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--></style><div><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">Hi <span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Peggy,</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Thanks for this interesting announcement. I cannot answer your list of questions, yet I happen to have given a bit of attention to Punch Cards m</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">anufacturing</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">, and written a few pages on the topic on the other side of the Atlantic. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"><br data-mce-bogus="1"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Indeed the development of the Bull company, from the 1930s on, was mainly a vertical integration investment by a paper manufacturer from Savoie, Aussedat.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Aussedat soon found allies in the US, struggling to curb IBM's domination of the market: Some PC machine users within the federal administration, and a </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">paper manufacturer</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> named Racquette River Cy</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Racquette River</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> brought a decisive technical assistance to help the French company produce</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> punch </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">cards</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> up to the required standards.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Things evolved after the 1950s, when</span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;">m</span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;">anufacturing</span> punch </span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;">cards</span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;"> became feasible for more paper makers, who</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> entered the market, while </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Aussedat started to provide cards to IBM clients as well as to Bull or ICT</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">. It remains to understand why </span></span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">Racquette River</span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"> does not appear in your list of cards in Smithsonian collections. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"><br data-mce-bogus="1"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">AFAIK, the history of</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Punch Cards</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> has been hitherto rather neglected, apart from a few subchapters in Lars Heide's </span><em><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;">Punch Card Systems</span></em><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;">, and in the pro/con books</span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="font-size: 12pt;"> resulting from the IBM lawsuits of the 1970s. This could be a nice topic for a further SHOT / SIGCIS session. I regret not to join you in Philadelphia </span>next month.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"><br data-mce-bogus="1"></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">Best,</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;">Pierre Mounier-Kuhn</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;"><br data-mce-bogus="1"></span></div><div><br></div><hr id="zwchr" data-marker="__DIVIDER__"><div data-marker="__HEADERS__"><b>De: </b>"Peggy Kidwell" <kidwellp@si.edu><br><b>À: </b>"members" <members@sigcis.org><br><b>Envoyé: </b>Jeudi 21 Septembre 2017 14:10:41<br><b>Objet: </b>[SIGCIS-Members] Manufacturers of Punch Cards<br></div><br><div data-marker="__QUOTED_TEXT__">
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<p class="MsoNormal">I write in preparation for next month’s meeting in Philadelphia. Those of you staying late will be able to hear about punch cards, particularly punch cards in the Smithsonian collections, as symbols of the spread of computing from the
nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. This is the result of a cataloging project based on looking at eighty-odd punch cards and groups of punch cards in Smithsonian mathematics and computer collections (as well as one from textiles). A small matter that
interests me is who actually made and/or distributed the cards. Sometimes this was a manufacturer like IBM or Remington Rand UNIVAC. At other times, businesses seem to have specialized in printing punch cards – or at least distributing them. At present, I’m
still mystified as to who made/distributed the punch cards listed below, and would welcome identifications:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.25in;" data-mce-style="text-indent: -.25in;">1. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>A punch card marked ISC 5081. This isn’t the IBM card by that name, though It looks like it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.25in;" data-mce-style="text-indent: -.25in;">2. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Another IBM clone, the MIDCO C-5081.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.25in;" data-mce-style="text-indent: -.25in;">3. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The Pryor 5280</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.25in;" data-mce-style="text-indent: -.25in;">4. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The NECS/WIC-282</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.25in;" data-mce-style="text-indent: -.25in;">5. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The ths 942/3/2367 – this was designed for use in Stockholm</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.25in;" data-mce-style="text-indent: -.25in;">6. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>A card designed for use at the University of Wisconsin with the name OEI M73926 – we also have a punch card with number OEI E19618 used at the DeVry Institute
of Technology in Chicago</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.25in;" data-mce-style="text-indent: -.25in;">7. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>SDC A1004 punch cards – used in Canada</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.25in;" data-mce-style="text-indent: -.25in;">8. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>BP-16309 BSC punch cards</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many thanks!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Peggy Kidwell</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Curator of Mathematics</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">National Museum of American History</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Smithsonian Institution</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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