ABSTRACT
To understand the development of the computer industry, and how this apparently new industry was shaped by the past, one must understand the rise of the office-machine giants in the years around the turn of the twentieth century. Prior to the development of the inexpensive, reliable typewriter, one of the most common office occupations was that of a "writer" or "copyist". Typewriters aided the documentation of information, while filing systems facilitated its storage. Adding machines were concerned with processing information. As with the typewriter and the adding machine, there were a number of attempts to develop a cash register during the nineteenth century. When Herman Hollerith first went into business with his electric tabulating system in 1886, it was not really a part of the office-machine industry in the same sense as Remington Typewriter, Burroughs Adding Machine, or National Cash Register Company (NCR).
