One of the benefits of buying self-assembly shelves, tables and so forth is its comparative affordability. Since they are modular in nature, the systems can be added to if necessary without appearing to be awkward or out of place. An avid collector of books, for example, or nowadays DVDs is able to buy and assemble inexpensive bookcases or shelving systems then as his or her collections of books or DVDs grow so do their containers.

As well as being practical, self-assembly furniture is versatile. Shelves can be used anywhere in the house, or indeed outside in the garage or shed for instance.

This particular furniture company has made such an impression over the years that, in Germany, a museum has organised an exhibition of their products. Celebrities have been known to browse this company’s stores, so it is obvious that its main attraction is not its low prices, since these are people who could shop elsewhere at more expensive places. The concept of flat-pack furniture has become popular with manufacturers worldwide and there are many DIY companies and superstores that now design their own fitted kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms based on the idea.

Interestingly, that format was still being used in the early 1990s for two reasons.

IBM had patented the rectangular format, which meant that their competitors could not use it and were only able to use the old less efficient method of file storage. The other reason is that Remington Rand, one of IBM main competitors, changed from Hollerith’s code to a six-bit code allowing 90 columns of text to be stored on the old 45 column card.

At that time, Iowa University was punching student name on cards but other universities were developing four-digit numeric encoding of names, which was most commonly used to avoid the cost of buying expensive alphanumeric machines.

Remington Rand bought UNIVAC and integrated their new card format with UNIVAC computers. In many ways the UNIVAC card code was better than IBM’s rectangular format. UNIVAC’s system was still be used at Macy’s department stores throughout the 1960s.

However, it was not only the retail sector that continued to use this system in the 60s, the New York City tax department, Long Island Lighting and the Polaris missile control were also still using the 90 column card system. In the mid-70s a UNIVAC system was seen at a naval weapons station

Hollerith, after perfecting his first line of electromechanical machines which included a punch, a tabulating machine to process the data punched on cards, and a sorting machine, formed a company, the Tabulating Machine Corporation. It had an uncertain start and might have collapsed if an experienced business manager by the name of Thomas Watson had not been hired.  One of Watson’s moves was to change the company’s name to International Business Machine, now better known by its acronym IBM.

The original card size used for file storage, as invented by Herman Hollerith, has remained the same, seven and three-eighths by three and a quarter inches. Before 1929 this was the standard size for most US banknotes. It is said that Hollerith chose these dimensions to be able to store the cards in boxes made for the Treasury Department.

Originally the code used for data card recording in the 1890 census had 22 columns which had eight punch positions each. As the need for more information to be stored on these cards grew, higher density formats came into being and by the end of the 1920s the standard format was 45 columns of round holes with 12 punch positions per column.  How file storage has changed!