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Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags
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56D500boy
Posted 2019-04-14 8:52 PM (#580879)
Subject: Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags



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The other day, I tried to co-relate info on Nathan's 58 Chrysler's IBM card, i.e. what was punched and where and what was printed and where. I kind of had it figured out but not really.

REFERENCE: http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=71044&...


So I contacted a Professor at the U of Iowa who had helped me before with IBM cards and sent him a copy of Nathan's annotated IBM card. This is how that went:

On Apr 11, 2019, at 12:50 PM, David Forgie wrote:

My question, that I hope you can answer, is "How did some of the typing at the top of the card get done when it does not line up with the actual hole punches? Was the card punch machine somehow able to move the card left and right to achieve this?"

His answer:

An easy question, if you know your card-processing technology.

These cards were probably punched on a computer (which is to say, punched by a device that didn't print anything on the card) and then run through an interpreter. Here's a link to an image of a card that includes two sets of spaces for printing on the card:
-- http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/collection/illinois.gi...

The top set of spaces, numbered 1 to 80, is aligned where the contents would be printed by a printing keypunch or by a printing keypunch used to read and interpret already printed cards.

The second set of spaces, with the first line numbered 1 to 64 followed by a short right-justified line numbered 65 to 80, shows the column numbering used by IBM's most common interpreters, the 552 and 548, fitted with the default plugboards.

Here's a list of some of the different interpreters IBM made
-- http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/interpreter.html

These machines were programmable, using a plugboard. They could only read and interpret a subset of the card columns per pass, but each wire on the plugboard determined which card column was to be printed in what column, so card columns could be freely scrambled. In addition, on some models, wires could be added to print blanks or leading zeros as asterisks (important in check writing), or suppress printing of certain columns when other columns did not match a set pattern. Lovely machines.

Your work tracking which punch columns were printed where on the card goes at least halfway to the reverse engineering the plugboard for the interpreter that was used."


Dave here again. This is what the plug board apparently looked like (basically a big patch cord panel, not unlike an old small town telephone exchange) (Image taken from the link provided)



So armed with that knowledge, I attempted to figure out another IBM card. This one was for a 59 Dodge that somebody had posted up before, along with the cowl data tag and the original broadcast sheet. I've annotated the IBM card and I can see some of the info transferred to the broadcast sheet but when it comes to the cowl tag, it's almost like it is a different car. However, I can see the VIN M352 101713 on everything so it has to be the same car. It's making my head hurt so I thought that I would post up what I've done and hope that somebody can point me to the error of my ways.

First the original IBM card, then my annotated version, then a blank 59 broadcast sheet, then the broadcast sheet from that car and finally the cowl tag.

Please chime in if you see what I am missing. (Thanks to those who posted the originals of what I have attached below):



Edited by 56D500boy 2019-04-15 1:51 AM




(59dodgeIBMcard.jpg)



(59DodgeIBMCard_Annotated.jpg)



(Clean59DodgeBroadcastSheet_large.jpg)



(59DodgeBroadcastSheet_larger.jpg)



(59dodgeCowlTag.jpg)



Attachments
----------------
Attachments 59dodgeIBMcard.jpg (233KB - 293 downloads)
Attachments 59DodgeIBMCard_Annotated.jpg (242KB - 293 downloads)
Attachments Clean59DodgeBroadcastSheet_large.jpg (172KB - 286 downloads)
Attachments 59DodgeBroadcastSheet_larger.jpg (230KB - 304 downloads)
Attachments 59dodgeCowlTag.jpg (248KB - 282 downloads)
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LD3 Greg
Posted 2019-04-15 12:56 AM (#580893 - in reply to #580879)
Subject: RE: Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags


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I assume what appears missing to you is that the "body plate" doesn't seem to reflect the whole car while the punch card and broadcast sheets do. Just to be clear; what others refer to as fender tags, data tags and cowl tags etc, the factory called them Body Plates.

First, let me express my thanks for showing us how these punch cards worked as the case may be. Secondly, these body plates have puzzled all of us for years! All we ever had to work with were completely illegeable, photocopies of microfilmed punch cards!! and the occasional poor copy of a salvaged portion of a broadcast sheet!! We just worked with what we had!!

Paper broadcast sheets were printed by the dozens as work orders for all assembly stations except body assembly and paint etc. For obvious reasons, no point to have "papers" in continuous welding and painting bays! SO. Embossed steel work orders were stamped and screwed to the body as body plates. They were designed and utilized to impart the info, and, only the info that assembly and paint guys needed to know to build the body of the car to as-ordered specs! Any options that influenced or changed standard equipment would be coded here and nothing less.

Of course these assembly stations used all kinds of different "codes" or symbals or abbreviations. Whatever got the job done without error!

Rest assured that they only wanted to build the car and kick it out the door and get paid at the end of the day. There was no intention on their part to create some kind of future "Treasure Hunt" for today's forensic enthusiasts!

Greg


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56D500boy
Posted 2019-04-15 1:49 AM (#580894 - in reply to #580893)
Subject: RE: Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags



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Thanks for that reply Greg. The key part of your comments, in my mind, is the fact that the Body Plate (which I will now try to use as the correct term) did *NOT* have nor was it ever intended to have all the same info that either the IBM card or the Broadcast sheet contained, just pertinent info for specific assembly tasks, e.g. paint. I did NOT know that. I guess that I was trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole to make everything fit. Oops.

Tomorrow I am going to take that blank broadcast sheet and annotate it with the info from the IBM card and the actual somewhat faded broadcast sheet.

I will post the results ASAP.

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56D500boy
Posted 2019-04-15 12:30 PM (#580921 - in reply to #580894)
Subject: RE: Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags



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56D500boy - 2019-04-14 10:49 PM
Tomorrow I am going to take that blank broadcast sheet and annotate it with the info from the IBM card and the actual somewhat faded broadcast sheet.
I will post the results ASAP.
:)


I added more correlations of the punches on the IBM card to the printing on the IBM card. I *think* I got them all (??). Then I took that info and the info from the tattered broadcast sheet and annotated a clean (59) broadcast sheet. Again, I *think* I got everything. Of course, I still don't know what things like Tires 581 and Tires 583 actually mean but this should help somebody sometime.

There is one "3" that is unresolved in this process. The one in the upper right hand corner. It comes out of column 80 on the card punches but I can't read what it is sitting above. It could be "353" but there isn't anything on the broadcast sheet for "353".


I personally want to go back and see if I now understand my 56 Dodge IBM card better.



Edited by 56D500boy 2019-04-15 12:50 PM




(59DodgeIBMCard_Annotated_Rev1_small.jpg)



(Clean59DodgeBroadcastSheet_large_Annotated.jpg)



Attachments
----------------
Attachments 59DodgeIBMCard_Annotated_Rev1_small.jpg (237KB - 282 downloads)
Attachments Clean59DodgeBroadcastSheet_large_Annotated.jpg (172KB - 286 downloads)
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RDP
Posted 2019-04-15 3:29 PM (#580932 - in reply to #580879)
Subject: Re: Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags



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Thanks for your work, Dave. It's very interesting
look here http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15042&...
I know that there are many variants of IBM cards (factory, year)
Do all IBM cards have information on pages A and B?
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56D500boy
Posted 2019-04-16 7:28 PM (#580989 - in reply to #580921)
Subject: RE: Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags



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56D500boy - 2019-04-15 9:30 AM
I personally want to go back and see if I now understand my 56 Dodge IBM card better.


So that is what I did (or at least tried to do). I used the same process as with the 59 Dodge IBM card and I think I found corresponding printing for everything but the "5" in column 80. See below, including a screen shot of a previous conversation about my IBM card with Chrycoman (Bill W.)

I wish I had a clearer copy of this LA Dodge IBM card because there are somethings that I can't read. I also don't have a home for the punched "5" in column 80 or the printed "4" at the top of column 80. The "6" in column 33 or 34 (can't tell which) might or might not be the printed "6" in column 8 (or so). Either way, it would be nice so see a clear LA 56 Dodge IBM card (or the elusive 56 Dodge broadcast sheet).

The next task is to see what I can correlate from the IBM card to the body plate.





Edited by 56D500boy 2019-04-16 7:30 PM




(DaveFsIBMCard_Annotated_smaller.jpg)



(PreviousConversationAboutDaveFsIBMcard.jpg)



(PreviousConversationAboutDaveFsIBMcard_2.jpg)



Attachments
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Attachments DaveFsIBMCard_Annotated_smaller.jpg (246KB - 290 downloads)
Attachments PreviousConversationAboutDaveFsIBMcard.jpg (135KB - 306 downloads)
Attachments PreviousConversationAboutDaveFsIBMcard_2.jpg (82KB - 285 downloads)
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56D500boy
Posted 2019-04-24 7:46 PM (#581316 - in reply to #580989)
Subject: RE: Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags



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Yet another waste of a good day obsessing over interpretation of an IBM card. This one is for a Detroit-built 56 Dodge Custom Royal Sedan with the 230 hp Power Pack, Power brakes, Radio and rear speaker, Powerflite but no power steering.

I am getting much closer figuring this out. I used two different IBM cards to try to see all the wording and numbers.

One thing that I had NOT noticed before was that the columns with the potential for multiple punches, e.g. 33, 35 and 36 are marked with "M" as in multiple (hits). That said, I am still having trouble seeing the 33n series numbers on the left side.

I am open to any corrections, etc. if anybody sees errors that I've missed.






(ExampleDetroitBuilt56DodgeIBMCard_Annotated_small.jpg)



Attachments
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Attachments ExampleDetroitBuilt56DodgeIBMCard_Annotated_small.jpg (244KB - 277 downloads)
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56D500boy
Posted 2019-05-02 11:40 AM (#581673 - in reply to #581316)
Subject: RE: Yet another attempt at understanding IBM cards, broadcast sheets and data tags



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I am beginning to understand while Chrysler, as a company, and all its divisions, has not survived well. We know that the engines in the 50's were not common across the board, i.e. Chrysler hemi, Desoto hemi and Dodge hemi, all without common parts. And the list would go on. Each division was apparently run like is was its own fiefdom with no interest in sharing. Case in point, they couldn't even decide on a common format for the IBM cards.

Here is a 57 Plymouth (Fury apparently) IBM card that has a completely different format than a 57 Dodge (and I presume Chrysler and Desoto) IBM card. There would have been money to be saved if they had gone to a common format, but NOoooooooo.

The upside of the card below is it is relatively speaking very clear. I can read the hole punches and I can see how they translate to the printed bits on the card but I am not going to spend any more time on it. I will return to focussing on the Dodge cards which is difficult enough. I would love to see 55-59 Dodge IBM cards that were this clear.

Thanks for post this 57burb:



Edited by 56D500boy 2019-05-02 11:43 AM
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