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{{Short description|Paper-based recording medium}}
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[[File:Used Punchcard (5151286161).jpg|thumb|300px|A 12-row/80-column [[IBM]] punched card from the mid-twentieth century]]

A '''punched card''' (also '''punch card'''<ref name="Pinker_2007"/> or '''punched-card'''<ref name="Remington_1941"/>) is a stiff paper-based medium used to store [[digital information]] via the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Developed over the 18th to 20th centuries, punched cards were widely used for [[data processing]], the control of [[automated machine]]s, and [[computing]]. Early applications included controlling weaving looms and recording census data.

Punched cards were widely used in the 20th century, where [[unit record equipment|unit record machines]], organized into [[data processing system]]s, used punched cards for [[Input (computer science)|data input]], data output, and [[data storage]].<ref name="Cortada_1993"/><ref name="Brooks_1963"/> The [[IBM]] 12-row/80-column punched card format came to dominate the industry. Many early [[digital computer]]s used punched cards as the primary medium for input of both [[computer program]]s and [[Data (computing)|data]]. Punched cards were used for decades before being replaced by magnetic storage and terminals. Their influence persists in cultural references, standardized data layouts, and computing conventions such as 80-character line widths.

Data can be entered onto a punched card using a [[keypunch]].

While punched cards are now obsolete as a [[storage medium]], as of 2012, some [[voting machine]]s still used punched cards to record votes.<ref name="NBC_2012"/> Punched cards also had a significant cultural impact in the 20th century.

[[File:Jacquard.loom.cards.jpg|thumb|right|Close-up of a [[Jacquard loom]]'s chain, constructed using 8 × 26 hole punched cards]]

==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===
[[File:DMM 29263ab Jacquardwebstuhl.jpg|thumb|Carpet loom with Jacquard apparatus by Carl Engel, around 1860. Chain feed is on the left.]]

[[Basile Bouchon]] developed the control of a [[loom]] by punched holes in paper tape in 1725. The design was improved by his assistant Jean-Baptiste Falcon and by [[Jacques Vaucanson]].<ref name="Razy_1913"/> Although these improvements controlled the patterns woven, they still required an assistant to operate the mechanism.

In 1804 [[Joseph Marie Jacquard]] 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 [[shed (weaving)|shedding]] (raising and lowering the [[warp (weaving)|warp]]) and selecting the shuttle for a single pass.<ref name="OUP_2007"/>

[[Semyon Korsakov]] 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.<ref name="Jacquard"/>

[[Charles Babbage]] proposed the use of "Number Cards", "pierced with certain holes and stand[ing] opposite 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.<ref name="Babbage_1837"/> There is no evidence that he built a practical example.

In 1881, [[Jules Carpentier]] developed a method of recording and playing back performances on a [[harmonium]] using punched cards. The system was called the ''Mélographe Répétiteur'' and "writes down ordinary music played on the keyboard dans le langage de Jacquard",<ref name="Southgate_1881"/> 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.<ref name="Seaver_2010"/><ref name="Pianola_2016"/>

===20th century===
At the end of the 1800s [[Herman Hollerith]] created a method for recording data on a medium that could then be read by a machine,<ref name="CH_ETS"/><ref name="Randell_1982"/><ref name="Hollerith_1884"/><ref name="Patent_2"/> developing punched card data processing technology for the [[1890 United States census|1890 U.S. census]].<ref name="daCruz_2019"/>  This was inspired in part by [[Jacquard loom]] weaving technology and by railway punch photographs.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Sobel |first=Robert |title=I.B.M., colossus in transition |date=1981 |publisher=Times Books |isbn=978-0-8129-1000-1 |location=New York |pages=15}}</ref>  '''Punch photographs''' were quick ways for conductors to mark a ticket with a description of the ticket buyer (e.g., short or tall, dark or light hair).<ref name=":0" />  They were used to reduce ticket fraud, as conductors could "read" the punched holes to get a basic description of the person to whom the ticket was sold.<ref name=":0" />  

Hollerith's [[tabulating machine]]s read and summarized data stored on punched cards and they began use for government and commercial data processing. Initially, these [[Electromechanics|electromechanical]] machines only counted holes, but by the 1920s they had units for carrying out basic arithmetic operations.<ref name="Austrian_1982"/>{{rp|page=124}}

Hollerith founded the ''Tabulating Machine Company'' (1896) which was one of four companies that were [[Consolidation (business)|amalgamated via stock acquisition]] to form a fifth company, [[Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company]] (CTR) in 1911, later renamed [[International Business Machines|International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)]] in 1924. Other companies entering the punched card business included [[British Tabulating Machine Company|The Tabulator Limited]] (Britain, 1902), [[Dehomag|Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH (Dehomag)]] (Germany, 1911), [[Powers Accounting Machine|Powers Accounting Machine Company]] (US, 1911), [[Remington Rand]] (US, 1927), and [[Groupe Bull|H.W. Egli Bull]] (France, 1931).<ref name="SperryRand_1967" /> These companies, and others, manufactured and marketed a variety of punched cards and [[Unit record equipment|unit record machines]] for creating, sorting, and tabulating punched cards, even after the development of electronic computers in the 1950s.

[[File:This is a card puncher, an integral part of the tabulation system used by the United States Census Bureau to compile... - NARA - 513295.jpg|thumb|Woman operating the card puncher, c.1940]]

Both IBM and Remington Rand tied punched card purchases to machine leases, a violation of the US 1914 [[Clayton Antitrust Act]]. 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.<ref name="Justia_1936"/><ref name="Belden_1962"/>{{rp|pages=300–301}}

"By 1937... IBM had 32 presses at work in Endicott, N.Y., printing, cutting and stacking five to 10 million punched cards every day."<ref name="Endicott_2003"/> Punched cards were even used as legal documents, such as [[U.S. Government]] checks<ref name="Lubar_1993"/> and savings bonds.<ref name="IBM_2003"/>

During [[World War II]] punched card equipment was used by the Allies in some of their efforts to decrypt Axis communications. See, for example, [[Central Bureau]] in Australia. At [[Bletchley Park]] in England, "some 2 million punched cards a week were being produced, indicating the sheer scale of this part of the operation".<ref name="CnC"/> In Nazi Germany, punched cards were used for the censuses of various regions and other purposes<ref name="Luebke-Milton_1994"/><ref name="Black_2009"/> (see [[IBM and the Holocaust]]).
[[File:Keypunch operator 1950 census IBM 016.jpg|thumb|Clerk creating punch cards containing data from the [[1950 United States census]].]]
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 (stationery)|spindle]] 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]] era.<ref name="Lubar_1992"/><!--- parts of this paragraph copied from [[History of computing hardware#801: punched card technology]] ---><ref name="WhatIs"/>

In 1956<ref name="JustDep_1996"/> 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. [[Thomas Watson Jr.|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 J. Watson|Thomas Watson Sr]].<ref name="Belden_1962"/>

The Univac [[UNITYPER]] introduced magnetic tape for data entry in the 1950s. During the 1960s, the punched card was gradually replaced as the primary means for [[computer storage|data storage]] by [[magnetic tape data storage|magnetic tape]], as better, more capable computers became available. [[Mohawk Data Sciences]] 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 <!-- "programming" is the act, "program" is the physical object punched in the cards-->until the mid-1980s when the combination of lower cost [[disk drive|magnetic disk storage]], and affordable [[computer terminal|interactive terminals]] on less expensive [[minicomputer]]s made punched cards obsolete for these roles as well.<ref name="Aspray_1990"/>{{rp|page=151}} However, their influence lives on through many standard conventions and file formats. The terminals that replaced the punched cards, the [[IBM 3270]] for example, displayed 80 [[Characters per line|columns of text]] in [[text mode]], 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]]s with variable-width type fonts.

==Nomenclature==
[[File:Punched card program deck.agr.jpg|thumb|A deck of punched cards comprising a computer program. The red diagonal line is a visual aid to keep the deck sorted.<ref name="Miami"/>]]
The terms ''punched card'', ''punch card'', and ''punchcard'' were all commonly used, as were ''IBM card'' and ''Hollerith card'' (after [[Herman Hollerith]]).<ref name="Pinker_2007"/> IBM used "IBM card" or, later, "punched card" at first mention in its documentation and thereafter simply "card" or "cards".<ref name="IBM_1946"/><ref name="IBM_1962"/> 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''.<!-- a random group of cards is not a deck --> The rectangular, round, or oval bits of paper punched out were called [[chad (computer)|chad]] (''chads'') or ''chips'' (in IBM usage). Sequential<!-- not adjacent! Columns 45-46 can be a field on both IBM and RR, but are adjacent only on IBM--> 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.<ref name="Truedsell_1965"/> 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.<ref name="IBM_1956"/> "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.<ref name="IBM_1962_2"/> 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 ===
[[File:Hollerith punched card.jpg|thumb|Hollerith card as shown in the ''[[Railroad Gazette]]'' in 1895, with 12 rows and 24 columns.<ref name="Railroad_1895"/>]]

[[Herman Hollerith]] was awarded three patents<ref name="USP395782"/> in 1889 for electromechanical [[tabulating machine]]s. These patents described both [[paper tape]] and rectangular cards as possible recording media. The card shown in {{US patent|src=uspto|395781}} 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]]'s [[ticket punch]], 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:

{{blockquote|I was traveling in the West and I had a ticket with what I think was called a punch photograph...the conductor...punched out a description of the individual, as light hair, dark eyes, large nose, etc. So you see, I only made a punch photograph of each person.<ref name="Austrian_1982"/>{{rp|page=15}}}}

When use of the ticket punch proved tiring and error-prone, Hollerith developed the [[pantograph]] "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.<ref name="Truedsell_1965"/>{{rp|page=43}}

Hollerith envisioned a number of card sizes. In an article he wrote describing his proposed system for tabulating the [[1890 United States census|1890 U.S. census]], Hollerith suggested a card {{convert|3|by|5+1/2|in|cm}} of [[Manila paper|Manila stock]] "would be sufficient to answer all ordinary purposes."<ref name="Hollerith_1889"/> 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.<ref name="daCruz_2019_2"/> At some point, {{convert|3+1/4|by|7+3/8|in|0}} became the standard card size. These are the dimensions of the [[Federal Reserve Note#Large-size notes|then-current paper currency]] of 1862–1923.<ref name="Littleton"/> This size was needed in order to use available banking-type storage for the 60,000,000 punched cards to come nationwide.<ref name="daCruz_2019_2" />

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]], combination of holes.<ref name="Hollerith_1889"/>

Later designs led to a card with ten rows, each row assigned a digit value, 0 through 9, and 45 columns.<ref name="Bashe-Johnson-Palmer-Pugh_1986"/> 
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 [[Leslie Comrie|Comrie]]'s ''The application of the Hollerith Tabulating Machine to Brown's Tables of the Moon''.<ref name="Comrie_1932"/>

=== IBM 80-column format and character codes ===
[[File:FortranCardPROJ039.agr.jpg|thumb|Punched card from a [[Fortran]] program: Z(1) = Y + W(1), plus sorting information in the last 8 columns.]]

By the late 1920s, customers wanted to store more data on each punched card. [[Thomas J. Watson|Thomas J. Watson Sr.]], IBM's head, asked two of his top inventors, [[Clair D. Lake]] and [[J. Royden Pierce]], 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 to 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.<ref name="Lake_1928"/> 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.<ref name="IBM_2012"/>

This IBM card format, introduced in 1928,<ref name="IBM_1928"/> has rectangular holes, 80 columns, and 10 rows.<ref name="Pugh_IBM"/> Card size is {{convert|7+3/8|by|3+1/4|in|mm}}. The cards are made of smooth stock, {{convert|0.007|in|um}} thick. There are about 143 cards to the inch ({{#expr:143/2.54round0}}/cm). In 1964, IBM changed from square to round corners.<ref name="IBM_OldNew"/> They come typically in boxes of 2,000 cards<ref name="Boyd_2007"/> or as [[Continuous stationery|continuous form]] cards. Continuous form cards could be both pre-numbered and pre-punched for document control (checks, for example).<ref name="IBM_1953"/>

Initially designed to record responses to [[yes–no question]]s, support for numeric, [[Character encoding|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).<ref name="ReferenceA_1961"/> For decimal data the lower ten positions are called '''digit punching positions''', 0 (top) through 9.<ref name="ReferenceA_1961"/> 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]] [[Coins of the pound sterling#Pre-decimal coinage|pre-decimalization currency]] a [[penny]] 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]] column.<ref name="Cemach_1951"/>{{rp|page=9}} Zone punches had other uses in processing, such as indicating a master card.<ref name="IBM_1959_2"/>

[[File:Blue-punch-card-front-horiz.png|thumb|An 80-column punched card with the extended character set introduced with [[EBCDIC]] in 1964.]]

Diagram:<ref name="Iowa_2"/>

<pre style="width:fit-content;white-spacing:nowrap">
    _______________________________________________
   / &-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
  |________________________________________________
</pre>
''Note: The 11 and 12 zones were also called the X and Y zones, respectively.''

In 1931, IBM began introducing upper-case letters and special characters (Powers-Samas had developed the first commercial alphabetic punched card representation in 1921).<ref name="Rojas_2001"/><ref name="Pugh_1995"/><ref group="nb" name="NB_Special_characters"/> The 26 letters have two punches (zone [12,11,0] + digit [1–9]). The languages of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Finland require up to three additional letters; their punching is not shown here.<ref name="Mackenzie_1980"/>{{rp|pages=88–90}} Most special characters have two or three punches (zone [12,11,0, or none] + digit [2–7] + 8); a few special characters were exceptions: "&" is 12 only, "-" is 11 only, and "/" is 0 + 1). The Space character has no punches.<ref name="Mackenzie_1980"/>{{rp|page=38}} The information represented in a column by a combination of zones [12, 11, 0] and digits [0–9] is 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]] in 1964 defined columns with as many as six punches (zones [12,11,0,8,9] + digit [1–7]). IBM and other manufacturers used many different 80-column card [[character encoding]]s.<ref name="Winter_80"/><ref name="Jones_2"/> 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.<ref name="Mackenzie_1980"/>{{rp|page=7}}

[[File:IBM1130CopyCard.agr.jpg|thumb|[[Binary code|Binary]] punched card.]]

For some computer applications, [[Binary numeral system|binary]] formats were used, where each hole represented a single binary digit (or "[[bit]]"), every column (or row) is treated as a simple [[bit field]], and every combination of holes is permitted.

For example, on the [[IBM 701]]<ref name="IBM_1953_Principles"/> and [[IBM 704]],<ref name="IBM_1955_EDP"/> card data was read, using an [[IBM 711]], into memory in row binary format. For each of the twelve rows of the card, 72 of the 80 columns, skipping the other eight, would be read into two [[36-bit]] words, requiring 864 bits to store the whole card; 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.

The IBM card readers 3504, [[IBM 3505|3505]] and the multifunction unit 3525 used a different encoding scheme for column binary data, also known as [[card image]], where each column, split into two rows of 6 (12–3 and 4–9) was encoded into two 8-bit bytes, holes in each group represented by bits 2 to 7 (MSb [[Bit numbering|numbering]], bit 0 and 1 unused ) in successive bytes. This required 160 8-bit bytes, or 1280 bits, to store the whole card.<ref name="IBM GA21-9124-5" />

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.

[[File:IBM lace card.jpg|thumb|left|Invalid "lace cards" such as this pose mechanical problems for card readers.]]

As a prank, punched cards could be made where every possible punch position had a hole. Such "[[lace card]]s" lacked structural strength, and would frequently buckle and jam inside the machine.<ref name="Raymond_1991"/>

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.<ref name="Maxfield_2011"/>

[[File:Punch-card-5081.jpg|thumb|A 5081 card from a non-IBM manufacturer.]]

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.<ref name="IBM_1953"/><ref name="IBM_1965_2"/> A common length for stub cards was 51 columns. Stub cards were used in applications requiring tags, labels, or carbon copies.<ref name="IBM_1953"/>

=== 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.''<ref name="IBM_2003_3"/>
<gallery>
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
</gallery>

=== IBM 96-column format ===
[[File:System 3 punch card.jpg|thumb|IBM 96-column punched card]]
In 1969 IBM introduced a new, smaller, round-hole, 96-column card format along with the [[IBM System/3]] low-end business computer. These cards have tiny, 1&nbsp;mm diameter circular holes, smaller than those in [[Punched tape|paper tape]]. Data is stored in 6-bit [[BCD (character encoding)|BCD]], with three rows of 32 characters each, or 8-bit [[EBCDIC]]. 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.<ref name="Winter_96"/> 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 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|IBM 3740 Data Entry System]] using [[Floppy disk#8-inch floppy disk|8-inch floppy disks]].

The format was however recycled in 1978 when IBM re-used the mechanism in its [[IBM 3624]] [[ATM]]s as print-only receipt printers.

=== Powers/Remington Rand/UNIVAC 90-column format ===
[[File:RemingtonRandCard.agr.jpg|thumb|left|A blank [[Remington Rand]] [[UNIVAC]] format card. Card courtesy of [[MIT Museum]].]]
[[File:Remington Rand punched card.mw.jpg|thumb|A punched Remington Rand card with an IBM card for comparison]]

The Powers/Remington Rand card format was initially the same as Hollerith's; 45 columns and round holes. In 1930, [[Remington Rand]] 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.<ref name="Aspray_1990"/>{{rp|page=142}} 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.<ref name="Quadibloc"/><ref name="Winter_90"/>

=== Powers-Samas formats ===
The British [[Powers-Samas]] company used a variety of card formats for their [[unit record equipment]]. 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.<ref name="Cemach_1951"/>{{rp|pages=47–51}}

=== Mark sense format ===
[[File:HP Educational Basic optical mark-reader card. Godfrey Manning..jpg|thumb|left|HP Educational Basic optical mark-reader card.]]

[[Mark sense]] ([[electrographic]]) cards, developed by [[Reynold B. Johnson]] at IBM,<ref name="Fisher_1998"/> 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 ===
[[File:Aperture card.JPG|thumb|[[Aperture card]]]]

[[Aperture card]]s have a cut-out hole on the right side of the punched card. A piece of 35&nbsp;mm microfilm containing a [[microform]] image is mounted in the hole. Aperture cards are used for [[engineering drawing]]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 ==
[[File:Unused punch card from UIC.jpg|thumb|left|Institutions, such as universities, often had their general purpose cards printed with a logo. A wide variety of forms and documents were printed on punched cards, including checks. Such printing did not interfere with the operation of the machinery.]]
[[File:PunchedCardPrintingPlate.agr.jpg|thumb|upright|A punched card printing plate.]]

IBM's Fred M. Carroll<ref name="IBM_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.<ref name="Endicott_2003"/><ref name="Carroll_2003"/> Carroll's high-speed press, containing a printing cylinder, revolutionized the company's manufacturing of punched cards.<ref name="IBM_2003_1"/> It is estimated that between 1930 and 1950, the Carroll press accounted for as much as 25 percent of the company's profits.<ref name="Belden_1962"/>

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<ref name="IBM_2003_2"/> had its own printing plate).

In the mid-1930s a box of 1,000 cards cost $1.05 ({{Inflation|US|1.05|1935|r=0|fmt=eq}}).<ref name="Cortada_2019"/>

==Cultural impact==
[[File:US Savings Bond EE $75.png|thumb|A $75 U.S. Savings Bond, Series EE issued as a punched card. Eight of the holes record the bond serial number.]]
[[File:Photograph of Federal Records Center, Alexandria, Virginia (34877725360).jpg|thumb|Cartons of punched cards stored in a [[National Archives and Records Administration|United States National Archives Records Service]] facility in 1959. Each carton could hold 2,000 cards.]]

While punched cards have not been widely used for generations, 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''<ref name="Tyler_1968"/><ref name="Betsy_1987"/><!--- think anti-war protest: the cultural impact lasted -->
* Artist and architect [[Maya Lin]] in 2004 designed a [[public art]] installation at Ohio University, titled "Input", that looks like a punched card from the air.<ref name="Mayalin_2009"/>
* 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.<ref name="Mizzou"/>
* At the University of Wisconsin – Madison, the exterior windows of the Engineering Research Building<ref name="Fpm"/> 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."<ref name="Panoramio"/>
* In the 1964–1965 [[Free Speech Movement]], punched cards became a

: <blockquote>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&nbsp;Lubar<ref name="Lubar_1992"/></blockquote>
* A legacy of the 80 column punched card format is that a display of 80 [[Characters per line|characters per row]] was a common choice in the design of [[Computer terminal#Historical|character-based terminals]].<ref>{{cite web |title=All About CRT Display Terminals |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/datapro/datapro_70/70D-010-20_All_About_CRT_Display_Terminals_Apr1974.pdf |access-date=16 January 2023 |page=11}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine| last=Rader |first=Ron |date=1981-10-26 |title=Big Screen, 132-Column Units Setting Trend |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1REkdf3I86oC&pg=RA2-PA41 |magazine=Computerworld | at= Special Report p. 41 |access-date=2023-01-16}}</ref> 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]], still use 80-character [[card image]]s. The [[two-line element set]] format for tracking objects in Earth orbit is based on punch cards.
* In [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s early short story "[[Rescue Party]]", 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".<ref name="Clarke_1946"/> 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 (Lily Tomlin album)|''This Is a Recording'']], comedian [[Lily Tomlin]] gives instructions that, if followed, would purportedly shrink the holes on a punch card (used by [[AT&T Corporation|AT&T]] 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 [[turnaround document|use and return]] is "Do Not Fold, [[Spindle (stationery)|Spindle]] or Mutilate" (in the UK "Do not bend, spike, fold or mutilate").<ref name="Lubar_1992"/>{{rp|pages=43–55}} Coined by Charles A. Phillips,<ref name="Lee"/> it became a motto<ref name="Jane"/> for the post–[[World War II]] 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".<ref name="Albertson_1975"/> The motto was also used for a 1970 book by [[Doris Miles Disney]]<ref name="Disney_1970"/> with a plot based around an early [[computer dating]] service and a 1971 [[Television film|made-for-TV]] [[Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate|movie]] based on that book, and a similarly titled 1967 Canadian short film, ''[[Do Not Fold, Staple, Spindle or Mutilate]]''.

==Standards==
[[File:Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches.jpg|thumb|A U.S. Census Bureau clerk (left) prepares punch cards using a pantograph similar to that developed by Herman Hollerith for the 1890 Census, while a second clerk (right) uses a 1930s key punch to perform the same task more quickly.]]
[[File:Early US Census Machines 1954 08004.jpg|thumb|A wall-sized display sample of a punch card for the 1954 U.S. Census of Agriculture]]

* 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 {{convert|3+1/4|in|mm|adj=mid|-wide}} 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]]es—machines with a keyboard that punched cards from operator entered data.
* [[Unit record equipment]]—machines that process data on punched cards. Employed prior to the widespread use of digital computers. Includes [[card sorter]]s, [[tabulating machines]] and a variety of other machines
* [[Punched card input/output|Computer punched card reader]]—a computer input device used to read executable computer programs and data from punched cards under computer control. Card readers, found in early computers, could read up to 100 cards per minute, while traditional "high-speed" card readers could read about 1,000 cards per minute.<ref name="sys-prog-1972">{{cite book |title=Systems Programming |last=Donovan |first=John J. |author-link=John J. Donovan |isbn=0-07-085175-1 |date=1972 |page=351 |publisher=McGraw-Hill }}</ref>
* [[Punched card input/output|Computer card punch]]—a computer output device that punches holes in cards under computer control.
* [[Voting machine#Punched card|Voting machine]]s—used into the 21st century

==See also==
* [[Aperture card]]
* [[Book music]]
* [[Card image]]
* [[Computer programming in the punched card era]]
* [[Edge-notched card]]
* [[History of computing hardware]]
* [[Kimball tag]]—punched card price tags
* [[Paper data storage]]
* [[Punched card input/output]]
* [[Punched tape]]
* [[Lace card]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group="nb"|refs=
<ref group="nb" name="NB_Special_characters">Special characters are non-alphabetic, non-numeric, such as "&#,$.-/@%*?"</ref>
}}

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="Pinker_2007">{{cite book |author-first=Steven Arthur |author-last=Pinker |author-link=Steven Arthur Pinker |title=The Stuff of Thought |publisher=[[Viking (publisher)|Viking]] |date=2007 |page=362}} (NB. Notes the loss of ''-ed'' in pronunciation ''as it did in ice cream, mincemeat, and box set, formerly iced cream, minced meat, and boxed set.'')</ref>
<ref name="Belden_1962">{{cite book |author-first1=Thomas |author-last1=Belden |author-last2=Belden |author-first2=Marva |title=The Lengthening Shadow: The Life of Thomas J. Watson |date=1962 |publisher=[[Little, Brown & Company]] |pages=300–301 |url=https://archive.org/details/lengtheningshado00beld |url-access=registration}}</ref>
<ref name="Austrian_1982">{{cite book |author-last=Austrian |author-first=Geoffrey D. |title=Herman Hollerith: The Forgotten Giant of Information Processing |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |date=1982 |pages=15, 124, 418– |isbn=978-0-231-05146-0 }}</ref>
<ref name="Cemach_1951">{{cite book |author-last=Cemach |author-first=Harry P. |title=The Elements of Punched Card Accounting |publisher=[[Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd]] |date=1951 |pages=9, 47–51, 137–}} Machine illustrations were provided by Power-Samas Accounting Machines and British Tabulating Machine Co.</ref>
<ref name="Truedsell_1965">{{cite book |author1-link=Leon E. Truesdell |author-last=Truesdell |author-first=Leon E. |title=The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census 1890–1940 |date=1965 |publisher=[[US GPO]] |page=43}} Includes extensive, detailed, description of Hollerith's first machines and their use for the 1890 census.</ref>
<ref name="Lubar_1992">{{cite journal |title=Do Not Fold, Spindle Or Mutilate: A Cultural History Of The Punch Card |author-last=Lubar |author-first=Steven |journal=Journal of American Culture |date=Winter 1992 |volume=15 |issue=4 |doi=10.1111/j.1542-734X.1992.1504_43.x |pages=43–55 |url=http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/PDFs/lubar-hollerith.pdf |access-date=2011-06-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002224559/http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/PDFs/lubar-hollerith.pdf |archive-date=2012-10-02 |quote-pages=43–55 |quote=Security checks issued starting in 1936 […]}} (13 pages); {{cite web |title=Do not fold, spindle or mutilate: A cultural history of the punch card |author-first=Steven |author-last=Lubar |date=May 1991 |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/slubar/fsm.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060830162506/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/slubar/fsm.html |archive-date=2006-08-30}} (NB. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Bureau of the Census's Hollerith Machine Centennial Celebration on 1990-06-20.)</ref>
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<ref name="Miami">{{cite web |url=http://rabbit.eng.miami.edu/info/card.html |title=Punched Cards |website=miami.edu |publisher=[[University of Miami]] |access-date=2021-12-06 |quote=Once the cards were assembled in order in a deck, the programmer would usually draw a long diagonal line across the top edges of the cards, so that if ever one got out of order it would easily be noticed}}</ref>
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<ref name="Jane">{{cite web |title=Fold, spindle, or mutilate |url=https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fold%2C+spindle%2C+or+mutilate |quote=At the bottom of the bill, it said […] and Jane, in her anger, […]}}</ref>
<ref name="Albertson_1975">{{cite book |author-first=Dean |author-last=Albertson |title=Rebels or Revolutionaries? Student Movements of the 1960s |date=1975 |publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]] |isbn=978-0-67118737-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kd-bAAAAMAAJ&q=rebel+%22Do+Not+Fold,+Spindle+or+Mutilate%22 |access-date=2018-11-06}}</ref>
<ref name="Disney_1970">{{cite book |author-first=Doris Miles |author-last=Disney |title=Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate |publisher=[[Doubleday Crime Club]] |date=1970 |page=183}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM_1956">{{cite book |publisher=[[IBM]] |title=The Design of IBM Cards |date=1956 |id=22-5526-4 |url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Training/22-5526-4_The_Design_of_IBM_Cards_Mar56.pdf}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM_1962_2">{{cite book |publisher=[[IBM]] |title=Reference Manual – IBM 82, 83, and 84 Sorters |date=July 1962 |page=25 |id=A24-1034 |url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Sorter/A24-1034-1_82-83-84_sorters.pdf}}</ref>
<ref name="Hollerith_1889">{{cite journal |author-last=Hollerith |author-first=Herman |author-link=Herman Hollerith |editor-last=da Cruz |editor-first=Frank |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/hh/index.html#%5B-245-%5D |title=An Electric Tabulating System |journal=The Quarterly |publisher=[[School of Mines]], [[Columbia University]] |volume=10 |issue=16 |date=April 1889 |page=245}}</ref>
<ref name="Bashe-Johnson-Palmer-Pugh_1986">{{cite book |author-last1=Bashe |author-first1=Charles J. |author-last2=Johnson |author-first2=Lyle R. |author-last3=Palmer |author-first3=John H. |author-last4=Pugh |author-first4=Emerson W. |author-link4=Emerson W. Pugh |title=IBM's Early Computers |publisher=[[The MIT Press]] |date=1986 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |page=[https://archive.org/details/ibmsearlycompute00bash/page/5 5] |isbn=978-0-262-02225-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/ibmsearlycompute00bash/page/5}} (NB. Also see pages 5–14 for additional information on punched cards.)</ref>
<ref name="Railroad_1895">{{cite journal |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mcc&fileName=023/page.db&recNum=0&itemLink=r?ammem/mcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(mcc/023)) |title=Hollerith's Electric Tabulating Machine |journal=[[Railroad Gazette]] |date=1895-04-19 |access-date=2015-06-04 |archive-date=2015-03-20 |url-status=dead |via=[[Library of Congress]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320192309/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mcc&fileName=023/page.db&recNum=0&itemLink=r?ammem/mcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(mcc/023)) }}</ref>
<ref name="USP395782">{{US patent|src=uspto|395781}}, {{US patent|src=uspto|395782}}, {{US patent|src=uspto|395783}}</ref>
<ref name="daCruz_2019_2">{{cite web |author-last=da Cruz |author-first=Frank |url=https://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/census-tabulator.html |work=Columbia University Computing History |title=Hollerith 1890 Census Tabulator |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |access-date=2024-06-09 |date=2019-12-26}}</ref>
<ref name="Littleton">{{cite web |url=https://www.littletoncoin.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Display%7C10001%7C10001%7C-1%7C%7CLearnNav%7CLarge-Size-US-Paper-Money.html#large-size-legal-tender-notes |access-date=2017-03-16 |title=Large-Size U.S. Paper Money |website=Littleton Coin Company }}</ref>
<ref name="Comrie_1932">{{cite journal |author-last=Comrie |author-first=Leslie John |author-link=Leslie John Comrie |date=1932 |title=The application of the Hollerith tabulating machine to Brown's tables of the moon |journal=[[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]] |volume=92 |issue=7 |pages=694–707 |bibcode=1932MNRAS..92..694C |doi=10.1093/mnras/92.7.694 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM_1965_2">{{cite book |page=26 |id=A24-0520-3 |date=October 1965 |title=IBM 24 Card Punch, IBM 26 Printing Card Punch Reference Manual |quote=The variable-length card feed feature on the 24 or 26 allows the processing of 51-, 60-, 66-, and 80-column cards (Figure 20) |url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Keypunch/024-026/A24-0520-3_24_26_Card_Punch_Reference_Manual_Oct1965.pdf}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM_2003_3">{{cite web |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/specialprod2/specialprod2_5.html |title=IBM Archives: Port-A-Punch |date=2003-01-23 |publisher=03.ibm.com |access-date=2013-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103042646/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/specialprod2/specialprod2_5.html |archive-date=2015-01-03 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="Winter_96">{{cite web |author-last=Winter |author-first=Dik T. |title=96-column Punched Card Code |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070415041458/http://homepages.cwi.nl/~dik/english/codes/96col.html |archive-date=2007-04-15 |url=http://homepages.cwi.nl/~dik/english/codes/96col.html#start |access-date=2012-11-06 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="Quadibloc">{{cite web |url=http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/cardint.htm |title=The Punched Card |publisher=Quadibloc.com |access-date=2013-10-05}}</ref>
<ref name="Winter_90">{{cite web |author-last=Winter |author-first=Dik T. |title=90-column Punched Card Code |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050228223439/http://homepages.cwi.nl/~dik/english/codes/90col.html |archive-date=2005-02-28 |url=http://homepages.cwi.nl/~dik/english/codes/90col.html#start |access-date=2012-11-06 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="Fisher_1998">{{cite news |author-first=Lawrence M. |author-last=Fisher |title=Reynold Johnson, 92, Pioneer In Computer Hard Disk Drives |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/18/business/reynold-johnson-92-pioneer-in-computer-hard-disk-drives.html |date=1998-09-18 |access-date=2010-06-26}}</ref>
<ref name="Lake_1928">[http://ibm-1401.info/Patent1772492.pdf U.S. Patent 1,772,492, Record Sheet for Tabulating Machines], C. D. Lake, filed 1928-06-20</ref>
<ref name="IBM_1928">{{cite web |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1928.html |title=IBM Archives: 1928 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103043755/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1928.html |archive-date=2015-01-03 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="Pugh_IBM">[[Emerson W. Pugh|Pugh]] – Building IBM – page 49.</ref>
<ref name="IBM_OldNew">{{cite web |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/supplies/supplies_5404PH13.html |title=IBM Archives: Old and new punched cards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103054433/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/supplies/supplies_5404PH13.html |archive-date= 2015-01-03 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="Boyd_2007">{{cite book |page=405 |chapter=How Computational Chemistry Became Important in the Pharmaceutical Industry |author=Donald B. Boyd |title=Reviews in Computational Chemistry, Volume 23 |editor1=Kenny B. Lipkowitz |editor2=Thomas R. Cundari |editor3=Donald B. Boyd |publisher=[[Wiley & Son]] |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-470-08201-0}}</ref>
<ref name="ReferenceA_1961">{{cite book |title=Punched card Data Processing Principles |publisher=IBM |date=1961 |page=3}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM_1959_2">{{cite book |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Training/A24-1010-0_IBM_Operators_Reference.pdf |publisher=[[IBM]] |title=IBM Operator's Guide |id=A24-1010 |date=July 1959 |page=141 |quote=Master Card: The first card of a group containing fixed or indicative information for that group}}</ref>
<ref name="Iowa_2">{{cite web|last=Jones|first=Douglas W.|author-link=Douglas W. Jones|url=http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~dwjones/cards/codes.html |title=Punched Card Codes |publisher=Cs.uiowa.edu |access-date=2013-10-05}}</ref>
<ref name="Rojas_2001">{{cite book |editor-last=Rojas |editor-first=Raúl |editor-link=Raúl Rojas |title=Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer History |publisher=[[Fitzroy Dearborn]] |date=2001 |page=656}}</ref>
<ref name="Pugh_1995">{{cite book |author-last=Pugh |author-first=Emerson W. |author-link=Emerson W. Pugh |title=Building IBM: Shaping and Industry and Its Technology |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |date=1995 |isbn=978-0-262-16147-3 |pages=50–51}}</ref>
<ref name="Mackenzie_1980">{{cite book |title=Coded Character Sets, History and Development |series=The Systems Programming Series |author-last=Mackenzie |author-first=Charles E. |date=1980 |edition=1 |publisher=[[Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.]] |isbn=978-0-201-14460-4 |lccn=77-90165 |pages=7, 38, 88–90 |url=https://textfiles.meulie.net/bitsaved/Books/Mackenzie_CodedCharSets.pdf |access-date=2020-05-12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160526172151/https://textfiles.meulie.net/bitsaved/Books/Mackenzie_CodedCharSets.pdf |archive-date=2016-05-26}}</ref>
<ref name="Winter_80">{{cite web |author-last=Winter |author-first=Dik T. |title=80-column Punched Card Codes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408010814/http://homepages.cwi.nl/~dik/english/codes/80col.html |archive-date=2007-04-08 |url=http://homepages.cwi.nl/~dik/english/codes/80col.html |access-date=2012-11-06 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="Jones_2">{{cite web |author-last=Jones |author-first=Douglas W.|author-link=Douglas W. Jones|title=Punched Card Codes |url=http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~dwjones/cards/codes.html |access-date=2007-02-20}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM_1953_Principles">{{cite book |url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/701/24-6042-1_701_PrincOps.pdf |title=Principles of Operation, Type 701 and Associated Equipment |pages=34–36 |publisher=[[IBM]] |date=1953 |id=24-6042-1}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM_1955_EDP">{{cite book |url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/704/24-6661-2_704_Manual_1955.pdf|access-date=2024-09-01|title=704 Electronic Data Processing Machine – Manual of Operation |pages=39–50 |publisher=[[IBM]]|location=New York City|date=1955 |id=24-6661-2}}</ref>
<ref name="Raymond_1991">{{cite book |editor-last=Raymond |editor-first=Eric S. |editor-link=Eric S. Raymond |title=The New Hacker's Dictionary |url=https://archive.org/details/newhackersdictio00raym |url-access=registration |date=1991 |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |page=[https://archive.org/details/newhackersdictio00raym/page/219 219]}}</ref>
<ref name="Maxfield_2011">{{cite web |url=https://www.eetimes.com/how-it-was-paper-tapes-and-punched-cards/|title=How it was: Paper tapes and punched cards |author-first=Clive "Max" |author-last=Maxfield |website=[[EE Times]] |date=2011-10-13 |access-date=2022-07-05}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM GA21-9124-5">{{cite book|title=IBM 3504 Card Reader/IBM 3505 Card Reader and IBM 3525 Card Punch Subsystem|chapter=Card Image|page=8|id=GA21-9124-5|edition=6th|date=October 1974|publisher=IBM|location=Rochester, Minnesota|url=https://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/3504_3505/GA21-9124-5_3504_3505_3525_Card_Reader_Punch_Subsystem_Oct74.pdf|access-date=2024-09-01}}</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |title=Do not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate: The "hole" story of punched cards |author-last=Fierheller |author-first=George A. |date=2014-02-07 |publisher=Stewart Publishing & Printing |publication-place=Markham, Ontario, Canada |isbn=978-1-894183-86-4 |url=http://www.gfierheller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Do-Not-Fold-Feb-7-2014-web.pdf |access-date=2018-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709174738/https://www.gfierheller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Do-Not-Fold-Feb-7-2014-web.pdf |archive-date=2022-07-09|ref=none}} (NB. An accessible book of recollections (sometimes with errors), with photographs and descriptions of many unit record machines.)
* {{cite AV media |title=How to Succeed At Cards |publisher=[[IBM]] |date=1963 |medium=Film}} (NB. An account of how IBM Cards are manufactured, with special emphasis on quality control.)
* {{cite book |title=Mathematical Machines: Digital Computers |chapter=Chapter 6 Punched Cards |author-last=Murray |author-first=Francis Joseph |author-link=Francis Joseph Murray |volume=1 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |date=1961|ref=none}} (NB. Includes a description of Samas punched cards and illustration of an Underwood Samas punched card.)
* {{cite book |title=Annotated Bibliography of Films in Automation, Data Processing, and Computer Science |author-last1=Solomon Jr. |author-first1=Martin B. |author-last2=Lovan |author-first2=Nora Geraldine |publisher=[[University of Kentucky]] |date=1967|ref=none}}
* {{cite magazine |author-last=Dyson |author-first=George |title=The Undead |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |volume=7 |issue=3 |date=1999-03-01 |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.03/punchcards_pr.html |access-date=2017-07-04 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709175240/https://www.wired.com/1999/03/punchcards/ |archive-date=2022-07-09|ref=none}} (NB. Article about use of punched cards in the 1990s (Cardamation).)
* {{cite journal |title=Punched Cards: A Brief Tutorial |author-last=Williams |author-first=Robert V. |publisher=[[IEEE]] |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing: Web Extra |date=2002 |volume=24 |number=2 |url=http://www.computer.org/web/computingnow/annals/extras/cardsvol24n2 |access-date=2015-03-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613111742/https://www.computer.org/web/computingnow/annals/extras/cardsvol24n2 |archive-date=2018-06-13|ref=none}}

==External links==
{{Commons|Punch card}}
* [http://www.kloth.net/services/cardpunch.php An Emulator for Punched cards]
* [http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/literature/chapman/p013.htm Collected Information on Punched Card Codes], Atlas Computer Laboratory, 1960
* {{cite video |people=[[Brian De Palma]] (Director) |date=1961 |title=660124: The Story of an IBM Card |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256580/ |medium=Film}}
* {{cite web |author-last=Jones |author-first=Douglas W.|author-link=Douglas W. Jones|title=Punched Cards |url=http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~dwjones/cards/ |access-date=2006-10-20|ref=none}} (Collection shows examples of left, right, and no corner cuts.)
* [http://www.punctum.com/interest/punch/index.en.html Punched Cards] – a collection at Gesellschaft für Software mbH
* [http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/cards.html UNIVAC Punch Card Gallery] (Shows examples of both left and right corner cuts.)

{{Paper data storage media}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Punched card| ]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1887]]<!-- Baltimore test -->
[[Category:History of computing hardware]]
[[Category:History of software]]
[[Category:IBM storage devices]]
[[Category:Legacy hardware]]
[[Category:Wikipedia articles with ASCII art]]