27 Oct
1997
27 Oct
'97
12:02 a.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
Punched card technology was well established well before what we think of
as the first electronic computers - ENIAC, the ABC machine, etc.. IBM, of
course, was the biggie in the field (and oddly enough, entered the
computing business a bit late), starting sometime in the 1930s.
I read somewhere that IBM patented the first multiple-word
cardpuncher in 1919. It could punch nine columns at a time. The
photograph showed that the thing used levers that reminded me of the
credit-card embossers used at gas stations.
Jeff