Definition: punch card

(1) See loyalty punch card.

(2) An early storage medium made of thin cardboard stock that held data as patterns of punched holes. Also called "punched" cards, each of the 80 or 96 columns held one character. The holes were punched by a human operator at a keypunch machine or on a stand-alone card reproducer. Punch cards were fed into computers by card readers.

From 1890 Until the mid-1980s
Punch cards were synonymous with data processing for about 80 years. Concepts were simple: the database was the file cabinet; a record was a card, and processing was performed on separate machines called "sorters," "collators," "reproducers," "calculators" and "accounting machines." Except for the sorter, all other machines were programmed by plugging wires into a board (see plugboard).

In the 1960s, punch cards became input to a computer rather than to machines that tabulated the cards directly. Also in the 1960s, data entry began migrating from keyboard-to-card to keyboard-to-magnetic tape for computer input, and slowly but surely punch cards died out, although some companies still used cards until the mid-1980s.

Gone But Not Forgotten
Today, the punch card has long been obsolete; however, some voting systems used the punch-card method until 2014. The presidential election of 2000 brought punch cards into infamy and made the U.S. the brunt of jokes worldwide for using such an antiquated error-prone system. The solution in many states was to migrate to electronic voting machines, which were developed without audit trails that prevented ballots from being recounted in close elections. So much for progress! See e-voting, sorter, tabulator, accounting machine and Hollerith machine.

IBM Punch Card

Stemming from Herman Hollerith's punch card in 1890, punch cards "were" synonymous with data processing for decades. IBM and Sperry Rand were the major providers of equipment. This 80-column IBM card shows a typical customer master record.

Data Processing in the 20th Century

Rooms filled with sorters, collators and tabulators were common in thousands of companies throughout most of the 20th century. See accounting machine.

Inspired by the Jacquard Loom

In operation decades before, the Jacquard loom was inspiration for Hollerith's machines. See Jacquard loom. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum.)