Card Sorting Machine
Maker and role
Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Limited, Manufacturer
See full details
Object detail
Accession number
F2379.2004
Description
Powers-Samas 65 column punch card sorting machine, manufactured by Powers Accounting Machines. Has a wood top with glass screen and black metal body/base. Broken hand wheel front right.
Brief History
Herman Hollerith (1860-1929) worked as a statistician on the 1880 United States census and realised that there needed to be a better, quicker way to count results. A colleague suggested using punch cards and Hollerith used the idea to design a machine that tallied numbers and individual characteristics and even performed cross-tabulations. Hollerith won a contract with the United States Census Office to use his machines for the 1890 census. The machines were used successfully for the 1890 census and led to contracts with other governments, such as Canada, Norway and Austria.
Hollerith had numerous patents for his tabulators and had a monopoly over the technology. He would only lease his machines and knew that the Census Office would have to pay whatever he demanded. It did, but when the office became the permanent Census Bureau in 1902, it began to explore other options.
Barely skirting patent restrictions, Census Bureau employees created their own tabulating machine, using mechanical rather than electric sensors on the punch readers, in time for the 1910 census. Census Bureau technician James Powers (1871-1927) was able to secure the patent for this machine and started his own machine tabulation company.
The company was founded in 1911 in Newark, New Jersey and moved to New York in 1914. Originally known as Powers Tabulating Machine Company, the name was later changed to Powers Accounting Machine Company and acquired by Remington Rand in 1928 after Powers’s death.
In 1915 the Accounting and Tabulating Machine Company of Great Britain was incorporated as a private company in England. The company established a relationship with Powers and eventually became Powers Accounting Machine Company (UK).
In 1929 a subsidiary company for sales was incorporated in England as a private company: Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd. It was a merger of Powers Accounting Machines and Société Anonyme des Machines a Statistiques (S.A.M.A.S.) of France which had been established in France in 1922 to handle the distribution of Powers accounting machines in France and France’s overseas territories.
In 1959 Powers-Samas merged with British Tabulating Machine Company to form International Computers and Tabulators (ICT).
This machine is typical of the requirements of the census. It sorts a stack of punch cards into various departments so that they can be counted (although the counting and tabulation of results appears to be manually done). This type of equipment was also used in logistics – railways, the military and manufacturing industries were all extensive users of punch card machinery.
Hollerith had numerous patents for his tabulators and had a monopoly over the technology. He would only lease his machines and knew that the Census Office would have to pay whatever he demanded. It did, but when the office became the permanent Census Bureau in 1902, it began to explore other options.
Barely skirting patent restrictions, Census Bureau employees created their own tabulating machine, using mechanical rather than electric sensors on the punch readers, in time for the 1910 census. Census Bureau technician James Powers (1871-1927) was able to secure the patent for this machine and started his own machine tabulation company.
The company was founded in 1911 in Newark, New Jersey and moved to New York in 1914. Originally known as Powers Tabulating Machine Company, the name was later changed to Powers Accounting Machine Company and acquired by Remington Rand in 1928 after Powers’s death.
In 1915 the Accounting and Tabulating Machine Company of Great Britain was incorporated as a private company in England. The company established a relationship with Powers and eventually became Powers Accounting Machine Company (UK).
In 1929 a subsidiary company for sales was incorporated in England as a private company: Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd. It was a merger of Powers Accounting Machines and Société Anonyme des Machines a Statistiques (S.A.M.A.S.) of France which had been established in France in 1922 to handle the distribution of Powers accounting machines in France and France’s overseas territories.
In 1959 Powers-Samas merged with British Tabulating Machine Company to form International Computers and Tabulators (ICT).
This machine is typical of the requirements of the census. It sorts a stack of punch cards into various departments so that they can be counted (although the counting and tabulation of results appears to be manually done). This type of equipment was also used in logistics – railways, the military and manufacturing industries were all extensive users of punch card machinery.
Marks
'TRADEMARK COPYRIGHT // ACCOUNTING // POWERS // SAMAS // MACHINES // MANUFACTURED BY // POWERS ACCOUNTING MACHINES LIMITED // CROYDON, ENGLAND.' Sticker
'POWERS (Reg'd) // ACCOUNTING MACHINES // ACTAB // REGISTERED TRADEMARK // SORTER No 6/6223 // MANUFACTURED IN ENGLAND BY // POWERS ACCOUNTING MACHINES Ltd' Maker's Plate
'POWERS (Reg'd) // ACCOVNTING MACHINES // SUPPLIED BY // POWERS-SAMAS // ACCOVNTING MACHINES Ltd // POWERS-SAMAS HOUSE // HOLBORN BARS, LONDON, E.C.I' Maker's Plate
'BRITISH PATENT Nos // 373676 475901 // 328293 331847' Serial Number
'POWERS (Reg'd) // ACCOUNTING MACHINES // ACTAB // REGISTERED TRADEMARK // SORTER No 6/6223 // MANUFACTURED IN ENGLAND BY // POWERS ACCOUNTING MACHINES Ltd' Maker's Plate
'POWERS (Reg'd) // ACCOVNTING MACHINES // SUPPLIED BY // POWERS-SAMAS // ACCOVNTING MACHINES Ltd // POWERS-SAMAS HOUSE // HOLBORN BARS, LONDON, E.C.I' Maker's Plate
'BRITISH PATENT Nos // 373676 475901 // 328293 331847' Serial Number
Media/Materials
Credit Line
Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Limited. Card Sorting Machine, F2379.2004. The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).
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