The Invention and Development of the Hollerith Punched Card: In Commemoration of the 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Herman Hollerith and for the 100th Anniversary of Large Scale Data Processing

A detailed and exemplified account is given on the invention and development of the Hollerith Punched Card from the beginning in 1886 until 1928. The change of use from counting to value statistics is shown. The size of the Hollerith Punched Card was standardized very early. The cards were soon used both for data capture and data punching - the dual purpose punched card. The first Hollerith cards were punched with a conductor's punch, soon be replaced by the Pantograph Punch, and, after the decimal columns have appeared, a Mechanical Key Punch, the Type 001, later replaced by the Electrical Key Punch Type 011, was used.