Paper data storage
Encyclopedia
Paper data storage refers to the use of paper
as a data storage device
. This includes writing
, illustrating, and the use of data that can be interpreted by a machine or is the result of the functioning of a machine. A defining feature of paper data storage is the ability of humans to produce it with only simple tools and interpret it visually.
Though this is now mostly obsolete, paper was once also an important form of computer data storage.
who, in 1725, used punched paper rolls to control textile looms. This technology was later developed into the wildly successful Jacquard loom
. The 19th century saw several other uses of paper for controlling machines. In 1846, telegrams could be prerecorded on punched tape
and rapidly transmitted using Alexander Bain
's automatic telegraph. Several inventors took the concept of a mechanical organ and used paper to represent the music.
In the late 1880s Herman Hollerith
invented the recording of data on a medium that could then be read by a machine. Prior uses of machine readable media, above, had been for control (Automaton
s, Piano roll
s, looms
, ...), not data. "After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched card
s..." Hollerith's method was used in the 1890 census and the completed results were "... finished months ahead of schedule and far under budget". Hollerith's company eventually became the core of IBM.
Other technologies were also developed that allowed machines to work with marks on paper instead of punched holes. This technology was widely used for tabulating votes
and grading standardized tests
. Barcode
s made it possible for any object that was to be sold or transported to have some computer readable information securely attached to it. Banks used magnetic ink on checks, supporting MICR scanning.
In an early electronic computing device, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer
, electric sparks were used to singe small holes in paper cards to represent binary data. The altered dielectric constant
of the paper at the location of the holes could then be used to read the binary data back into the machine by means of electric sparks of lower voltage than the sparks used to create the holes. This form of paper data storage was never made reliable and was not used in any subsequent machine.
, and a program can accurately interpret such an image. A similarly sized image in 2400dpi 24-bit true color theoretically contains 1.38 gigabytes of information.
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
as a data storage device
Data storage device
thumb|200px|right|A reel-to-reel tape recorder .The magnetic tape is a data storage medium. The recorder is data storage equipment using a portable medium to store the data....
. This includes writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, illustrating, and the use of data that can be interpreted by a machine or is the result of the functioning of a machine. A defining feature of paper data storage is the ability of humans to produce it with only simple tools and interpret it visually.
Though this is now mostly obsolete, paper was once also an important form of computer data storage.
History
Before paper was used for storing data, it had been used in several applications for storing instructions to specify a machines operation. The earliest use of paper to store instructions for a machine was the work of Basile BouchonBasile Bouchon
Basile Bouchon was a textile worker in the silk center in Lyon who invented a way to control a loom with a perforated paper tape in 1725. The son of an organ maker, Bouchon partially automated the tedious setting up process of the drawloom in which an operator lifted the warp threads using...
who, in 1725, used punched paper rolls to control textile looms. This technology was later developed into the wildly successful Jacquard loom
Jacquard loom
The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row...
. The 19th century saw several other uses of paper for controlling machines. In 1846, telegrams could be prerecorded on punched tape
Punched tape
Punched tape or paper tape is an obsolete form of data storage, consisting of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched to store data...
and rapidly transmitted using Alexander Bain
Alexander Bain (inventor)
Alexander Bain was a Scottish inventor and engineer who was first to invent and patent the electric clock. Bain installed the railway telegraph lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow.-Early life:...
's automatic telegraph. Several inventors took the concept of a mechanical organ and used paper to represent the music.
In the late 1880s Herman Hollerith
Herman Hollerith
Herman Hollerith was an American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data. He was the founder of one of the companies that later merged and became IBM.-Personal life:Hollerith was born in Buffalo, New...
invented the recording of data on a medium that could then be read by a machine. Prior uses of machine readable media, above, had been for control (Automaton
Automaton
An automaton is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot. An alternative spelling, now obsolete, is automation.-Etymology:...
s, Piano roll
Piano roll
A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. A piano roll is a continuous roll of paper with perforations punched into it. The peforations represent note control data...
s, looms
Jacquard loom
The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row...
, ...), not data. "After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched card
Punched card
A punched card, punch card, IBM card, or Hollerith card is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions...
s..." Hollerith's method was used in the 1890 census and the completed results were "... finished months ahead of schedule and far under budget". Hollerith's company eventually became the core of IBM.
Other technologies were also developed that allowed machines to work with marks on paper instead of punched holes. This technology was widely used for tabulating votes
Optical scan voting system
An optical scan voting system is an electronic voting system and uses an optical scanner to read marked paper ballots and tally the results.-History:...
and grading standardized tests
Scantron
Scantron is an American company based in Eagan, Minnesota, that manufactures and sells machine-readable papers on which students mark answers to academic multiple-choice test questions. To analyze those answers, the machines use image-based data collection software and scanners...
. Barcode
Barcode
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
s made it possible for any object that was to be sold or transported to have some computer readable information securely attached to it. Banks used magnetic ink on checks, supporting MICR scanning.
In an early electronic computing device, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer
Atanasoff-Berry Computer
The Atanasoff–Berry Computer was the first electronic digital computing device. Conceived in 1937, the machine was not programmable, being designed only to solve systems of linear equations. It was successfully tested in 1942...
, electric sparks were used to singe small holes in paper cards to represent binary data. The altered dielectric constant
Dielectric constant
The relative permittivity of a material under given conditions reflects the extent to which it concentrates electrostatic lines of flux. In technical terms, it is the ratio of the amount of electrical energy stored in a material by an applied voltage, relative to that stored in a vacuum...
of the paper at the location of the holes could then be used to read the binary data back into the machine by means of electric sparks of lower voltage than the sparks used to create the holes. This form of paper data storage was never made reliable and was not used in any subsequent machine.
Limits
The limits of data storage depend on the technology to write and read such data. For example, an 8"x10" 300dpi 8-bit greyscale image map contains 7.2 megabytes of data -- assuming a scanner can accurately reproduce the printed image to that resolution and color depthColor depth
In computer graphics, color depth or bit depth is the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmapped image or video frame buffer. This concept is also known as bits per pixel , particularly when specified along with the number of bits used...
, and a program can accurately interpret such an image. A similarly sized image in 2400dpi 24-bit true color theoretically contains 1.38 gigabytes of information.
See also
- BanknoteBanknoteA banknote is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and in many jurisdictions is legal tender. In addition to coins, banknotes make up the cash or bearer forms of all modern fiat money...
read by Vending machineVending machineA vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine.... - Book musicBook musicBook Music is a medium for storing the music played on mechanical organs, mainly of European manufacture. Book music is made from thick cardboard, containing perforated holes representing the musical notes to be played, with the book folded zig-zag style...
- Edge-notched cardEdge-notched cardEdge-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...
- Index cardIndex cardAn index card consists of heavy paper stock cut to a standard size, used for recording and storing small amounts of discrete data. It was invented by Carl Linnaeus, around 1760....
- Kimball tagKimball tagA Kimball tag was a cardboard tag that included both human readable and perforations to support computer processing . A Kimball tag was an early form of stock control label that, like its later successor the barcode, supported back office data processing functions...
- Machine-readable mediumMachine-readable mediumIn telecommunication, a machine-readable medium is a medium capable of storing data in a machine-readable format that can be accessed by an automated sensing device and capable of being turned into some form of binary.Examples of machine-readable media include magnetic disks, cards, tapes, and...
- Magnetic ink character recognitionMagnetic ink character recognitionMagnetic Ink Character Recognition, or MICR, is a character recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of cheques and makes up the routing number and account number at the bottom of a check. The technology allows computers to read information off...
- Mark senseMark senseElectrographic is a term used for punched card and page scanning technology that allowed cards or pages marked with a pencil to be processed or converted into punched cards. That technology was sold by IBM, its developer, under the term mark sense...
- Music rollMusic rollA music roll is a storage medium used to operate a mechanical musical instrument. They are used for the player piano, mechanical organ, electronic carillon and various types of orchestrion. The vast majority of music rolls are made of paper...
- Optical mark recognitionOptical mark recognitionOptical Mark Recognition is the process of capturing human-marked data from document forms such as surveys and tests.-OMR background:...
- Paper discPaper discThe paper disc is one of the formats chosen to succeed the DVD. Developed by Sony and Toppan Printing, the disc can be read by Sony's new Blu-ray Disc format and offers up to 25 GB of storage. It was officially announced on April 15, 2004....
- PerfinPerfinIn philately, a perfin is a stamp that has had initials or a name perforated across it to discourage theft. The name is a contraction of perforated initials or perforated insignia...
- PerforationPerforationA perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes are called a perforation...
- Punched tapePunched tapePunched tape or paper tape is an obsolete form of data storage, consisting of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched to store data...
- Spindle (stationery)Spindle (stationery)A spindle is an upright spike used to hold papers waiting for processing. "Spindling" or "spiking" was the act of spearing a paper document onto the spike....
- StenotypeStenotypeA stenotype, stenotype machine or shorthand machine is a specialized chorded keyboard or typewriter used by stenographers for shorthand use...
- Ticker tapeTicker tapeTicker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970...