An invaluable source for information like this (that did indeed exist in 2001) is The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth. Knuth is extremely diligent i

An invaluable source for information like this (that did indeed exist in 2001) is The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth. Knuth is extremely diligent in documenting the history of all algorithms he describes (arguably, TAoCP is the best source-book for the history of all computer science) and he has the following to say on the topic of Radix sort: > The sorting method just described is not immediately obvious, and it isn't clear who first discovered the fact that it works so conveniently. A 19-page pamphlet entitled "The Inventory Simplified," published by the Tabulating Machines Company division of IBM in 1923, presented an interesting Digit Plan method for forming sums of products in their Electric Sorting Machine ... This punched-card tabulating method leads naturally to the discovery of least-significant-digit-first radix sorting, so it probably became known to the machine operators. The first published reference to this principle for sorting appears in L. J. Comrie's early discussion of punched-card equipent [Transactions of the Office Machinery Users' Assoc., Ltd (1929)] > ...most people rejected the idea of radix sorting within a computer, until H.H. Seward['s master thesis in 1954] pointed out that... [<technical details omitted>] Presumably, this is a method that has been discovered and rediscovered many times by many programmers and punch-card operators, but that H. H. Seward made it practical for digital computers in 1954. PS. TAoCP is awesome. Even if you can't follow the more advanced math, just having this book on the shelf to look up stuff like this is lovely if you do this kind of thing professionally. Knuth is just a fantastic scholar and teacher. Just flipping through the things is a joy.