Notched Card Databases

I really got into edge-notched cards like this about 5 years ago, and made my own. Turned out that getting stiff card stock is very hard these days. And I made my cards using a computerized stencil cutter - 21st century punched cards!

I also tracked down the original Zatocoding paper, which was a MS thesis by Calvin Mooers, available from http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/12664 . It should properly be seen as a precursor to a Bloom filter.

The 74210 system was used, instead of a binary one, because it requires at most 2 needles. It takes time to put a needle through a stack.

The McBee image ("Figure 9-11") is a standard press photo from McBee. It appears, for example, in Charles P. Bourne's 1964 book "Methods of Information Handling", which is a great book. It gives a good treatment of the topic just on the cusp of switching to computerized systems.

Unfortunately, I can't find an online copy. I had to get it through the library.

What you can find, if you want to read about some of the amazing things people did, is Casey, Perry, Berry, and Kent's book "Punched cards; their applications to science and industry" at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001163217 .

It covers more of the mechanics, with detailed pictures of how to use the needles, cards with multiple levels of holes, and much more.

Take a look - it's really cool!