Computing History & Legendary BugsComputing History
The 1890 Census Ran on Punch Cards
Holes in cardboard counted a nation, and IBM grew from it
Counting America's 1880 census took about seven years. The next one ran on holes punched in cardboard. How do holes count people?
You'll find out
- What a train ticket had to do with it
- What the mercury was for
- Which tech giant grew out of it
Why it matters
Punched cards fed computers for decades, and they're one reason code lines still often stop near 80 characters.
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