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A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds
digital data Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of discrete symbols each of which can take on one of only a finite number of values from some alphabet, such as letters or digits. An example i ...
represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in
data processing Data processing is the collection and manipulation of digital data to produce meaningful information. Data processing is a form of ''information processing'', which is the modification (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an ...
applications or to directly control
automated machine An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...
ry. Punched cards were widely used through much of the 20th century in the data processing industry, where specialized and increasingly complex unit record machines, organized into semiautomatic
data processing system A data processing system is a combination of machines, people, and processes that for a set of Input/output, inputs produces a defined set of Input/output, outputs. The inputs and outputs are interpreted as data, facts, information etc. depending ...
s, used punched cards for data input, output, and storage. The IBM 12-row/80-column punched card format came to dominate the industry. Many early
digital computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These pro ...
s used punched cards as the primary medium for input of both
computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer program ...
s and
data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...
. While punched cards are now obsolete as a
storage medium Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are conside ...
, as of 2012, some
voting machine A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...
s still used punched cards to record votes. They also had a significant cultural impact.


History

The idea of control and data storage via punched holes was developed independently on several occasions in the modern period. In most cases there is no evidence that each of the inventors was aware of the earlier work.


Precursors

Basile Bouchon Basile Bouchon () was a textile worker in the silk center in Lyon who invented a way to control a loom with a perforated paper tape in 1725. The son of an organ maker, Bouchon partially automated the tedious setting up process of the drawloom in ...
developed the control of a
loom A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...
by punched holes in paper tape in 1725. The design was improved by his assistant Jean-Baptiste Falcon and by
Jacques Vaucanson Jacques de Vaucanson (; February 24, 1709 – November 21, 1782) was a French inventor and artist who built the first all-metal lathe which was very important to the Industrial Revolution. The lathe is known as the mother of machine tools, as it ...
. Although these improvements controlled the patterns woven, they still required an assistant to operate the mechanism. In 1804
Joseph Marie Jacquard Joseph Marie Charles ''dit'' (called or nicknamed) Jacquard (; 7 July 1752 – 7 August 1834) was a French weaver and merchant. He played an important role in the development of the earliest programmable loom (the " Jacquard loom"), which in tu ...
demonstrated a mechanism to automate loom operation. A number of punched cards were linked into a chain of any length. Each card held the instructions for shedding (raising and lowering the
warp Warp, warped or warping may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books and comics * WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher * ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!'' * Warp (comics), a ...
) and selecting the shuttle for a single pass.
Semyon Korsakov Semyon Nikolaevich Korsakov (russian: Семён Николаевич Корсаков, ) (14 January 1787 – 1 December 1853 OS) was a Russian government official, noted both as a homeopath and an inventor who was involved with an early vers ...
was reputedly the first to propose punched cards in informatics for information store and search. Korsakov announced his new method and machines in September 1832.
Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...
proposed the use of "Number Cards", "pierced with certain holes and stand ngopposite levers connected with a set of figure wheels ... advanced they push in those levers opposite to which there are no holes on the cards and thus transfer that number together with its sign" in his description of the Calculating Engine's Store. There is no evidence that he built a practical example. In 1881
Jules Carpentier Jules Carpentier (30 August 1851 – 30 June 1921) was a French engineer and inventor. Jules Carpentier was a student at the French École polytechnique. He bought the Ruhmkorff workshops in Paris when Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff died and ...
developed a method of recording and playing back performances on a
harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
using punched cards. The system was called the ''Mélographe Répétiteur'' and “writes down ordinary music played on the keyboard dans la langage de Jacquard”, that is as holes punched in a series of cards. By 1887 Carpentier had separated the mechanism into the ''Melograph'' which recorded the player's key presses and the ''Melotrope'' which played the music.


20th century

At the end of the 1800s
Herman Hollerith Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed t ...
invented the recording of data on a medium that could then be read by a machine, developing punched card data processing technology for the
1890 U.S. census The United States census of 1890 was taken beginning June 2, 1890, but most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed in 1921 when a building caught fire and in the subsequent disposal of the remaining damaged records. It determined the reside ...
. His
tabulating machine The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed to assist in summarizing information stored on punched cards. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the 1890 U.S. Census. Later models w ...
s read and summarized data stored on punched cards and they began use for government and commercial data processing. Initially, these
electromechanical In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems ...
machines only counted holes, but by the 1920s they had units for carrying out basic arithmetic operations. Hollerith founded the ''Tabulating Machine Company'' (1896) which was one of four companies that were amalgamated via stock acquisition to form a fifth company, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) (1911), later renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) (1924). Other companies entering the punched card business included The Tabulator Limited (Britain, 1902), Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH (Dehomag) (Germany, 1911),
Powers Accounting Machine Company The Powers Accounting Machine was an information processing device developed in the early 20th century for the U.S. Census Bureau. It was then produced and marketed by the Powers Accounting Machine Company, an information technology company founded ...
(US, 1911),
Remington Rand Remington Rand was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington Rand wa ...
(US, 1927), and H.W. Egli Bull (France, 1931). These companies, and others, manufactured and marketed a variety of punched cards and unit record machines for creating, sorting, and tabulating punched cards, even after the development of electronic computers in the 1950s. Both IBM and Remington Rand tied punched card purchases to machine leases, a violation of the US 1914
Clayton Antitrust Act The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 (, codified at , ), is a part of United States antitrust law with the goal of adding further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime; the Clayton Act seeks to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipie ...
. In 1932, the US government took both to court on this issue. Remington Rand settled quickly. IBM viewed its business as providing a service and that the cards were part of the machine. IBM fought all the way to the Supreme Court and lost in 1936; the court ruled that IBM could only set card specifications. "By 1937... IBM had 32 presses at work in Endicott, N.Y., printing, cutting and stacking five to 10 million punched cards every day." Punched cards were even used as legal documents, such as
U.S. Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
checks and savings bonds. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
punched card equipment was used by the Allies in some of their efforts to decrypt Axis communications. See, for example,
Central Bureau The Central Bureau was one of two Allied signals intelligence (SIGINT) organisations in the South West Pacific area (SWPA) during World War II. Central Bureau was attached to the headquarters of the Allied Commander of the South West Pacific area ...
in Australia. At
Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
in England, "some 2 million punched cards a week were being produced, indicating the sheer scale of this part of the operation". In Nazi Germany, punched cards were used for the censuses of various regions and other purposes (see
IBM and the Holocaust ''IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation'' is a book by investigative journalist and historian Edwin Black which documents the strategic technology services rendered by US-based ...
). Punched card technology developed into a powerful tool for business data-processing. By 1950 punched cards had become ubiquitous in industry and government. "Do not fold,
spindle Spindle may refer to: Textiles and manufacturing * Spindle (textiles), a straight spike to spin fibers into yarn * Spindle (tool), a rotating axis of a machine tool Biology * Common spindle and other species of shrubs and trees in genus ''Euony ...
or mutilate," a warning that appeared on some punched cards distributed as documents such as checks and utility bills to be returned for processing, became a motto for the post-
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
era. In 1956 IBM signed a consent decree requiring, amongst other things, that IBM would by 1962 have no more than one-half of the punched card manufacturing capacity in the United States. Tom Watson Jr.'s decision to sign this decree, where IBM saw the punched card provisions as the most significant point, completed the transfer of power to him from Thomas Watson, Sr. The Univac
UNITYPER The UNITYPER was an input device for the UNIVAC I computer manufactured by Remington Rand, which went on sale in mid-1951 but was not in operation until June 1952. It was an early direct data entry system. The UNITYPER accepted user inputs on a key ...
introduced magnetic tape for data entry in the 1950s. During the 1960s, the punched card was gradually replaced as the primary means for
data storage Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are conside ...
by
magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...
, as better, more capable computers became available.
Mohawk Data Sciences Mohawk Data Sciences Corporation (MDS) was an early computer hardware company, started by former Univac engineers in 1964; by 1985 they were struggling to sell-off part of their company. History The company was founded in Herkimer, New York, by ...
introduced a magnetic tape encoder in 1965, a system marketed as a keypunch replacement which was somewhat successful. Punched cards were still commonly used for entering both data and computer programs until the mid-1980s when the combination of lower cost magnetic disk storage, and affordable interactive terminals on less expensive
minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, ...
s made punched cards obsolete for these roles as well. However, their influence lives on through many standard conventions and file formats. The terminals that replaced the punched cards, the
IBM 3270 The IBM 3270 is a family of block oriented display and printer computer terminals introduced by IBM in 1971 and normally used to communicate with IBM mainframes. The 3270 was the successor to the IBM 2260 display terminal. Due to the text ...
for example, displayed 80 columns of text in
text mode Text mode is a computer display mode in which content is internally represented on a computer screen in terms of characters rather than individual pixels. Typically, the screen consists of a uniform rectangular grid of ''character cells'', each ...
, for compatibility with existing software. Some programs still operate on the convention of 80 text columns, although fewer and fewer do as newer systems employ
graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
s with variable-width type fonts.


Nomenclature

The terms ''punched card'', ''punch card'', and ''punchcard'' were all commonly used, as were ''IBM card'' and ''Hollerith card'' (after
Herman Hollerith Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed t ...
). IBM used "IBM card" or, later, "punched card" at first mention in its documentation and thereafter simply "card" or "cards". Specific formats were often indicated by the number of character positions available, e.g. ''80-column card''. A sequence of cards that is input to or output from some step in an application's processing is called a ''card deck'' or simply ''deck''. The rectangular, round, or oval bits of paper punched out were called
chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
(''chads'') or ''chips'' (in IBM usage). Sequential card columns allocated for a specific use, such as names, addresses, multi-digit numbers, etc., are known as a ''field''. The first card of a group of cards, containing fixed or indicative information for that group, is known as a ''master card''. Cards that are not master cards are ''detail cards''.


Formats

The Hollerith punched cards used for the 1890 U.S. census were blank. Following that, cards commonly had printing such that the row and column position of a hole could be easily seen. Printing could include having fields named and marked by vertical lines, logos, and more. "General purpose" layouts (see, for example, the IBM 5081 below) were also available. For applications requiring master cards to be separated from following detail cards, the respective cards had different upper corner diagonal cuts and thus could be separated by a sorter. Other cards typically had one upper corner diagonal cut so that cards not oriented correctly, or cards with different corner cuts, could be identified.


Hollerith's early cards

Herman Hollerith Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed t ...
was awarded three patents in 1889 for electromechanical
tabulating machine The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed to assist in summarizing information stored on punched cards. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the 1890 U.S. Census. Later models w ...
s. These patents described both
paper tape Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage ...
and rectangular cards as possible recording media. The card shown in of January 8 was printed with a template and had hole positions arranged close to the edges so they could be reached by a
railroad conductor A conductor (North American English) or guard (Commonwealth English) is a train crew member responsible for operational and safety duties that do not involve actual operation of the train/locomotive. The ''conductor'' title is most common in No ...
's
ticket punch A ticket punch (or control nippers) is a hand tool for permanently marking admission tickets and similar items of paper or card stock. It makes a perforation and a corresponding chad. A ticket punch resembles a hole punch, differing in that the t ...
, with the center reserved for written descriptions. Hollerith was originally inspired by railroad tickets that let the conductor encode a rough description of the passenger: When use of the ticket punch proved tiring and error-prone, Hollerith developed the
pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...
"keyboard punch". It featured an enlarged diagram of the card, indicating the positions of the holes to be punched. A printed reading board could be placed under a card that was to be read manually. Hollerith envisioned a number of card sizes. In an article he wrote describing his proposed system for tabulating the
1890 U.S. census The United States census of 1890 was taken beginning June 2, 1890, but most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed in 1921 when a building caught fire and in the subsequent disposal of the remaining damaged records. It determined the reside ...
, Hollerith suggested a card of Manila stock "would be sufficient to answer all ordinary purposes." The cards used in the 1890 census had round holes, 12 rows and 24 columns. A reading board for these cards can be seen at the Columbia University Computing History site. At some point, became the standard card size. These are the dimensions of the then-current paper currency of 1862–1923. Hollerith's original system used an ad hoc coding system for each application, with groups of holes assigned specific meanings, e.g. sex or marital status. His tabulating machine had up to 40 counters, each with a dial divided into 100 divisions, with two indicator hands; one which stepped one unit with each counting pulse, the other which advanced one unit every time the other dial made a complete revolution. This arrangement allowed a count up to 9,999. During a given tabulating run counters were assigned specific holes or, using
relay logic Relay logic is a method of implementing combinational logic in electrical control circuits by using several electrical relays wired in a particular configuration. Ladder logic The schematic diagrams for relay logic circuits are often called l ...
, combination of holes. Later designs led to a card with ten rows, each row assigned a digit value, 0 through 9, and 45 columns. This card provided for fields to record multi-digit numbers that tabulators could sum, instead of their simply counting cards. Hollerith's 45 column punched cards are illustrated in
Comrie Comrie may refer to: Places *Comrie (crater), a lunar crater *Comrie, Fife, a village in Fife, Scotland *Comrie, Perth and Kinross, a village and parish in Strathearn, Scotland People with the surname *Aaron Comrie (born 1997), Scottish footballer ...
's ''The application of the Hollerith Tabulating Machine to Brown's Tables of the Moon''.


IBM 80-column format and character codes

By the late 1920s, customers wanted to store more data on each punched card.
Thomas J. Watson Sr. Thomas John Watson Sr. (February 17, 1874 – June 19, 1956) was an American businessman who served as the chairman and CEO of IBM. He oversaw the company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's managemen ...
, IBM's head, asked two of his top inventors,
Clair D. Lake Clair or Claire may refer to: *Claire (given name), a list of people with the name Claire *Clair (surname) Places Canada * Clair, New Brunswick, a former village, now part of Haut-Madawaska * Clair Parish, New Brunswick * Pointe-Claire, Que ...
and
J. Royden Pierce ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...
, to independently develop ways to increase data capacity without increasing the size of the punched card. Pierce wanted to keep round holes and 45 columns, but allow each column to store more data. Lake suggested rectangular holes, which could be spaced more tightly, allowing 80 columns per punched card, thereby nearly doubling the capacity of the older format. Watson picked the latter solution, introduced as ''The IBM Card'', in part because it was compatible with existing tabulator designs and in part because it could be protected by patents and give the company a distinctive advantage. This IBM card format, introduced in 1928, has rectangular holes, 80 columns, and 10 rows. Card size is . The cards are made of smooth stock, thick. There are about 143 cards to the inch (/cm). In 1964, IBM changed from square to round corners. They come typically in boxes of 2000 cards or as continuous form cards. Continuous form cards could be both pre-numbered and pre-punched for document control (checks, for example). Initially designed to record responses to
yes–no question In linguistics, a yes–no question, also known as a binary question, a polar question, or a general question is a question whose expected answer is one of two choices, one that provides an affirmative answer to the question versus one that provid ...
s, support for numeric, alphabetic and special characters was added through the use of columns and zones. The top three positions of a column are called zone punching positions, 12 (top), 11, and 0 (0 may be either a zone punch or a digit punch). For decimal data the lower ten positions are called digit punching positions, 0 (top) through 9. An arithmetic sign can be specified for a decimal field by overpunching the field's rightmost column with a zone punch: 12 for plus, 11 for minus (CR). For
Pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...
pre-decimalization currency a
penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
column represents the values zero through eleven; 10 (top), 11, then 0 through 9 as above. An arithmetic sign can be punched in the adjacent
shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
column. Zone punches had other uses in processing, such as indicating a master card. Diagram: Note: The 11 and 12 zones were also called the X and Y zones, respectively.
    _______________________________________________
   / &-0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR/STUVWXYZ
12,   x           xxxxxxxxx
11,    x                   xxxxxxxxx
 0,     x                           xxxxxxxxx
 1,      x        x        x        x
 2,       x        x        x        x
 3,        x        x        x        x
 4,         x        x        x        x
 5,          x        x        x        x
 6,           x        x        x        x
 7,            x        x        x        x
 8,             x        x        x        x
 9,              x        x        x        x
  , ________________________________________________
In 1931, IBM began introducing upper-case letters and special characters (Powers-Samas had developed the first commercial alphabetic punched card representation in 1921). The 26 letters have two punches (zone 2,11,0+ digit –9. The languages of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Finland require up to three additional letters; their punching is not shown here. Most special characters have two or three punches (zone 2,11,0, or none+ digit –7+ 8); a few special characters were exceptions: "&" is 12 only, "-" is 11 only, and "/" is 0 + 1). The Space character has no punches. The information represented in a column by a combination of zones
2, 11, 0 The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline o ...
and digits –9is dependent on the use of that column. For example, the combination "12-1" is the letter "A" in an alphabetic column, a plus signed digit "1" in a signed numeric column, or an unsigned digit "1" in a column where the "12" has some other use. The introduction of
EBCDIC Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC; ) is an eight-bit character encoding used mainly on IBM mainframe and IBM midrange computer operating systems. It descended from the code used with punched cards and the corresponding six- ...
in 1964 defined columns with as many as six punches (zones 2,11,0,8,9+ digit –7. IBM and other manufacturers used many different 80-column card
character encoding Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to Graphics, graphical character (computing), characters, especially the written characters of Language, human language, allowing them to be Data storage, stored, Data communication, transmi ...
s. A 1969 American National Standard defined the punches for 128 characters and was named the ''Hollerith Punched Card Code'' (often referred to simply as ''Hollerith Card Code''), honoring Hollerith. For some computer applications,
binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that t ...
formats were used, where each hole represented a single binary digit (or "
bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represente ...
"), every column (or row) is treated as a simple
bit field A bit field is a data structure that consists of one or more adjacent bits which have been allocated for specific purposes, so that any single bit or group of bits within the structure can be set or inspected. A bit field is most commonly used to r ...
, and every combination of holes is permitted. For example, on the
IBM 701 The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer and its first series production mainframe computer, which was announced to the public on May ...
and
IBM 704 The IBM 704 is a large digital mainframe computer introduced by IBM in 1954. It was the first mass-produced computer with hardware for floating-point arithmetic. The IBM 704 ''Manual of operation'' states: The type 704 Electronic Data-Pro ...
, card data was read, using an
IBM 711 The IBM 711 was a punched card reader used as a peripheral device for IBM mainframe vacuum tube computers and early transistorized computers. Announced on May 21, 1952, it was first shipped with the IBM 701. Later IBM computers that used it were t ...
, into memory in row binary format. For each of the twelve rows of the card, 72 of the 80 columns would be read into two
36-bit 36-bit computers were popular in the early mainframe computer era from the 1950s through the early 1970s. Starting in the 1960s, but especially the 1970s, the introduction of 7-bit ASCII and 8-bit EBCDIC led to the move to machines using 8-bit ...
words; a control panel was used to select the 72 columns to be read. Software would translate this data into the desired form. One convention was to use columns 1 through 72 for data, and columns 73 through 80 to sequentially number the cards, as shown in the picture above of a punched card for FORTRAN. Such numbered cards could be sorted by machine so that if a deck was dropped the sorting machine could be used to arrange it back in order. This convention continued to be used in FORTRAN, even in later systems where the data in all 80 columns could be read. As an aid to humans who had to deal with the punched cards, the IBM 026 and later 029 and 129 key punch machines could print human-readable text above each of the 80 columns. As a prank, punched cards could be made where every possible punch position had a hole. Such "
lace card A lace card is a punched card with all holes punched (also called a whoopee card, ventilator card, flyswatter card, or IBM doily). They were mainly used as practical jokes to cause disruption in card readers. Card readers tended to jam when a ...
s" lacked structural strength, and would frequently buckle and jam inside the machine. The IBM 80-column punched card format dominated the industry, becoming known as just IBM cards, even though other companies made cards and equipment to process them. One of the most common punched card formats is the IBM 5081 card format, a general purpose layout with no field divisions. This format has digits printed on it corresponding to the punch positions of the digits in each of the 80 columns. Other punched card vendors manufactured cards with this same layout and number.


IBM ''Stub card'' and ''Short card'' formats

Long cards were available with a scored stub on either end which, when torn off, left an 80 column card. The torn off card is called a ''stub card''. 80-column cards were available scored, on either end, creating both a ''short card'' and a ''stub card'' when torn apart. Short cards can be processed by other IBM machines. A common length for stub cards was 51 columns. Stub cards were used in applications requiring tags, labels, or carbon copies.


IBM 40-column Port-A-Punch card format

According to the IBM Archive: ''IBM's Supplies Division introduced the Port-A-Punch in 1958 as a fast, accurate means of manually punching holes in specially scored IBM punched cards. Designed to fit in the pocket, Port-A-Punch made it possible to create punched card documents anywhere. The product was intended for "on-the-spot" recording operations—such as physical inventories, job tickets and statistical surveys—because it eliminated the need for preliminary writing or typing of source documents.'' File:IBM Port-A-Punch.jpg, IBM Port-A-Punch File:FORTRAN Port-A-Punch card. Compiler directive "SQUEEZE" removed the alternating blank columns from the input. Godfrey Manning..jpg, FORTRAN Port-A-Punch card. Compiler directive "SQUEEZE" removed the alternating blank columns from the input. File:IBM Port-a-punch.jpg, Port-a-punch


IBM 96-column format

In 1969 IBM introduced a new, smaller, round-hole, 96-column card format along with the IBM
System/3 The IBM System/3 was an IBM midrange computer introduced in 1969, and marketed until 1985. It was produced by IBM Rochester in Minnesota as a low-end business computer aimed at smaller organizations that still used IBM 1400 series computers or u ...
low-end business computer. These cards have tiny (1 mm), circular holes, smaller than those in
paper tape Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage ...
. Data is stored in 6-bit BCD, with three rows of 32 characters each, or 8-bit
EBCDIC Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC; ) is an eight-bit character encoding used mainly on IBM mainframe and IBM midrange computer operating systems. It descended from the code used with punched cards and the corresponding six- ...
. In this format, each column of the top tiers are combined with two punch rows from the bottom tier to form an 8-bit byte, and the middle tier is combined with two more punch rows, so that each card contains 64 bytes of 8-bit-per-byte binary coded data. As in the 80 column card, readable text was printed in the top section of the card. There was also a 4th row of 32 characters that could be printed. This format was never very widely used; it was IBM-only, but they did not support it on any equipment beyond the System/3, where it was quickly superseded by the 1973 IBM 3740 Data Entry System using 8-inch floppy disks.


Powers/Remington Rand/UNIVAC 90-column format

The Powers/Remington Rand card format was initially the same as Hollerith's; 45 columns and round holes. In 1930,
Remington Rand Remington Rand was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington Rand wa ...
leap-frogged IBM's 80 column format from 1928 by coding two characters in each of the 45 columns – producing what is now commonly called the 90-column card. There are two sets of six rows across each card. The rows in each set are labeled 0, 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 and 9. The even numbers in a pair are formed by combining that punch with a 9 punch. Alphabetic and special characters use 3 or more punches.


Powers-Samas formats

The British
Powers-Samas Powers-Samas was a British company which sold unit record equipment. In 1915 Powers Accounting Machine, Powers Tabulating Machine Company established European operations through the Accounting and Tabulating Machine Company of Great Britain Lim ...
company used a variety of card formats for their
unit record equipment Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, well before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical machines collectively referred to as unit record equipment, electric accounting machines (EAM) o ...
. They began with 45 columns and round holes. Later 36, 40 and 65 column cards were provided. A 130 column card was also available - formed by dividing the card into two rows, each row with 65 columns and each character space with 5 punch positions. A 21 column card was comparable to the IBM Stub card.


Mark sense format

Mark sense Electrographic is a term used for punched-card and page-scanning technology that allowed cards or pages marked with a pencil to be processed or converted into punched cards. The primary developer of electrographic systems was IBM, who used mark ...
(
electrographic Electrographic is a term used for punched-card and page-scanning technology that allowed cards or pages marked with a pencil to be processed or converted into punched cards. The primary developer of electrographic systems was IBM, who used mark ...
) cards, developed by
Reynold B. Johnson Reynold B. Johnson (July 16, 1906September 15, 1998) was an American inventor and computer pioneer. A long-time employee of IBM, Johnson is said to be the "father" of the hard disk drive. Other inventions include automatic test scoring equipment ...
at IBM, have printed ovals that could be marked with a special electrographic pencil. Cards would typically be punched with some initial information, such as the name and location of an inventory item. Information to be added, such as quantity of the item on hand, would be marked in the ovals. Card punches with an option to detect mark sense cards could then punch the corresponding information into the card.


Aperture format

Aperture card An aperture card is a type of punched card with a cut-out window into which a chip of microfilm is mounted. Such a card is used for archiving or for making multiple inexpensive copies of a document for ease of distribution. The card is typically ...
s have a cut-out hole on the right side of the punched card. A piece of 35 mm microfilm containing a
microform Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. F ...
image is mounted in the hole. Aperture cards are used for
engineering drawing An engineering drawing is a type of technical drawing that is used to convey information about an object. A common use is to specify the geometry necessary for the construction of a component and is called a detail drawing. Usually, a number of ...
s from all engineering disciplines. Information about the drawing, for example the drawing number, is typically punched and printed on the remainder of the card.


Manufacturing

IBM's Fred M. Carroll developed a series of rotary presses that were used to produce punched cards, including a 1921 model that operated at 460 cards per minute (cpm). In 1936 he introduced a completely different press that operated at 850 cpm. Carroll's high-speed press, containing a printing cylinder, revolutionized the company's manufacturing of punched cards. It is estimated that between 1930 and 1950, the Carroll press accounted for as much as 25 percent of the company's profits. Discarded printing plates from these card presses, each printing plate the size of an IBM card and formed into a cylinder, often found use as desk pen/pencil holders, and even today are collectible IBM artifacts (every card layout had its own printing plate). In the mid-1930s a box of 1,000 cards cost $1.05 ().


Cultural impact

While punched cards have not been widely used for a generation, the impact was so great for most of the 20th century that they still appear from time to time in popular culture. For example: * Accommodation of people's names: ''The Man Whose Name Wouldn't Fit'' * Artist and architect
Maya Lin Maya Ying Lin (born October 5, 1959) is an American designer and sculptor. In 1981, while an undergraduate at Yale University, she achieved national recognition when she won a national design competition for the planned Vietnam Veterans Memoria ...
in 2004 designed a
public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...
installation at Ohio University, titled "Input", that looks like a punched card from the air. * Tucker Hall at the University of Missouri - Columbia features architecture that is rumored to be influenced by punched cards. Although there are only two rows of windows on the building, a rumor holds that their spacing and pattern will spell out “M-I-Z beat k-U!” on a punched card, making reference to the university and state's rivalry with neighboring state Kansas. * At the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the exterior windows of the Engineering Research Building were modeled after a punched card layout, during its construction in 1966. * At the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, a portion of the exterior of Gamble Hall (College of Business and Public Administration), has a series of light-colored bricks that resembles a punched card spelling out "University of North Dakota." * In the 1964–1965
Free Speech Movement The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a massive, long-lasting student protest which took place during the 1964–65 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The Movement was informally under the central leadership of B ...
, punched cards became a :
metaphor... symbol of the "system"—first the registration system and then bureaucratic systems more generally ... a symbol of alienation ... Punched cards were the symbol of information machines, and so they became the symbolic point of attack. Punched cards, used for class registration, were first and foremost a symbol of uniformity. .... A student might feel "he is one of out of 27,500 IBM cards" ... The president of the Undergraduate Association criticized the University as "a machine ... IBM pattern of education."... Robert Blaumer explicated the symbolism: he referred to the "sense of impersonality... symbolized by the IBM technology."... ::— Steven Lubar
* A legacy of the 80 column punched card format is that a display of 80 characters per row was a common choice in the design of character-based terminals. As of September 2014, some character interface defaults, such as the command prompt window's width in Microsoft Windows, remain set at 80 columns and some file formats, such as
FITS Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is an open standard defining a digital file format useful for storage, transmission and processing of data: formatted as multi-dimensional arrays (for example a 2D image), or tables. FITS is the most com ...
, still use 80-character
card image Card image is a traditional term for a character string, usually 80 characters in length, that was, or could be, contained on a single punched card. IBM cards were 80 characters in length. UNIVAC cards were 90 characters in length. Card image files ...
s. * In
Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
's early short story "
Rescue Party "Rescue Party" is a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' in May 1946. It was the first story that he sold, though not the first one published. It was republished in Clark ...
", the alien explorers find a "... wonderful battery of almost human Hollerith analyzers and the five thousand million punched cards holding all that could be recorded on each man, woman and child on the planet". Writing in 1946, Clarke, like almost all SF authors, had not then foreseen the development and eventual ubiquity of the computer. * In "I.B.M.", the final track of her album ''This Is a Recording'', comedian
Lily Tomlin Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the vari ...
gives instructions that, if followed, would purportedly shrink the holes on a punch card (used by
AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
at the time for customer billing), making it unreadable.


Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate

A common example of the requests often printed on punched cards which were to be individually handled, especially those intended for the public to use and return is "Do Not Fold,
Spindle Spindle may refer to: Textiles and manufacturing * Spindle (textiles), a straight spike to spin fibers into yarn * Spindle (tool), a rotating axis of a machine tool Biology * Common spindle and other species of shrubs and trees in genus ''Euony ...
or Mutilate" (in the UK "Do not bend, spike, fold or mutilate"). Coined by Charles A. Phillips, it became a motto for the post–
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
era (even though many people had no idea what spindle meant), and was widely mocked and satirized. Some 1960s students at Berkeley wore buttons saying: "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate. I am a student". The motto was also used for a 1970 book by
Doris Miles Disney Doris Miles Disney (December 22, 1907 – March 9, 1976) was an American mystery writer. She wrote 47 novels, many of which were best sellers; several were made into feature films or TV movies. In 14 of her writing years Disney published two n ...
with a plot based around an early
computer dating Dating is a stage of romantic relationships in which two individuals engage in an activity together, most often with the intention of evaluating each other's suitability as a partner in a future intimate relationship. It falls into the categor ...
service and a 1971
made-for-TV A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
based on that book, and a similarly titled 1967 Canadian short film, ''
Do Not Fold, Staple, Spindle or Mutilate ''Do Not Fold, Staple, Spindle or Mutilate'' is a 1967 Canadian short drama film, directed by John Howe for the National Film Board of Canada.Gary Evans, ''In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949 to 1 ...
''.


Standards

* ANSI INCITS 21-1967 (R2002), ''Rectangular Holes in Twelve-Row Punched Cards'' (formerly ANSI X3.21-1967 (R1997)) Specifies the size and location of rectangular holes in twelve-row punched cards. * ANSI X3.11-1990 ''American National Standard Specifications for General Purpose Paper Cards for Information Processing'' * ANSI X3.26-1980 (R1991) ''Hollerith Punched Card Code'' * ISO 1681:1973 ''Information processing – Unpunched paper cards – Specification'' * ISO 6586:1980 ''Data processing – Implementation of the ISO 7- bit and 8- bit coded character sets on punched cards''. Defines ISO 7-bit and 8-bit character sets on punched cards as well as the representation of 7-bit and 8-bit combinations on 12-row punched cards. Derived from, and compatible with, the Hollerith Code, ensuring compatibility with existing punched card files.


Punched card devices

Processing of punched cards was handled by a variety of machines, including: *
Keypunch A keypunch is a device for precisely punching holes into stiff paper cards at specific locations as determined by keys struck by a human operator. Other devices included here for that same function include the gang punch, the pantograph punch, ...
es—machines with a keyboard that punched cards from operator entered data. *
Unit record equipment Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, well before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical machines collectively referred to as unit record equipment, electric accounting machines (EAM) o ...
—machines that process data on punched cards. Employed prior to the widespread use of digital computers. Includes
card sorter A Punched card sorter is a machine for sorting decks of punched cards. Sorting was a major activity in most facilities that processed data on punched cards using unit record equipment. The work flow of many processes required decks of cards to b ...
s,
tabulating machines The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed to assist in summarizing information stored on punched cards. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the 1890 U.S. Census. Later models w ...
and a variety of other machines * Computer punched card reader—a computer input device used to read executable computer programs and data from punched cards under computer control. * Computer card punch—a computer output device that punches holes in cards under computer control. *
Voting machine A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...
s—used into the 21st century


See also

*
Aperture card An aperture card is a type of punched card with a cut-out window into which a chip of microfilm is mounted. Such a card is used for archiving or for making multiple inexpensive copies of a document for ease of distribution. The card is typically ...
*
Card image Card image is a traditional term for a character string, usually 80 characters in length, that was, or could be, contained on a single punched card. IBM cards were 80 characters in length. UNIVAC cards were 90 characters in length. Card image files ...
*
Computer programming in the punched card era From the invention of computer programming languages up to the mid-1970s, most computer programmers created, edited and stored their programs line by line on punch cards. Punched cards A punched card is a flexible write-once medium that encod ...
*
Edge-notched card Edge-notched cards or edge-punched cards are a system used to store a small amount of binary or logical data on paper index cards, encoded via the presence or absence of notches in the edges of the cards. The notches allowed efficient sorting and ...
*
History of computing hardware The history of computing hardware covers the developments from early simple devices to aid calculation to modern day computers. Before the 20th century, most calculations were done by humans. The first aids to computation were purely mechan ...
*
Kimball tag A Kimball tag was a cardboard tag that included both human and machine-readable data to support punched card processing. A Kimball tag was an early form of stock control label that, like its later successor the barcode, supported back office da ...
—punched card price tags *
Paper data storage Paper data storage refers to the use of paper as a data storage device. This includes writing, illustrating, and the use of data that can be interpreted by a machine or is the result of the functioning of a machine. A defining feature of paper d ...
*
Punched card input/output A computer punched card reader or just computer card reader is a computer input device used to read computer programs in either source or executable form and data from punched cards. A computer card punch is a computer output device that punches ...
*
Punched tape Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage ...
*
Lace card A lace card is a punched card with all holes punched (also called a whoopee card, ventilator card, flyswatter card, or IBM doily). They were mainly used as practical jokes to cause disruption in card readers. Card readers tended to jam when a ...


Notes


References


Further reading

* (NB. An accessible book of recollections (sometimes with errors), with photographs and descriptions of many unit record machines.) * (NB. An account of how IBM Cards are manufactured, with special emphasis on quality control.) * (NB. Includes a description of Samas punched cards and illustration of an Underwood Samas punched card.) * * (NB. Article about use of punched cards in the 1990s (Cardamation).) *


External links


An Emulator for Punched cards
* – a U.S. company that supplied punched card equipment and supplies until 2011.

Atlas Computer Laboratory, 1960 * * (Collection shows examples of left, right, and no corner cuts.)

- a collection at Gesellschaft für Software mbH

(Shows examples of both left and right corner cuts.)
VintageTech
– a U.S. company that converts punched cards to conventional media {{Authority control Articles containing video clips Computer-related introductions in 1887 History of computing hardware History of software IBM storage devices Legacy hardware Wikipedia articles with ASCII art