Hollerith's tabulating machine patent, 1894. Printed patent drawing of a design by US inventor Herman Hollerith (1860-1929). From 1882, Hollerith worked on developing machine-readable punched cards, and patented the method in 1889. His census machine was employed with great success to process the 1890 census data. In 1896, Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company which produced further innovations, including a machine that could be rewired to do different jobs, the forerunner of modern computer programming. The Tabulating Machine Company was one of the precursors of the International Business Machine Corporation (IBM). This is patent number 526,130 from the US Patent Office, dated 18 September 1894.