INTRODUCTION
Allen Kent and James W. Perry
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
AND
Robert S. Casey
W. A. Sheaffer Pen Co., Fort Madison, Iowa
Methods and systems for expediting the recall and correlation of recorded information by applying various mechanical and electronic devices have made rapid strides during the past decade. The "recorded information" may be entries in notebooks, records on pieces of paper, correspondence files, collections of reprints, notes on file cards, accounts, financial transactions, measurements, calculations, pictures, diagrams, drawings, descriptions of people and things—almost anything the human mind can conceive. "Recorded information" on one hand represents all the books and journals ever printed; on the other hand, it is the growing aceumula-tion of data in your own laboratory or office. It is toward solution of the latter problem that this book is directed.
Punched cards are being applied to a steadily widening range of subject matter. One result has been to stimulate interest in similar applications of various electronic devices, especially computers, and another has been to initiate the development of specially designed searching and selecting machines. At present, however, a variety of punched cards is the most widely used type of mechanical aid for facilitating the retrieval and correlation of recorded information.
The two general types of punched cards, for hand sorting and machine sorting, have been in the process of development for almost two centuries. The control card for looms, invented in 1780 by Joseph Jacquard, laid the foundation for the future development of information storage tools. The loom control card stored the information necessary to reproduce patterns consistently during the weaving of fabrics.
Another pioneering development of unusual importance in the development of present-day information control devices was the "analytical engine" invented by Charles Babbage about 1840. This device used prepunched cards to facilitate statistical control.
The first punched cards and equipment for manipulating them which resembled modern counterparts appeared about 1880, when Dr. Herman...
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