Fredrik Rosing Bull

Who was Fredrik Rosing Bull?

Fredrik Rosing Bull was an Information technology pioneer, known for his works on improved punched card machines.

Bull was born in Kristiania. In 1907 he finished his studies in civil engineering in the Technical School of Kristiania. In 1916 he was hired as a technical inspector of the insurance company Storebrand. Here is where his interest for the punched card machines technology started, and took over the task of developing his own punched card machine. In 1919 he obtained his patent, and in 1921, he prepared a team that took over the introduction of its new machine in the company where Bull worked at that time, Storebrand. This team provided several and more effective new ideas the Bull machine, causing it to be superior to the Hollerith's one used then, the IBM precursor. Bull will continue to develop his ideas, improving the machine, which was a huge success throughout Europe. He was diagnosed with cancer at a very early age and died in 1925 when he was just 42 years old. His patents were later sold in 1931 and constituted the basis for the founding of the French company Groupe Bull, currently one of the largest companies operating in over 100 countries.