| has gloss | eng: Edge-notched cards, or McBee cards, were a manual data storage and manipulation technology invented in 1896 and used for specialized data storage and cataloging applications through much of the 20th century. While there were many variants, a popular version consisted of 5 inch by 8 inch paperboard cards with holes punched at regular intervals along all four edges, a short distance in from the edges. To record data, the paper stock between a hole and the nearest edge was removed by a special notching tool. The holes were assigned a meaning dependent upon a particular application. For example, one hole might record the answer to a yes/no question on a survey, with the presence of a notch meaning yes. More complex data was encoded using a variety of schemes. The center of the card might be blank space for information to be written, or contain a pre-printed form. |
