BBC - A History of the World - Object : 80 column punch card

80 column punch card

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Cards like these were used widely to input and store data for specialised data processing equipment from about 1890 to about 2000 - they may still be in use on some large computers. This one was acquired when I worked for ICL, and was probably intended for use with their 2900 series. Online terminals, large disks, personal computers and the internet have made them obsolete.

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1. At 15:44 on 17 August 2012, hilbornj wrote:
I am a little confused about who created the 80 column format. Most everything on the internet gives IBM with credit for having introduced it in 1928, however I used to own the machine below which was manufactured by the British Tabulating Machine Co. in 1919.

I have several photos available for posting, but not sure of how to do this.

The British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM)
80 Column punched card

The British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM), owed its origins to Herman Hollerith who invented punched-card machines in the 1880s. In 1896 Hollerith formed a small business in the United States to manufacture and market his machines. In 1908, this little-known American firm, the Tabulating Machine Company (TMC), gave an exclusive license to the British Tabulating Machine Company of London to market its punched-card machines in Britain and the Empire. The American Company subsequently became IBM and the British firm became ICT and later ICL.

In 1919 BTM began manufacturing their own keypunch machines using an 80 column format with rectangular holes. The original Hollerith code was based around a 45 column card with round holes, which IBM would use until 1928 when they adopted the 80 column BTM format with rectangular holes.

The machine was hand operated and the process of depressing a key to punch a hole in the card would also advance the card one column. Two keys would be depressed simultaneously to punch alphabetic characters. The keypunch operated by sliding the card right to left under the keypad and the holes were punched when the operator depressed a key. The card had to be loaded from the left side of the keypad and slid under the keypad to the right where it fit snugly against a metal stop and under a metal guide. Then the left end of the card was clipped under the card guide and the operator would begin punching. Punching the holes in the card was not a quick process. A good keypunch operator could only punch about 200 to 300 cards per hour.

The keypad has total of 14 keys. The topmost key is the card release key which allows the card to be removed from the machine as it slides the card freely from right to left. This is the key the operator pressed when she was done punching the card. The second key from the top would advance the card one column without punching a hole, i.e. a blank space. The remaining 12 keys were used to punch holes as designated by the key top. Of these 12, the top three keys are keys the ?12?, "11", and "0" or zone punches for alphabetic codes.

1919 ? 1920 British Tabulating Machine Keypunch

The manufacturer's tag indicates that this is machine #63312.

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