The IBM Punched Card

OverviewTransforming the WorldTechnical BreakthroughsCultural

ImpactsThe TeamIn Their Words

Perhaps the earliest icon of the Information Age was a

simple punched card produced by IBM, commonly
known as the IBM card. Measuring just 7- inches by
3- inches, the piece of smooth stock paper was
unassuming, to be sure. But taken collectively, the IBM
card held nearly all of the worlds known information
for just under half a centuryan impressive feat even
by todays measures. It rose to popularity during the
Great Depression and quickly became a ubiquitous
installment in the worlds of data processing and
popular culture. Whats more, the punched card
provided such a significant profit stream that it was
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instrumental to IBMs rapid growth in the midtwentieth century.

In 1928, IBM introduced a new version of the punched card with rectangular
holes and 80 columns. This newly designed IBM Computer Card was the end
result of a competition between the companys top two research teams, working
in secrecy from one another. It turned out to be one of IBMs most important
technological innovations, propelling the company to the forefront of data
processing. For almost four decades, it was the major medium for storing,
sorting and reporting data processed first through punched card equipment and
later computers. As late as the mid-1950s, punched card sales made up 20
percent of IBMs revenues and an astonishing 30 percent of its bottom line.
Punched cards date back to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries when they were used to program cloth-making machinery and looms.
In the 1880s and 1890s, Herman Hollerith used them with his tabulatorsa core
product of what would eventually become IBM. Over the following three decades,
IBM and its rivals redesigned the cards using different sizes and greater numbers
of holesmostly roundeach one representing a piece of data (bit). IBMs first
card had 22 columns and 8 punch positions; then 24 columns and 10 positions
(1900); and until the late 1920s, it had 45 columns of round holes and 12 punch
positions. But it was not enough, as customers needed to put more data on each
card. The challenge, of course, was that the card was running out of room and
couldnt get any bigger. If IBM invented a new or larger card, it would need to
replace its entire equipment line and attempt to sell the machines all over again.
How could this problem be solved?
Thomas Watson Sr., head of IBM at the time, asked two of his best
inventors, Clair D. Lake and J. Royden Peirce, to each develop a new card. Both
had a long history of inventing punched card technologies and had more patents
between them than most American inventors of the twentieth century. He asked
them each to develop a solution independently of one another. Each formed a
team and went to work. Peirce wanted to use the existing card with round holes,
but make it possible for each hole to represent more than one number or symbol
thereby doubling the storage of data but with half of it devoted to
alphanumeric characters.
Lakes team proposed smaller holes, rectangular in shape, which would be
easier to read by the metal tabulators but also require new machines, specifically

punches and readers. In the middle of this contest sat James W. Bryce, IBMs
most prolific inventor of the century with more than 500 patents. He knew both
colleagues and understood their proposed innovations. Watson asked him to
choose the best solution. Bryce voted for Lakes approach because it could be
implemented quickly and required the least adjustment in how tabulating
machines worked. Bryce also knew there was little demand for alphabetic
information, and wanted to move away from round-holed machines which were
more common. Nobody had rectangular holes.
Watson accepted Lakes proposal for both technical and business reasons. It
was distinctive, it could be protected with patents, and it would work. He wanted
to promote it as the IBM card. Introduced in 1928, this card had 80 columns
(nearly twice the number as the old card), 10 rows for coding numbers, 12 in a
modified version of the card introduced in 1930. It was unique, well accepted by
customers, and served as a model for other special purpose cards and hardware
products introduced from the 1930s through the 1950s. By the late 1960s, most
of IBMs punched-card machines were no longer in production, although the
punched cards themselves lived on as the dominant input/output medium for
electronic computers.
Remington Rand was IBMs main competitor in the punched card space. In
1927, Rand purchased the Powers Accounting Machine Company and, in doing
so, kicked off a fierce innovation battle with IBM. The race of one-upmanship
resulted in a slew of accounting developments focused on speed and automatic
operations.
Beyond accounting purposes, the card had other uses in IBM. Until the
early 1990slong after IBM had ceased selling the punched cards for data
processingit was common practice for IBMers to use them for speaker notes for
presentations, as they fit comfortably in the inside pocket of a suit jacket.
Secretaries, too, used these cards for transcribing phone messages and typing
driving directions. Even IBM executives routinely carried them around with their
calendar for the day typed on them.
The IBM card will forever be tied to the modern age of information, serving
as the most commonly used method of data storage for nearly a half century. The
punched card was an essential part of IBMs development, and undoubtedly
helped shape the company as we know it today.