Hollerith finds employment with the Census Bureau

At the age of nineteen, Hollerith, a native Upstate New Yorker and recent graduate of the Columbia School of Mines, worked as a special agent at the Census Bureau. The position, which Hollerith filled, required "not only technical knowledge, but high scientific training and wide observation.²" Hollerith pursued a course of study that was consistent with this description. At the time Hollerith attended college equal emphasis was placed on practical work and course work. He took general courses in physics and chemistry and enrolled in specialized courses in geometry, graphics, surveying, drawing, and assaying. In addition, Columbia required that engineering students visit places of industry and comprehend the practical methods that they used. These likely included machine shops and industries using metallurgical methods, which would be a significant later in Hollerith's life. ²