THE NUMBER FACTORY - PUNCHED-CARD MACHINES AT THE DUTCH-CENTRAL-BUREAU-OF-STATISTICS

This article describes the application of punched-card machinery for d ata processing at the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (DCBS) betwee n 1899 and the mid-1960s. ft demonstrates that the increasing replacem ent of manual data processing by these machines was not stimulated pri marily by their technical improvement, but by specific changes in the bureau's statistical program. Attention is paid to the influence of th e labor market, organization of labor in data processing, and the esta blishment of a special data processing department, paving the way for the introduction of the digital computer. The development of the stati stical program of the DCBS is related to its wider social context.