punched card

Also known as punch card, punchcard, Hollerith card, IBM card, tab card

paper-based recording medium

AI overview

A punched card is a piece of stiff paper with holes punched in specific patterns to record and store information, which machines could read and process. These cards were widely used in the early computing era to input data and instructions into computers before modern keyboards and digital storage became available.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Research

1,350 papers

Punched Card Preparation.Bulletin of the Medical Library Association · 1961
[Prebioptic punched-card].Ceskoslovenska gynekologie · 1972Nyklícek O
[Contraceptive punched card].Ceskoslovenska gynekologie · 1967Antos J, Cech O
Anaesthetic record card.Anaesthesia · 1963NOSWORTHY MDDOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2044.1963.tb13535.x
A PUNCHED-CARD REFERENCE SYSTEM FOR BIOCHEMISTS.Clinical chemistry · 1964WEISSMAN N
PUNCHED CARD PROGRAMMING AND RECORDING TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED IN THE AUTOMATION OF THE WATA.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 1963POLIDORA VJ, MAIN WTDOI: 10.1901/jeab.1963.6-599
[Collection of literature for a punched card index as supplement to the paper by D. Post. Proposals for the codification of literature dates].ReviewArchiv fur Toxikologie · 1969Schmidt G, Käppner R
Punched card system improves reporting.Modern hospital · 1967Russell WS, Glinski BC, Martz PC et al.

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Instance of: communications media
Subclass of: computer storage media
Part of: Tabulating machine
Field of work: textile manufacturing
Main subject: weaving
Depicts: paper
Image: Blue-punch-card-front-horiz.png

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discoverer or inventor: Charles Babbage
Commons category: Punch cards
topic's main category: Category:Punched card
Commons gallery: Punch card
described by source: Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia
different from: punched tape
P13411: Meryl Streep

Sources (1)

wikidata.org

via Wikidata · CC0

~34 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A set of two 12-row/80-column punched cards (one blank, one used) from the mid-twentieth century

A punched card (also punch card) is a stiff paper-based medium used to store digital information via the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Developed over the 19th to 20th centuries, punched cards were widely used for data processing, the control of automated machines, and computing. Early applications included controlling weaving looms and recording census data.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “punched card” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.