4 Mar
2009
4 Mar
'09
6:18 p.m.
My father used to claim that the only reason for
existence of the
round-hole, 90, 96 column cards was that IBM patented the particular
rectangular shape of their holes.
He also claimed that IBM patented the whole idea of using a brass
roller
for card reading, and that that ALMOST worked to cripple the rest of
the
industry, until somebody finally got photocell card reading working.
I wonder. The original Hollerith cards had round holes. And patents
were good for 17 years, so even if square holes were patented that
wouldn't necessarily explain round holes (depending on when). Pointers
to patents would be helpful here...
paul