Punch Cards

From the history of tech, I feel this is not discussed as much as it should. How the textile industry was moving forward and affecting the creation of computer logic. Firstly, the primitive loom was one of the oldest mechanical inventions. That’s on its own is quite an achievement.

Source: “A history of mechanical inventions” by Usher, Abbott Payson, 1883–1965

Weaving from the beginning as seen on a primitive loom is a binary operation, similar to what we have in computers. Hence, it’s not that surprising for it to influence computer development.

Starting with Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728), and Jacques Vaucanson (1740) automation started to appear in looms with the help of punch cards. This idea was used by Joseph Marie Jacquard in the creation of the Jacquard machine and this idea further grew to be an important part of computing data.

The Jacquard machine used holes to let the machine know which threads are raised for weaving the pattern, that way making it possible to relatively quickly reproduce complex patterns. Those machines were the beginning of interchangeable punch cards that instructed a machine to perform automated tasks.

Jacquard machine and current boolean logic both involve the use of binary code to represent information, and both can be used to perform complex operations.

After that, multiple inventions that use punch cards appeared, which seem to be inspired inspired by the Jacquard machine. One such sample was work done by Semyon Korsakov.

Semen Korsakov — Korsakov, Semen N. Apercu d`un procede nouveau d`investigation au moyen de machines a comparer les idees — St. Petersbourg, 1832

Sample of his work showing how punch cards can be used to retrieve information. Where tablet III had medications and symptoms listed, selecting symptoms on the linear homeoscope(II) and moving it through table(III) would lead to the corresponding medicine. Korsakov presented his ideas to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, but their experts rejected his application, failing to see the potential of mechanizing searches through large stores of information.

During the 1820s, British mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage proposed an ‘Analytical Engine’ that could perform mathematical calculations when fed information using punched cards. Ada Lovelace would write what is considered to be the first algorithm that could be executed by the machine. While the machine was never actually built during Babbage’s lifetime, it is considered to be the forerunner of the modern computer.

Jacquard machine and work done by Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace served as an inspiration to Herman Hollerith, in creating the first tabulating machines, that laid the foundation for IBM.

Punch card by IBM

Until 2000, punched cards were widely used for inputting and storing data for specialized data processing equipment.

Boolean logic

When Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz created the binary system(1703), there was no computer in mind, more so philosophical interest. He seems to be intrigued by the creation of a new language that seems to be simplified with just 1 and 0.

Godefroy-Guillaume Leibnitz. Explication de l’arithmétique binaire, qui se sert des seuls caractères O et I avec des remarques sur son utilité et sur ce qu’elle donne le sens des anciennes figures chinoises de Fohy. Mémoires de mathématique et de physique de l’Académie royale des sciences, Académie royale des sciences, 1703.

And as said by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz himself there were much earlier inspirations for the binary system, in his work he mentioned Figure of the Eight Cova (from around 4000 years ago).

Godefroy-Guillaume Leibnitz. Explication de l’arithmétique binaire, qui se sert des seuls caractères O et I avec des remarques sur son utilité et sur ce qu’elle donne le sens des anciennes figures chinoises de Fohy. Mémoires de mathématique et de physique de l’Académie royale des sciences, Académie royale des sciences, 1703.

This seems to be the reference to Hexagrams used in I Ching or Book of Changes (late 9th century BC).

A diagram of I Ching hexagrams said to be sent to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz from Joachim Bouvet. The Arabic numerals were added by Leibniz.

Showing us one more time the vast variety of inspiration that went into creating the tools we have now. And how seemingly very different experiences of people leaving at different times affect us in 21 century.

On the other side of it is George Boole, creator of boolean algebra. While trying to create a mathematical representation of logic (partially very philosophical reasons) he created logic that is used in current computers. It’s being speculated that had George Boole and Charles Babbage met there would be even quicker progress in computing. What is certain is that Boole knew about Babbage and therefore he must’ve known about punch cards and similar inventions. While it is hard to say what Boole used as an inspiration for his work there seem to be a lot of prior inventions that would have served as an inspiration.

Conclusion

When looking, every invention can be connected to the older counterpart with its own history. And while people from different times definitely had different environments and experiences there is the knowledge that gets passed through all of that. While preparing this text I found it hard to find the original creator of something since there are a lot of unmentioned names and it’s hard to find information on the environment of the inventor. But nevertheless, I feel it’s important to look for the inspiration behind interactions we have now because not only it helps to know the background but also it might break us out of the loop that everything has a right answer and there is only a certain way things are done.

This story originally was posted here.

Sources

1. A history of mechanical inventions by Usher, Abbott Payson, 1883–1965
2. Valery V. Shilov, Sergey A. Silantiev. ‘Machines à Comparer les Idées’ of Semen Korsakov: First Step Towards AI. IFIP International Conference on the History of Computing (HC), May 2016.
3. IBM Website
4. Godefroy-Guillaume Leibnitz. Explication de l’arithmétique binaire, qui se sert des seuls caractères O et I avec des remarques sur son utilité et sur ce qu’elle donne le sens des anciennes figures chinoises de Fohy. Mémoires de mathématique et de physique de l’Académie royale des sciences, Académie royale des sciences, 1703. ffads-00104781f
5. Google Arts & Culture