6 Apr
2010
6 Apr
'10
2:11 a.m.
From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
Why nastier? The card ones are thicker (7 thou) and have sharp square corners. I think the
first time I heard about them (in the UK) the card ones were called chads. It in a warning
from our lecturer not to use them as confetti as he knew of a case of them getting into
the bride's eye and she spent the next few hours in hospital because of them.
I think the holes were oblong so that the sideways on (row at a time) brushes of old IBM
equipment could get through them easier. I don't think brushes would be able to read
them a column at a time.
By the way, I have some 80 column cards punched with round holes, two holes for each
oblong one, and they were described as 160 column cards.
Roger Holmes
I wonder if "chad" had origins with
teletypes and paper tape, an
industry (telephone) separate from the punched card / data processing
industry way back when, and in which different terminology developed.
Dunno, but either was fun to hide in a friend's drawer or light
fixture. Paper tape punches were far nastier than the ones from
punched cards.