This paper discusses the history of International Business Machines (IBM). International Business Machines (IBM) began long before computers were introduced. It was established in 1890 during the Industrial Revolution as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, which produced punched card data processing equipment (Scripophily.net 1999; The IBM Songbook 2003). There were huge waves of immigration at the time and the US Census Bureau found its traditional methods of population count inadequate, so it conducted a contest for the solution of the problem. A German immigrant and census statistician, Herman Hollerith, won. Hollerith developed a punch card tabulating machine, which used electric current to sense holes on punch cards and to keep a running total of data. Motivated by his success, Hollerith established the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896 (Scripophily).
