On Wed, 8 Nov 2023 13:46:09 -0500, Phil Smith III wrote: >Stuart Holland wrote, in part: >>Also, the cards only had the punches - no text across the top. > >That was called "interpreting" cards, IIRC. I forget whether there was a >machine to do this (not that a site with no more punches or readers would have >had one!), but I bet others here will remember. > <https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/reference/faq_0000000011.html> 550 Interpreter? (Many hits fail with 404.) Q What was the IBM 550? A Introduced in 1930, the IBM 550 Automatic Interpreter was the first commercial IBM machine capable of sensing numerical data punched in cards and printing such data across the top of each card. The information to be printed could be placed in any sequence. The machine automatically interpreted at the rate of 75 cards a minute or 4,500 cards an hour. The feeding hopper had a capacity of 800 cards, and the stacker in which the interpreted cards were deposited had a capacity of 1,000 cards.
"placed in any sequence." But not aligned with the holes, if that mattered. 1930! -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
