20 Aug
1998
20 Aug
'98
8:16 p.m.
On Thu, 20 Aug 1998, Uncle Roger wrote:
I was watching a local show called New Media News
(http://www.newmedianews.com/) last night and they had a bit with Gwen Bell
talking about punch cards. She said that they were invented by Hollerith
at the end of the last century for use with the census. Was I drunk or did
we just go through a whole discussion about the cards being invented for
the Jacquard loom?
Jacquard used them first in his loom. Hollerith borrowed the idea for his
tabulating machines. Hollerith's company turned into IBM, which used them
extensively for programming. So Hollerith invented them for use in
programming counting machines, which is why she perhaps attributed the
invention to him. But in fact, Jacquard was the first to use them in
machinery.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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