This late 1960s educational color film (#14-675) provides an overview of the introductory principles for using punched cards in punched card data processing using the IBM 029 Key Punch machine, which was introduced in 1964. This film is one of a seven-part series produced by Moreland-Latchford and distributed by Sterling Educational Films. This film covers an introduction to the punched card, numeric organization, alphabetic principles, reading, fields, and card design. The film opens with people working on punched card machines in an office. A roll of paper is fed into a printing drum and the punched cards are cut. A cut card is measured for accuracy (01:12). Viewers see the various card colors. Punched cards are stacked and sorted in a sorting machine (01:45). The film shows one style of punched card with a cut corner. There is a closeup shot of the rows of numbers on each card (02:43): 12 rows and 80 columns. The film shows various punched cards, then shows a person using a marker to mark off how a numeric value would be punched on a card. Next, the film reviews how letters are transferred onto a punched card using the zone fields and numbers. The film encourages viewers to memorize a sequence of numbers related to the division of letters as they relate to numeric values (06:33). Someone retrieves a punched card from a file drawer of cards (07:10). An image is used to show how a contact roller reads a punched card. There is a shot of a card broken up into fields of columns (08:51). The film then reviews how to break up fields to record an employee’s name, employee number, and employee’s phone number. The film also looks at the student record of Louise Martin and discusses how to transfer student information (student name, sex, class number, and address) onto a punched card (11:22). A person breaks up a punched card into the appropriate number of fields by drawing lines down the punched card for each field, concluding the film.
A punched card or punch card is a piece of stiff paper that can be used to contain digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Digital data can be for data processing applications or, in earlier examples, used to directly control automated machinery.
Punched cards were widely used through much of the 20th century in the data processing industry, where specialized and increasingly complex unit record machines, organized into semiautomatic data processing systems, used punched cards for data input, output, and storage. Many early digital computers used punched cards, often prepared using keypunch machines, as the primary medium for input of both computer programs and data.
While punched cards are now obsolete as a storage medium, as of 2012, some voting machines still use punched cards to record votes.
The IBM 29 card punch shown was announced on October 14, 1964, the newest version of a device first developed 74 years earlier. The punch and its companion, the IBM 59 card verifier, were used to record and check information in punched cards. The cards were then read and processed by a computer or an accounting machine. The IBM 29 remained in the product catalog until May 1984.
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