A resolution to this problem was presented by Herman Hollerith. He developed a machine that could read data from paper cards. Census personnel entered the data by punching out the holes on the cards.

The first automatic data processing system. Developed by Herman Hollerith, a Census Bureau statistician, the machine was first used to count the U.S. census of 1890. It was so successful that ...

Particularly in the United States, where skilled clerks were in short supply, executives encouraged the development and use of office equipment such as typewriters, adding machines, and tabulating ...