Talk:Tabulating machine

message: The use of tabulators in a census which the Zazis used to then identify people to exterminate seems just a bit distant from the topic and is unsourced. I'm trying to figure out what should be done with it but I'm coming to the conclusion it just should not be in this article. Dmcq (talk) 19:40, 22 June 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh I see its been removed. Good for them. Dmcq (talk) 19:43, 22 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nazi use in census 

message: This article reads like it was written by IBM, no mention of Powers, Rand and other early devices, many of which were superior.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.206.73.37 (talk) 03:50, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  IBM Propaganda 

message: In episodes of the original 1950s Dragnet TV show, when Joe Friday etc. are sometimes trying to track down suspects based on a few characteristics, there's a stock shot of thousands of cards shown going through a card-collator (not even a computer), obviously presented as the latest up-to-date gee-whiz technology (a little amusing from a 2010s perspective). AnonMoos (talk) 09:30, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Dragnet

message: [I removed the text below that was recently added. It is not intelligible, apparently written by a non-native English speaker. It seems to describe a specific innovation using tabulating machines, but notability isn't clear. At the least, it needs to be translated and provided with reliable sources to be included in this article.--agr (talk) 21:05, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  First computer bookkeepint by IBM Tabulator. 

message: The article claims that the first use was in 1931. A search on books.google.com finds at least two older references: a 1930 book by Silas Bent and a 1926 book by non-profit organization promoting national defense.
Google gives a snippet from "Machine Made Man", by Silas Bent, 1930 (Farrar and Rinehart) concerning a ballistic calculation:
"... may influence the flight of the projectile, such as wind, muzzle velocity (in the case of these guns, half a mile a second), atmospheric density, and drift. A part of this super-computing machine is an electrical transmission system, which sends the data automatically to the guns. Then there is a height finder, an optical instrument which determines the altitude of the target. There is a listening ..."
Google doesn't give me more than that quote, and I cannot find more text than that. Google did find a review of "Machine Made Man" in an undated issue of "The Reading Lamp" column in "The Chemical Bulletin", vol. 17, p264. The scan is available from a northwestern.edu machine. The review starts:
"Machine Made Man, by Silas Bent (Farrar and Rinehart-1930), is a non-technical survey of the effects of the Industrial Age upon man. It includes all the necessities, the luxuries, and institutions of our present complex life, together with their historical developments. Like the other summarized knowledge books which have been in vogue the last few years, this will appeal to the layman who is too busy to seek knowledge at its original sources."
Going back to the book search, Google also found "National Defense, Volume 7" from the American Defense Preparedness Association, 1926, again talking about ordnance. It's much harder to read that excerpt, but I can make out:
"Fire Control for 3-Inch Antiaircraft Battery / A large number of fire control instruments for 3-inch guns was provided at Aber... This central station instrument is provided with two telescopic sights by means of which the target is followed accurately (?) in azimuth and angular height. The central station instrument, which is a super-computing machine,"
I have not been able to verify that the 1926 date is correct. I don't have access to either sources.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.252.39.192 (talk) 17:49, 28 August 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the research. I took out the word "first."--agr (talk) 18:20, 28 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  First use of the term "Super Computing" 

message: Do we have any sources for this? Why was it done? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 10:47, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Conductors recording details 

message: Please add that IBM leased the tabulation machine to the Nazis, per their request. To identify people by race, lineage, occupation. 47.147.223.153 (talk) 11:25, 3 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tabulation machine was leased to the Nazis by IBM. To identify, race, lineage, occupation.