Charles Mills wrote: >Easy question. Herman Hollerith wanted them to feel familiar, so he made them >the size of a US Federal bill.
True. Although I was surprised to learn from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card that they’re not *quite* the size of an old bill: At some point, 31⁄4 by 73⁄8 inches (82.550 by 187.325 mm) became the standard card size, a bit larger than the United States one-dollar bill<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-dollar_bill> of the time (the dollar was changed to its current size in 1929). The Columbia site says Hollerith took advantage of available boxes designed to transport paper currency. And the link to the US one-dollar bill says they were (approximately 7.4218 × 3.125 in ≅ 189 × 79 mm) But hey, what’s a silly millimeter here and there? Using the same boxes makes more sense than trying to really make them the exact size Just Because – the US Mint wasn’t exactly making the cards, so what would have been the point? ObAnecdote: My dad also carried cards in his pocket for notes. He’d always heard the story about the size, but had never checked it. One day while visiting New York City, he was walking in lower Manhattan and saw a coin store. Taped to the inside of the window was an old bill, so he whipped out a card and held it up. Sure enough, it appeared to be the same size. …phsiii ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
