The Sorter Type 080

1936 · Card Sorter · Work 583 of 1,871

The Sorter Type 080, 1936, Card Sorter

A low card sorter with thirteen open pockets along its length, cards flicking into the pockets at speed, a column selector dial at the operator's end, uneven stacks growing in the pockets, a stiff buff card with one corner cut, ruled into columns with the digits 0 to 9 printed down each column, rectangular holes punched in a scattered pattern, the nearest pocket and its cards close to the lens, the row of pockets receding into soft focus, the machine in grey enamel, a machine room lit by pendant lamps.

What it was used for
The sorter arranged punched cards on a single column. IBM describes it in 1936 as the Horizontal Sorter (Type 80). It ran at 225 or 400 cards a minute for each column sorted, depending on the model. Thirteen pockets received the cards: twelve for the twelve punching positions of a column and one for cards with no hole in the column being sorted. Each pocket held about 800 cards, and when one filled the machine stopped and waited. A five-digit number therefore needed five passes: you began with the units column and between runs put the pockets back into the hopper in the right order.
What was new
What was new at IBM was the layout, not the method. Sorting column by column came from Hollerith. The older form was the vertical sorter, and Martin Campbell-Kelly reports that it became known as the back-breaker on account of the stooping needed to collect the cards and was not popular with operators; Powers' horizontal arrangement was less tiring, and C-T-R later offered a horizontal sorter at four hundred cards a minute in the early 1920s. IBM's own chronology records the introduction of the horizontal sorting machine in 1925. The improvement was thus one of backs and of competition. And the fastest machine in the room stayed tied to its slowest part: whenever a pocket held about 800 cards it stopped and waited for a person.

What the sources leave open: The year 1936 is not supported: IBM's own chronology dates the horizontal sorting machine to 1925. The speeds differ too: IBM's 1936 manual gives 225 or 400 cards a minute, while Columbia University gives 450 for the Type 80 Model 1 and 250 for Model 2.

Further reading