> If we are going to get picky about a computer actually having to "compute",
> how about 1890 when U.S. engineer Herman Hollerith, 30, pioneers punch-card
> processing by adapting techniques employed in the Jacquard loom of 1801 and
> the player piano of 1876 to devise a system for punching holes in sheets of
> paper to record U.S. census statistics.

Herman did much more than "punching holes in sheets of paper".  He devised
a machine that could take those holes and count them ("tabulate" was the term
used, and the "tabulating machine" came from that).  He also *standardized*
on a size for these sheets of paper, making them the same size as the dollar
bills of that time.  Why?  Because he knew he could easily get lots of storage
racks for dollar bill sized cards from the suppliers of banks, who used them
to store money.  Later (of course) the government changed the size of the
dollar bill, making it smaller.

He also identified ways of coding the complex information onto the cards.

And while the holes punched into the player piano rolls and Jacquard loom
were actually "control signals", the Hollerith card information was actually
"data", which were accumulated and controlled by the way the tabulating
machines were set up.  This distinction is subtle, but important, and
was the real breakthrough for Hollerith.

> [ I don't supposed there's any relationship between IBM's Thomas J. Watson
> [ research center and the Thomas J. Watson referenced above, is there ?
> [ Jody

One and the same, Jody, one and the same.

•--
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Jon "maddog" Hall
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