Fredrik Rosing Bull

Known for his works on improved punched card machines, Bull was an information technology pioneer. In 1907 he finished his studies in civil engineering at the Technical School of Kristiania (Kristiania Tekniske Skole). In 1916 he was hired as a technical inspector of the insurance company Storebrand, where his interest in punched card machine technology began, and he took over the task of developing his own punched card machine, which used a punched card of 45 columns, with round holes and a rotating adder.

In 1919 Bull obtained his patent, and in 1921 he prepared a team that took over the introduction of his new machine at Storebrand. This team provided several more effective new ideas for the Bull machine, causing it to be superior to the IBM precursor—the Hollerith used at that time—because of the mechanism of punched card pre-selection. He signed a contract with the society Oka, led by Reidar Knutsen, which took over the costs of manufacturing and marketing, and the production of these machines was carried out in an accuracy workshop in Oslo.

Bull continued to develop his ideas, improving the machine, which proved a huge success throughout Europe and received very good reviews and publicity. The key factors for success were determined by the technical quality of the machine, the ease in using it, the provision regarding the above technology, the cost savings, and the possibility for users to leave IBM's monopoly and purchase their own equipment instead of renting it. He died in 1925, and his patents were sold in 1931, constituting the basis for the founding of the French company Groupe Bull, currently one of the largest companies operating in over 100 countries.