From Lowly engineer to globe-trotting agent for Hollerith computers

My grandfather, Dave Ritchie, was recruited as a service engineer by the British Tabulating Machine Company sometime around 1927. I don't know on what basis they hired him because I don't think he went to university. Perhaps it was a combination of a good school-leaving certificate, a good track record in his previous job and a recommendation by someone connected to BTM management.

The British Tabulating Machine Company was the firm that imported Hollerith punch-card machines from America. Herman Hollerith had invented the tabulating machine for the purpose of processing information for the 1890 American census. Success in that area led to its adaptation for accounting purposes, and this caught the attention of visionary businessmen. In the early 1900's, BTM secured contracts with the Lancashire and North Yorkshire Railway, the Great Western Railway, theCalico Printers Association, the British Western Electrical Company and the English Census of 1911, to name just a few.

By the late 1920's, the field of early computing was offering good job opportunities. Boys who left school at fourteen were hired as

punch-card operators to enter data on the punch-card machines. Those with higher qualifications were trained in accounting, as much of the processing was for billing and payroll. For example, a company would use the tabulator to record the number of hours worked, the hourly wage of each employee, and the deductions made by the employer for various staff benefits.

A new recruit to BTM in the 1950’s described how he was interviewed and trained: A graduate from Cambridge, e applied to work for BTM as a consultant. He was sent first to Moor Hall in Cookham for a 13-week training programme. There was a week of induction followed by 2 weeks’ of lectures in cost accounting and business paperwork. The rest of the course comprised classes on all of the machines available to customers. After this 13-week course, the trainee spent 3 months at a district service office. Typically, a group of four service technicians would drive to the customer where they would meet up with the Hollerith supervisor, the person who oversaw the machine on site. Occasionally, there were sales demonstrations at a prospective customer’s office, which involved going in a van loaded with various types of punch-card machines and working alongside a female demonstrator chosen for her moderate machine skills and attractive appearance. Once the trainee had gained this initial exposure in the field, he returned to Moor Hall for a final 3-month batch of classes.

This, then, was probably how my grandfather started off his career. But he went much further. Some of the other roles he fulfilled as an agent for Hollerith were Railway Liaison Officer, Manager Surveys and Plans, Public Relations Officer, Manager Head Office Controlled Territories, and Director of the subsidiary company Allied Steel Equipment Company Limited.

As a child, I was frankly ignorant of my grandfather's involvement in the marketing of computer technology to businesses. Today, however, I stand in awe of his pioneering spirit.

Photo by: Dave Ross