punchkort

Punchkort, or punch cards, are stiff sheets of paper in which data are encoded by punching holes in predefined positions. The pattern of holes represents information, and the card is read by mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic devices. They have been used for timekeeping, payroll, and data processing across a wide range of industries.

In workplaces, employees would insert their punchkort into a time clock. The punches recorded start and end times, and the cards were collected and processed to generate payroll records and attendance data.

In computing, punched cards carried program instructions and data. Early computers used cards organized into 80- or 96-column formats, with holes encoding characters or numeric values. Cards were read, sorted, and fed into machines as decks for processing.

Originating with Herman Hollerith for the 1890 U.S. Census, punched cards became a standard medium for data representation and control. IBM popularized the 80-column card, and for decades engineers designed hardware to punch, sort, and tabulate such decks.

With the advent of magnetic media and digital databases, punched cards largely disappeared from daily use by the late 20th century. Some timekeeping systems and archival collections still demonstrate or preserve the technology for educational or historical purposes.

Today, punchkort are primarily of historical interest, illustrating the evolution of automated data processing and early workforce administration.