Paper data storage

 

Paper the way we usually use is horrible inefficient. Handwriting and printing does not utilize full data capacity of the paper. It is about 10 000 characters per page. 

A4 surface are is 0.06237 square meters compared to 1.3 terabits per 0.00064516 square meter is a significant difference. But before the invention of magnet data storage devices there was only one way to persistently store data and it was paper based data storage. Humans used paper for storing information for ages , but it was all human language and it indeed stored the data, but computers could not understand it , because they are all binary. As number grow bigger and technologies were improved and first cathode lamps were stitched up into a computer paper based punched cards were introduced. Punched card storage principle was evolved over a long time  and no one knows who was the inventor. In the 19th hundred punched cards were used in a carpet loom for its automation.

The Hollerith card

In the late 19th hundred  Herman Hollerith invented punched cards that can be read by machines. Initially machines only counted holes in the cards, but in 1920 machines were improved to read the data and execute simple arithmetic operations.
 

Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company that was amalgamated with three other companies to form Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, that was later renamed to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). 

Future of Punched Card

From the late 19th hundreds up to 1950 punched cards were widely used as main media of storage. Downfall of the Punched Card was introduction of magnetic tape for data entry in 1950 and the popularity of punched cards decreased up to mid 1980 when the combination of lower magnetic tape cost , more affordable terminals and less expensive minicomputers made the punched card obsolete.

Fun "fact":"terabyte is 1*10^12 bytes which translates to 1.25 * 10^10 cards, or 12.5 billion cards. This would take up 1,205,467 cubic feet of space and weigh 34,097.5 tons."

Modern days

Since paper is still widely used more sophisticated methods have been developed to store data more efficiently on paper.

1D barcode , 2D barcodes and Matrix barcode all carry information that can be quickly read and can be put on many medias including paper and can be read by a optical sensor.

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