You may smile at the films from the 1950s featuring the ultimate in electronic sophistication, computers that filled a room and wouldn’t hold enough data to even worry the desktop or laptop computers these days.

However that smile might slip a little when you are told that the punch card method of holding data dates back to the 19th century. Charles Babbage, an English mathematician started designing a machine called the Analytical Engine. He experimented with different designs up until his death in 1871. He realised that the design could be programmed with the use of punch cards. The engine used loops of the cards to control a mechanical calculator. The calculator formulated results based on the results on the results of preceding calculations.

One of the early massive uses of punch cards as file storage devices took place in the American Census of 1900. After the census data was gathered, the facts recorded were transferred to cards, one card per person. The holes would be punched in the cards according to the possible answers to questions asked on the forms. Each card had 240 different places that any one hole may be punched.

Then the cards were counted using an electrical counting machine invented by Herman Hollerith. The machine is set up so that needles passing through the holes on each card make an electrical connection to operate clock faced dials showing numbers corresponding to each datum or combination of data. A truly innovative method of file storage that happened before the 20th century began.