Fredrik Rosing Bull, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Fredrik Rosing Bull

Norwegian inventor

Date of Birth: 25-Dec-1882

Place of Birth: Christiania, Norway

Date of Death: 07-Jun-1925

Profession: businessperson, computer scientist, inventor

Nationality: Norway

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Fredrik Rosing Bull (25 December 1882 – 7 June 1925) was an information technology pioneer, known for his work on improved punched card machines. Bull was born in Kristiania (Oslo, Norway).
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 for the insurance company Storebrand, where he developed an interest for punched card machines technology and began developing one of his own.
In 1919 he obtained a patent for the machine, and in 1921 he prepared a team that took over the implementation of the machine at the company where Bull worked at that time, Storebrand.
This team provided several new ideas for improving the Bull machine, rendering it superior to Hollerith's device - the precursor to the IBM punched card machine - in use at that time.
Bull continued to develop his ideas, improving the machine, which became a success throughout Europe.
He was diagnosed with cancer at an early age and died in 1925 when he was 42 years old.
His patents were later sold in 1931 and constituted the basis for the founding of the French company Groupe Bull, a large information technology company operating in over 100 countries.