Not only did I program with cards (Assembler) in 1970, but my employer managed a master file of 40,000 cards, sorted by account number. Every day we posted upda

Not only did I program with cards (Assembler) in 1970, but my employer managed a master file of 40,000 cards, sorted by account number. Every day we posted updates by matching transaction files to the master, and selecting out cards that corresponded to updates. In the second pass of the day, we merged new and updated cards into the master file. Two hours per run. 1,000 cards/minute is an infernal racket. Imagine a picker knife slamming 17 cards/second by the edges. It would jam occasionally, and we had to meticulously reconstitute the torn card on the keypunch.