Page 29 - Autumn 2024

Institution of Electronics News

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Recent Electronic Developments in Card
AccountingMachinery

by G. AITKEN*, A.M.Inst.E.
(A lecture delivered to our Northern Ireland members).
A general explanation of the operation of the curd accounting machines known as (1) the Horizontal Sorter, (2) the
Wire Interpreter and (3) the Electronic Multiplier.
THE HORIZONTAL SORTER

This is often referred to as the basic machine of
Hollerith, after Dr. Herman Hollerith who invented the
system of punched card accounting, and as its name
implies is used to either arrange cards in numerical
order, thus sorting, or to locate a particular card from a
pack. The speed of operation is 600 cards per minute.
On referring to the Hollerith card, Fig. 2, it is noted
that it is numbered 0 to 9 reading from the top down
and that, as well as these ten positions there are also,
above the 0, two further digit positions which can be
either X or Y, ten and eleven when dealing with pence,
or eleven and twelve when dealing with months (in this
instance the 0 position becomes ten). This gives in all
twelve positions in which it would be possible to have a
punched hole in the card.

in Fig. 1, that there is a total of thirteen positions. The
extra position is for cards not punched in the particular
column being read and these cards are termed rejects.
Fig. 1. The Horizontal Sorter.

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