During the 1970s, some typists used the IBM Mag Card Executive Typewriter which recorded typed data on magnetic cards. This was a very early form of word processing.
If these look like computer punch cards they probably were used with an IBM Mag Card or a similar typewriter. These actually still were in use when I entered Federal service in 1976. I also remember the secretaries using them on Capitol Hill in the summer of 1974, when I worked for Sen. Howard H. Baker, Jr. (Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities). This was during the Watergate hearings.
See
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/modelb/modelb_milestone2.html
and also the section on Magnetic Card Typewriter at
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/modelb/modelb_office2.html
See also an interesting article on word processing from the Encyclopedia of Library and InformationScience, vol. 49 (New York: Dekker, 1992), pp. 268-78
available
at
users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/compartics/History_of_Word_Processing.pdf
I never used the card typeweriters for any of the jobs I held during the 1970s, but I did use the similar IBM Selectric MTST, which recorded typed data on cassettes.
As to how to retrieve the information, I defer to those on the List who have more experience than I with vendors who provide conversion services. We actually retrieved some info from IBM Mag Cards while I worked at NARA with the Nixon materials; however, that took place around 1980 so it wasn't that hard then to get hold of a typewriter and its associated card reading machine then.
>>> Christina Hostetter <[log in to unmask]> 7/21/2006 11:29 AM >>>
Yesterday one of my interns was processing a collection and found a cardboard holder with what looks like three magnetic cards inside. The outside label reads "Card No. 2870 Farrakhan Letter - page 1, Card No. 2868 Farrakhan Letter page - 2, Card No. 2875 Farrakhan Letter - page 2 w/security." My guess is they are a precursor to a floppy disk, although they must have been produced in 1984.
It appears that these cards were produced by the data recording division at 3M and are probably some sort of machine readable card similar to a floppy disk. They look like the inside of a 5 ¼" floppy disk except they are 7 ½" x 3 1/2" cards.
Does any one know what they are or how to read them? Any storage/preservation suggestions?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christina J. Zamon
Archivist
National Press Club Archives
529 14th Street, NW
Suite 480
Washington, DC 20045
202-662-7598
http://www.press.org/library06/archives.cfm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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