The 1890 census marked a significant advancement in technology, as it utilized Hollerith's tabulators to complete the process in just one year, a remarkable reduction from the previous eight years. This was the first extensive application of electrical circuits for information processing, demonstrating the efficiency that technology could bring to data management.
The success of the tabulators led to the establishment of a company by Hollerith, which, after several mergers, evolved into what is now known as the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924. This transformation highlights the pivotal role that innovations in data processing played in shaping modern computing.