For a while many utility bills etc. were sent out
with prepunched cards containing the customer and
billing information, to be mailed back with your
payment for proper allocation.
m
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin at xenosoft.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts"
<cctech at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: punchcard svg file available
>> If you
find a source of paper stock that
>> works, please let everyone
>> know about it. The real paper is gone, and
>> will likely never be made
>> again. It is a specialized stock that is
>> extremely difficult to make.
> What is different about it? Thickness?
> Weight/square metre? Density?
> Impregnated with something?
On Thu, 10 Sep 2015, simon wrote:
Its hard to explain. it feels tough and
bendable, but it is thinner as you would expect
from the toughness.
Also, had to have the right friction to slide
through, but catch on the rollers. CDC's
optical card readers came later, and made
dramatic improvements in DP.
In those days, the cardstock was extremely
available, in large sheets and in precut blanks,
in a variety of colors. Print-shops abounded
who would do custom cards, if your business
thought that it needed them.
And yet, some card readers were amazingly
tolerant!
For example, half a century ago, CBS had a bunch
of projects, such as the National Driver's Test
(1966). IBM provided the hardware and software.
They decided to give out Port-A-Punch cards,
which were 80 column cards with every other
column of holes pre-perforated, so that anybody
could take a special stylus or a random pencil
and create their own hanging chips/"Chads".
But, how to recollect them? They actually had
people stick a stamp on them and MAIL them!
("Business Reply Mail" would have shifted the
franking burden, otherwise it would have made
MUCH more sense) They then successfully ran them
through the card reader of a 360! Keep in mind
that it was an IBM PR stunt, so they had a CE
standing next to the reader, clearing jams in
real-time. I wonder if IBM cheated and modified
the input maw?
So, the specific card-stock is critical, but it
worked with a postage stamp stuck to it?
Although the hardware reliability was a welcome
surprise (I wonder how my life would have gone
if it hadn't), the software wasn't. The live
statistics weren't adding up close enough to
100%! On camera, Walter Cronkite was stalling,
and right behind him, my father was frantically
manually adding the numbers. Starting a week
later, there were a copy of McCracken FORTRAN
and Decima Anderson's book on my parent's coffee
table.
Instead of continuing to use 084 sorters, we
learned a little FORTRAN.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at
xenosoft.com