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 (then Russian Empire) 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 the improved machines won't infringe Hollerith's patents. Powers managed to avoid infringement, by using mechanical sensors on the punch readers, instead of electrical sensors.
Sources
• Martin Campbell-Kelly. Chapter Four: Punched-Card Machinery in Computing Before Computers edited by William Aspray. (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1990)
