On Sun, 7 Mar 1999, Jay West wrote:
> Just a curious question:
>
> Which came first, paper tape or punched cards? I'm not concerned about
> "invention" dates, I'm more interested in "came into very common use" dates.
> Actually, I'm not concerned about dates either - just which one came into
> very common use the first.
>
> Always wondered - thought people here may have an idea.
Good question. Did the Jacquard Loom (circa 1805?) come before player
pianos? If so then I believe punched cards came first, and were adopted
for use by Hollerith in his census tabulating machines. I don't know when
punched tape came into regular use for computers specifically. I do know
that Konrad Zuse's (pronounced tzoo-zay) Z1 (or was it the Z3?) used
punched 35mm film recycled from his local movie theater. This is circa
1937.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Sun Mar 07 1999 - 18:31:57 GMT