James L. Powers
James Legrand Powers (1871, Odessa - November, 8, 1927, New York) - American inventor and entrepreneur, the founder of Powers Accounting Machine Company.
Biography
James Legrand Powers was born in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) in 1871, nothing else is known about his early life. He graduated from the Technical School of Odessa and worked in Odessa University mechanical shop. In 1889 he emigrated to the United States and was employed by various engineering concerns including Western Electric.
In 1907 Powers was hired by US Census Bureau as a mechanical expert to modify punched card processing equipment invented two decades earlier by Herman Hollerith, so that improved machines will not infringe Hollerith's patents. Powers had already done some experimental work on office machines and received several patents. Powers managed to circumvent Hollerith's patents and introduced new punched card equipment which was used in 1909 Cuban Census and 1910 US Census.
Inventions
Mechanical hole-sensing unit
Printing tabulator
Electric card punch Power introduced the first electric card punch (e.g. using electric motor to punch the holes) in 1910 and 300 of these machines were used during 1910 US Census but proved to be error-prone and were dismissed later. Several years after Powers Accounting Machine Company advertised several types of electric card punches.
Card verifier
Powers Accounting Machine Company
Powers founded his company in 1911 as Powers Tabulating Machine Company but later changed its name for Powers Accounting Machine Company. Founded in Newark, New Jersey, the company was moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1914.
Patents
Sources
• Stan Augarten. Bit by Bit. An Illustrated History of Computers. (Ticknor & Fields, 1984).
• Martin Campbell-Kelly. Powers, James in Encyclopedia of Computer Science (4th edition) edited by Edwin D. Reilly, Anthony Ralston, David Hemmendinger. (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2003)
• Martin Campbell-Kelly. Chapter Four: Punched-Card Machinery in Computing Before Computers edited by William Aspray. (Iowa State University Press, 1990)
