(Not to mention the rather clunky customer interactions that sometimes involved the receipt and return of punch cards by customers who were advised not to “fold, spindle, or mutilate” them, leading to a movement of people who demanded to be treated with the same care: “Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate me” – see.

Their further merging with the type of information contained in “punch cards” was decades in the future.īy the late 1960s, as the IBM System/360 began to take on the mantle of being the system of record for the world economy, “punch cards” came to be synonymous with electronic computing. For example, “calling cards,” which essentially provided a brief introduction to someone who was visiting a residence or establishment, slowly merged with “trade cards” to become “business cards.” Once they became “business cards,” the keepsake came to be more focused on business information than being a playing-card-sized biographical brochure. Electrical technologies, such as the light bulb and punch card machines were already in use, but social traditions were still firmly rooted in the pre-electronic era - though often enhanced based on industrial revolution needs. Oh, how the world has changed! And yet, it’s interesting how people have basically remained the same over the past century.Ī century ago, in 1922, the company name “IBM” had already been around for eight years, but they wouldn’t complete renaming all their business units from Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, or CTR, to IBM for another two years. And what’s this odd box in the middle of it?”

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