Giant brains; or, Machines that think

by Edmund Callis Berkeley

TYPES OF PUNCH-CARD MACHINES

The chief IBM punch-card machines are: the key punch, the verifier, the sorter, the interpreter, the reproducer, the collator, the multiplying punch, the calculating punch, and the tabulator. Of these 9 machines, the last 6 have plugboards and can do many different operations as a result.

There is a flow of punch cards through each of these machines. The machines differ from each other in the number and relation of the paths of flow, or card channels, and in the number and relation of the momentary stopping places, or card stations, at which cards are read, punched, or otherwise acted on. We can get a good idea of what a machine is from a picture of these card channels.

Key Punch

We use a key punch ([Fig. 5]) to punch original information into blank cards. In the key punch there is one card channel; it has one entrance, one station, and one exit. At the card station, there are 12 punching dies, one for each position in the card column, and each card column is presented one by one for punching. The numeric keyboard ([Fig. 6]) for the key punch has 14 keys:

One key for each of the punches 0 to 9, 11, and 12,

A space key, which allows a column of the punch card to go by with no punch in it,

A release key, which ejects the card and feeds another card.

Fig. 5. Key punch.

Fig. 6. Keyboard of key punch.

Of course, in using a key punch, we must punch the same kind of information in the same group of columns. For example, if these cards are to contain employees’ social security numbers, we must punch that number always in the same card columns, numbered, say, 15 to 23, or 70 to 78, etc.

Verifier

The verifier is really the same machine as the key punch, but it has dull punching dies moving gently instead of sharp ones moving with force. It turns on a red light and stops when there is no punched hole in the right spot to match with a pressed key.

Sorter

The sorter is a machine for sorting cards, one column at a time ([Fig. 7]). The sorter has a card channel that forks; it has one entrance, one station, and 13 exits. Each exit corresponds to: one of the 12 punch positions 0 to 9, 11, and 12; or reject, which applies when the column is nowhere punched. It has one card station where a brush reads a single column of the card. We can turn a handle and move the brush to any column.

Fig. 7. Sorter.

Interpreter

The interpreter takes in a card, reads its punches, prints on the card the marks indicated by the punches, and stacks the card. We call this process interpreting the card, since it translates the punched holes into printed marks. The interpreter ([Fig. 8]) has one card channel, with one entrance, 2 card stations, and one exit. What the machine does at the second card station depends on what the machine reads at the first card station and on what we have told the machine by switches and plugboard wiring to do.

Fig. 8. Interpreter.

Reproducer

The reproducer or reproducing punch can:

Reproduce, or copy the punches in one group of cards into another group of cards (in the same or different columns).

Compare, or make sure that the punches in two groups of cards agree (and shine a red light if they do not).

Gang punch, or copy the punches in a master card into a group of detail cards.

Summary punch, or copy totals or summaries obtained in the tabulator into blank cards in the reproducer.

Fig. 9. Reproducer.

The reproducer ([Fig. 9]) has 2 independent card channels, the cards not mingling in any way, called the reading channel and the punching channel. We can run the machine with only the punching channel working; in fact, IBM equips some models only with the punching channel, particularly for “summary punch” operation. The machine is timed so that, when any card is at the middle station in either channel, then the next preceding card is at the latest station, and the next following card is at the earliest station. At 5 stations, the machine reads a card. At the middle station of the punching channel, the machine punches a card. Using a many-wire cable, we can connect the tabulator to the reproducer and so cause the tabulator to give information electrically to the reproducer. This connection makes possible the “summary punch” operation. Here is an instance with punch-card machines where, in order to transfer information from one machine to another, we are not required to move cards physically from one machine to another.

Collator

The collator is a machine that arranges or collates cards. It is particularly useful in selecting, matching, and merging cards. The collator ([Fig. 10]) has 2 card channels which join and then fork into 4 channels ending in pockets called Hoppers 1, 2, 3, and 4. The 2 card feeds are called the Primary Feed and the Secondary Feed. Cards from the Primary Feed may fall only into the first and second hoppers. Cards from the Secondary Feed may fall only into the second, third, and fourth hoppers. The collator has 3 stations at which cards may be read.

No.1—Selected primaries
No.2—Merged cards and unselected primaries
No.3—Separate secondaries not selected
No.4—Selected secondaries

Fig. 10. Collator.

IBM can supply additional wiring called the collator counting device. With this we can make the collator count cards as well as compare them. For example, we could put 12 blank cards from the Secondary Feed behind each punched-card from the Primary Feed in order to prepare for some other operation.

Calculating Punch

The calculating punch was introduced in 1946. It is a versatile machine of considerable capacity. It adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides. It also has a control over a sequence of operations, in some cases up to half a dozen steps.

This machine ([Fig. 11]) has one card channel with 4 stations called, respectively, control brushes, reading brushes, punch feed, and punching dies. At station 1, there are 20 brushes; we can set these by hand to read any 20 of the 80 card columns. At station 2 there are 80 regular reading brushes. At station 3 the card waits for a part of a second while the machine calculates, and, when that is done, the card is fed into station 4, where it is punched or verified. The multiplying punch is an earlier model of the calculating punch, without the capacity for division.

Fig. 11. Calculating punch.

Tabulator

The tabulator can select and list information from cards. Also, it can total information from groups of cards in counters of the tabulator and can print the totals.

Fig. 12. Tabulator.

The tabulator ([Fig. 12]) has one card channel with two stations where cards may be read, called the Upper Brushes and Lower Brushes. When the Lower Brush station is reading one card, the Upper Brush station is reading the next card. The tabulator also has another channel, which is for endless paper (and sometimes separate sheets or cards). This channel has one station; here printing takes place. Unlike the typewriter, the tabulator prints a whole row at a time. It can print up to 88 numerals or letters across the sheet in one stroke. The cards flowing through the card channel and the paper flowing through the paper channel do not have to move in step; in fact, we need many different time relations between them, and the number of rows printed on the paper may have almost any relation to the number of punch cards flowing through the card channel.

At the station where paper is printed, we can put on the machine a mechanism called the automatic carriage. This is like a typewriter carriage, which holds the paper for a typewriter, but we can control the movement of paper through the automatic carriage by plugboard wiring, switch settings, and holes in punch cards. Thus we can arrange for headings, spacing, and feeding of new sheets to be controlled by the information and the instructions, with a great deal of versatility.