TODAY’S PATENT – ART OF COMPILING STATISTICS

Today’s patent was invented by Herman Hollerith Larochelle on January 8, 1889, bearing patent no. US395782A.

This invention has for its object to simplify and thereby facilitate the compilation of statistics wherein each of the statistical items to be recorded represent-s or is the product of one or more of the separate items or characteristics appertaining to each of the individuals or things respecting which the compilation is to be made; and it relates to a new and improved mode or system of effecting such a compilation and comprising the following steps or operations, viz: first, preparing a standard or templet indicating the relative position or order in which each item or characteristic of the individual or thing is to be recorded; second, forming according to such a standard or templet a separate record for each individual, wherein the separate items characteristic of or appertaining to that individual or thing, and which enter into the compilation to be made, are recorded upon a strip or tablet by means of circuit-controlling index-points.