Chapter 9 Punch Card Trivia The Card is Punched Out

Punch Cards were a pivotal first step on the long road of automation. Today a keypunch machine is relegated to the back of the museum next to the typewriter. The days of the punched card were doomed as soon as “magnetic storage” was introduced. First it was magnetic tapes that would hold information sequentially, then magnetic disks were delivered that could access data randomly. This eliminated the big card files for storage. Then keypunches were replaced by data entry terminals that would input data directly into the system. Disk Tape

Card

a rare photo of all three mediums The Birth of BIG Before automation there were few national/international corporations because every transaction was manual filing, typewriters, cash registers, etc. There was no such thing as electronic transmissions over phone lines to a corporate headquarters to update a customer master file. But, with the advent of rudimentary punch card systems, companies began the long arduous process of centralizing the processing of data. Most people do not equate the punch card to the enabling of companies going national and getting big. Through centralized processing of transactions it allowed for the “branch office network”. Mag Won, Card Zero For 70-80 years punched cards were the primary medium for data entry, data storage, and processing in institutional computing.

According to the IBM Archives: "By 1937... IBM had 32 presses at work in Endicott, N.Y., printing, cutting and stacking five to 10 million punched cards every day.” During the 1960s and 70’s, the punched card was gradually replaced as the primary means for data storage by magnetic tape, as better, more capable computers became available. Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate

This is the inscription on an IBM punched card. Frequently, office workers organize papers and forms by stapling or folding them together, or by impaling them on a spindle. Because punched card readers scan uniform rectangular holes in a precise arrangement, any damage to the physical card makes it unusable. In the 1950s and 1960s, when punched cards became widespread, manufacturers printed a warning on each card; IBM's "Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate" was the best known. In 1964, the student revolution at the University of California, Berkeley, used the phrase as a symbol of authority and regimentation. You are just a Card

In the 60’s Free Speech Movement, the punch card became a metaphor (symbol) of the system. Punch Cards represented the bureaucratic system. Punch cards were the symbol of information machines and so they became the point of attack. When punch cards were used in student registration it was the first and foremost symbol of uniformity. A student was no more than one of thousands of cards. Students revolted against the ‘machine’, the symbol of impersonality. This stigma would continue until the advent of personal computers delivering personal tools to the masses. Did the Punch Card start the Free Speech Movement?

Fold Spindle Mutilate Free Speech Movement Being Carded

I loved blank punch cards… they were the best ‘note pad’ to keep in your shirt pocket (right behind your pocket protector).

I know it sounds a little nerdy, but there was something more tangible and meaningful about a ‘to do’ list on a card vs. a flimsy piece of paper. I would whip out my cards, put a red line through a to-do item, and have a sense of completion.

At the end of the day, I would transfer partially completed cards to the ‘next day’ cards, and close up shop.

So, I will now close up shop on this Punched Card series...Next up “Magnetic Storage”.