. Heide's analysis of these three major punched-card systems, as well as the impact of the invention on Great Britain, illustrates how different cultures collected personal and financial data and how they adapted to new technologies.

This comparative study will interest students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including the history of technology, computer science, business history, and management and organizational studies.

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Yes, you can access Punched-Card Systems and the Early Information Explosion, 1880–1945 by Lars Heide in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Technology & Engineering & Business History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Introduction
  6. 1 Punched Cards and the 1890 United States Census
  7. 2 New Users, New Machines
  8. 3 U.S. Challengers to Hollerith
  9. 4 The Rise of International Business Machines
  10. 5 Decline of Punched Cards for European Census Processing
  11. 6 Punched Cards for General Statistics in Europe
  12. 7 Different Roads to European Punched-Card Bookkeeping
  13. 8 Keeping Tabs on Society with Punched Cards
  14. Conclusion
  15. Acknowledgments
  16. Appendix Financial Information: Tables and Figures
  17. Notes
  18. Essay on Sources
  19. Index