Tags
Buffalo NY, Columbia University, Hirdy-Girdy, Hollerith, IBM, Key Punch, Patent Office, Punched Card, US Census
That Bogdan Yelcovich – – – he’s at it again.
Today he brought another one of those nutty newspapers to work.
Then he insisted we read it and tell him what we thought.
We looked at it and I said “I don’t know anything about “nocturnal telegraphy.”
Bogdan retorted “No – – – not the nocturnal telegraphy – – – the letter from the Hollerith guy.”
So I read the letter and I had no idea what an accumulator was.
One of the guys – – – there was quite a group of us by now – – asked Bogdan what an accumulator was.
Bogdan said “It is like a bucket of ball-bearings. The bucket accumulates the ball-bearings until someone has a chance to count them.”
Well we all looked at one another in silence. Nobody had a response to the bucket thing.
And then Bogdan insisted we look at another document he obtained from some library or other.
Bogdan insisted that this Hollerith guy was going to be in on something big.
When we pressed him Bogdan said he was not sure what it was but there was something big going to happen.
“Like a war?” someone asked.
“No. It isn’t going to happen all at once.” said Bogdan. Then he continued “It is going to be like a creaping incrementalism type thing.”
We pressed him but he couldn’t give a better answer than that.
Bogdan said that Hollerith could make holes in paper. That didn’t make any sense either.
Hell, I can make a hole in paper with a pencil.
In fact I demonstrated it on the newspaper that Bogdan was showing us.
Boy – – – did he get mad. Wouldn’t speak to me for the rest of the day.
Let’s see if this guy can make any more sense out of the whole thing.
Well – – – that didn’t seem to help much. Lets just enjoy some music.
We used this system at the telephone company for years. We logged long distance calls with it, found the card for each residence with it in the repair department, and logged trouble reports with yet another card. It was gloriously simple and effective. But then we had that “chad” problem in Florida.
They were great tools – – – and then the floppy disk came along and reduced it to nearly useless.
As a toolmaker I made the tools and machines that produced these cards by the hundreds. It was fine work ( plus or minus 50 millionths of an inch or 1/6 the width of a hair or .0005″. I made the punches that perforated the chads; all but the four corners so that they would stay in place until punched. I wonder if it was my workmanship that allowed the chads to “hang.” I really don’t think so because the company I worked for had to divest itself of almost all of that old machinery. But if it helped Al Gore lose the election then I will be happy to take credit for that.