343:, causing the information to be recorded by electrical contact. He obtained the ideas for this machine by stealing the notes of Henrik Hartzner, his Danish partner. One of the main problems of this method was the low durability of the material of the cards, which meant that the method did not always function correctly. Another problem was the dust that entered the holes of the contacts. One major problem Bull and Knutsen had was that because of the nature of the contacts, sparks were created causing the machine to crash frequently. All these details were being constantly improved.
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387:, aware of the improvements Knutsen was bringing in Scandinavia also tried to improve on his patents, the technology of the vertical sorting machine and printing. He finally hired Knutsen who was given the place of chief engineer of HW Egli. This was accepted by Knutsen with the condition of the company to moving to France where there was more to reach the market. So, in 1931
136:'s device, the precursor to the IBM punched card machine, in use at that time. Bull continued to develop his ideas and improve the machine, which became a success throughout Europe. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1924 and died in 1925 at the age of 42. His patents were later sold in 1931 and constituted the basis for the founding of the French company
283:. The new machine itself was not completed until 1923 and was referred to as a 'ordering, recording and adding machine'. After its initial success Bull undertook the production of new copies of his T-30 machine, adding improvements as he went. Several insurance companies in Denmark showed interest in the technology.
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Production of Bull machines was rather slow. Two machines were produced in 1921, another two in each of the subsequent years (1922 and 1923), ramping up to four in 1924, and to six in 1925. These machines were sold to companies in Norway, Denmark, Finland and
Switzerland. There were constant problems
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Fredrik Bull was sent abroad to study
Hollerith's systems, returning with the conviction that Hollerith's systems were expensive and unstable. He was convinced that he could develop a device that was cheaper and more efficient than Hollerith's. As a result, Bull convinced his employer, Storebrand, to
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Despite the diagnosis in the summer of 1924, Bull continued to work until his condition worsened in the fall of that year. In the last few days he shared his latest ideas with
Knutsen. Bull's patent rights were acquired by Oka, where Knutsen, loyal to the ideas of Bull, continued the improvement of
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enabled the machine to read the information while making contact through the holes. This method allowed faster processing of information. The machines in use at that time required significant manual intervention to operate. Bull made several improvements to automate processing, such as
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technology and began developing one of his own. In 1919, he obtained a patent for his machine, and in 1921 he prepared a team that took over the implementation of the machine at
Storebrand. This team provided several new ideas for improving the Bull machine, rendering it superior to
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directors at his workshop on 12 January 1921 and subsequently purchased for the sum of 20,000 pounds on 21 January 1921. The machine was not successful because it was not as efficient, stable and reliable as expected. It was operational until 1926.
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The machine proved a success and received very good reviews and publicity The key factors for success were the technical quality of the machine, the ease of use, the new pre-selection technology, the cost savings and the opportunity for users to avoid
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The years following Bull's death, 1926, 1927 and 1928 were years of difficulty but also of joys and surprises. The machines installed and leased to Swiss companies had attracted great interest in
Switzerland. In 1927, the Belgian
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the machine and the expansion of the company. Knutsen focused on new designs to record tabulation results on paper forms, sorted numerically and alphabetically. He was the first to use printing wheel methods.
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Fredrik was raised in a large family. He was the eighth of fifteen children. The Bull family had a passion for technology and science: all of
Fredrik's older brothers were engineers. His brother
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pay him an advance of $ 10,000 to develop a new machine. The terms of the deal required the advance to be repaid in full if the machine was not successful.
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The reading device was the most critical part of the machine. Built with electrical conducting springs, these passed through the holes of the
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bought the patents to operate in the
European continent (excluding Scandinavia). In 1928 he got in agreement with the Swiss company
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with the machines. Knut
Andreas Knutsen was constantly traveling to these countries for repair and modifications at client sites.
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Bull continued working on improvements for the machine and also in developing new machines such as a sorting machine and a new
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based in Paris was founded. Two years later, in 1933, the company underwent a reorganization and suffered a name change,
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Bull's plan was to use electromagnetic technology like
Hollerith, but with many improvements. The use of 45 column
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of 45 columns, with round holes and a rotating adder. His machine was substantially better than its competition,
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On 31 July 1919 Bull obtained a patent for his design. The patent describes in detail his idea of a programmable
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119:(Oslo, Norway). In 1907, he finished his studies in civil engineering at the Technical School of Kristiania (
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Bull needed nearly two years to produce a finished product. The machine was presented to the
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Some of the notable improvements were: the change of switches that controlled the entry of
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Fredrik Rosing Bull began his studies in civil engineering at the reputable
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in 1904 and graduated in 1907. He scored some of the best marks of class.
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160:(1843–1884). Dr. Ole Bull was a renowned eye doctor. He collaborated with
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476:(in Norwegian). Vol. 2 (1 ed.). Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 374.
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In 1916 he was hired as a technical inspector at the insurance company
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Pierre
Mounier-Kuhn, “Bull - A Worldwide Company Born in Europe”,
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in order to produce Bull machines. Production began in 1929.
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Around that time Bull contacted a friend from high school in
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Fredrik then signed a contract the Oka company led by
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standardization of punched-cards and pre-selection.
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433:(in Norwegian). Høgskolen i Oslo. Archived from
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228:and were used for first time in Norway by
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224:were initially developed by US engineer
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305:and Powers, through the mechanism of
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504:Technikum29: BULL Tabulating machine
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209:where he came into contact with the
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488:Annals of the History of Computing
458:(1925). "Bull, Anders Henrik". In
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156:(1842–1916) and his first wife
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195:Technical School of Kristiania
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393:Compagnie des Machines Bull
115:machines. Bull was born in
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152:(the present-day Oslo) to
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121:Kristiania Tekniske Skole
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297:The Bull machine used
162:Gerhard Armauer Hansen
154:Dr. Ole Bornemann Bull
109:information technology
554:Unit record equipment
431:"Fredrik Rosing Bull"
269:Knut Andreas Knutsen
248:Bull's first machine
167:Mycobacterium leprae
222:tabulating machines
211:tabulating machines
158:Marie Cathrine Lund
105:Fredrik Rosing Bull
23:Fredrik Rosing Bull
526:F.R.Bull Institute
509:2009-07-03 at the
490:, 1989, vol. 11/4.
327:tabulating machine
281:tabulating machine
179:Anders Henrik Bull
351:Illness and death
230:Statistics Norway
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534:Group Bull today
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456:Brochmann, Georg
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429:Uttersrud, Ulf.
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275:The Bull machine
226:Herman Hollerith
134:Herman Hollerith
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83:The Bull machine
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48:25 December 1882
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520:Wayback Machine
516:History of Bull
511:Wayback Machine
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73:Oslo, Norway
68:(1925-06-07)
564:1882 births
559:1925 deaths
529:(in French)
397:Groupe Bull
374:Emile Genon
367:Groupe Bull
138:Groupe Bull
66:7 June 1925
543:Categories
441:2009-05-10
403:References
292:Kristiania
262:Nordstrand
254:Storebrand
207:Storebrand
201:Storebrand
150:Kristiania
125:Storebrand
117:Kristiania
52:Kristiania
44:1882-12-25
303:Hollerith
232:in 1894.
189:Education
89:Signature
507:Archived
470:(eds.).
220:and the
518:at the
378:HW Egli
172:leprosy
383:Later
357:cancer
144:Family
385:Genon
216:The
63:Died
38:Born
315:IBM
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