Punched Card Computing Systems
1920-1960

• The electro-mechanical Hollerith machine, inspired by the Babbage machine, which was developed in the 1890s for rapid handling of census results.

• During the 1920's and 1930's punched card systems developed steadily and were used widely in the USA and Europe for large administrative applications.

• The first Hollerith machine in Finland was installed in 1923 at the Tilastollinen Päätoimisto. In 1955 there were about 80 punched card computing systems in use in Finland.

• This paved the way for computers.