On Wed, 16 Feb 2005, Paul Koning wrote:
> As for rounded corners -- printers can die cut stuff, so that's
> doable, but cards with square corners have been used. For example,
> the old "Giro" bank transfer by mail payment system that appeared in
> Holland in the 1960s (or 1950s, I'm not sure) used punch cards with
> square corners. There was a corner cut at the upper left as usual,
> but no rounding on the others. Those cards were processed by the
> millions, day in day out...
In the late 1960s, my father did statistical and sociological stuff for
CBS (such as, remember the "National Driver's Test"?)
For one of the studies, they used portapunch cards (standard IBM cards
using every other (40) columns, partially punched, like a ballot)
They had their sample (in NYC) mail them bare like postcards!
By opening the throat a bit wider than normal on a relatively slow card
reader, they were actually able to read the cards into a 360, with only a
few jams!
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Wed Feb 16 2005 - 15:40:16 GMT