In the last 100 years, countless IBMers have contributed to the innovations and milestones that comprise our century of progress. Below are some reflections from the great minds involved in this Icon of Progress.
“The records must be put in such shape that a machine could read them. This is most readily done by punching holes in cards.”
Herman Hollerith
Inventor of the Hollerith Machine
The Quarterly, Columbia University School of Mines, April 1889
“There isn’t any limit for the tabulating business for many years to come. We have just scratched the surface. … I expect the bulk of [increased business] to come from the tabulating end, because the potentialities are greater, and we have done so little in the way of developing our machines in this field.”
Thomas Watson Sr.
CEO of IBM
The Maverick and His Machine by Kevin Maney, 2003, p. 99
“Punch card systems are a proved means of economically producing facts and figures vital to operating a railroad intelligently, from which business records can be quickly and accurately classified and presented to the executives at the time they are needed in the form best suited to enable action.”
Steven Lubar, Ph.D
Professor of history, Brown University
“‘Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate’: A Cultural History of the Punch Card,” Journal of American Culture, May 1991
“There is no aspect of life to which [the punched card system] cannot make a basic and absolutely essential contribution.”
Ben Wood
Professor, Columbia University
Statement to Thomas Watson Sr., quoted in The Maverick and His Machine by Kevin Maney, 2003, pp. 153
“Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.”
Phrase that is emblematic of the warnings commonly found on IBM punched cards