Paper Machines: About Cards & Catalogs, 1548-1929

by Markus Krajewski

Why the card catalog--a "paper machine" with rearrangeable elements--can be regarded as a precursor of the computer.

Today on almost every desk in every office sits a computer. Eighty years ago, desktops were equipped with a nonelectronic data processing machine: a card file. In Paper Machines, Markus Krajewski traces the evolution of this proto-computer of rearrangeable parts (file cards) that became ubiquitous in offices between...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262015897
• ISBN13: 9780262015899
• Release Date: August 2011
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher