Punch Cards Q

From: Dave Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 2:28 PM As it happens, a similar thread arose on comp.os.vms a couple of weeks ago, and I went off and did some research. The following post resulted. TL;DR? IBM used round holes until 1928, beginning from Hollerith's own tabulating company through the C-T-R days and the name change in 1925.

From: Rich Alderson Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Subject: Punch card history [was Re: [OT] Lost skills, was: Re: Robustness to rogue processes] Date: 04 Sep 2013 14:51:50 -0400 Message-ID: <mddeh94ctdl.fsf_-_ at panix5.panix.com> X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 22.3 : "Richard B. Gilbert" writes: :: On 8/30/2013 4:48 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote: ::: Yeah. Punched cards were not exactly the greatest thing ever ::: invented... :: Eighty Column Punched cards came out of the 1930s give or take a :: couple of years. They're hopelessly obsolete today but from the :: late 1920s to the early 1970s, 80 column punched cards were how data :: processing was done! : According to IBM's own history site, the rectangular punch came along : in 1928. Prior to that, round holes (by 1928, 45 columns by 12 rows) : were the norm. Watson wanted a patentable "IBM card", and went with : the new rectangular hole format. : http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/punchcard/ : The older format was retained by companies like Univac, and referred : to as "90 column cards" (2 lines of 6-bit representations in 45 : columns). :: Today, you would probably find punched cards in a museum! : As a matter of fact, we have an 029 punch and an 082 sorter in our : exhibit space at Living Computer Museum (Seattle). Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/