Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Teletypes and early minicomputers read tape punched with eight data channels and a clocking sprocket hole. The figure is taken from Computer History Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a technology fact?

Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Paper tape stored programs as rows of holes

Teletypes and early minicomputers read tape punched with eight data channels and a clocking sprocket hole Paper tape came out of telegraphy and carried five channel Baudot code before eight channel ASCII became common in the 1960s. A reader pulled the tape over a row of pins or a lamp and photocell, and the sprocket holes told it when a character was aligned. Tape was cheap and robust but slow, easily torn and impossible to edit in place. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Computer History Museum

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: storage, paper-tape, computing-history

Paper tape stored programs as rows of holes: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Teletypes and early minicomputers read tape punched with eight data channels and a clocking sprocket hole. The figure is taken from Computer History Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?: Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.