"chad" in 1952

[Gerald Cohen]

   One of the pleasant developments from the WSJ article on Barry
Popik yesterday is an e-mail I received pertaining to "chad." The
writer (Mr. Chris Jensen) remembers the word from 1952 and directs
attention to the US Army's teletype machines. This jibes with the
observations of Fred Shapiro to the already noticed earliest
attestation (1947) from the Merriam-Webster files. Perhaps the most
significant part of the e-mail is Mr. Jensen's mentioning the
manufacturer of the teletype machines (approximate name; "The
Teletype Corporation."). It's a lead to locating who might have
introduced "chad" into teletype jargon.

    Here now is Mr. Jensen's Jan. 2 e-mail message, followed by
material on 1947 "chad" from notes I have made in preparation for a
"chad" compilation (no conclusive etymology yet).

>If you are interested in the word Chad and its origin, you might
>have information pre-dating this, but if not:
>
>I trained in the US Army's teletype school in 1952. We pre-packaged
>the messages we had to send onto paper tape. When we were satisfied
>with our accuracy, we sent the message by "reading" the tape through
>the same machine that perforated it.
>
>The paper tape perforators came in two models, chad and chadless.
>The chad perforators punched out the paper, leaving a hole. The
>chadless perforators deliberately punched about 80% of the hole,
>leaving the now-illreputed "hanging chad." Chadless was attractive
>because we could edit it - patching in corrections in the form of
>other chadless stretches of tape by making its hanging chad push
>through the partial holes in the base document's tape. Sort of like
>editing cellulose movie film, except without the glue.
>
>Those machines had been in the Army since shortly after World War
>II, if not before. They were supplied by "The Teletype Corporation."
>or some supplier like that. You might get more of a 'final' answer
>from that corporation or its successor about where they learned
>about the expression 'chad.'



(from notes for a compilation, containing contributions of various
individuals; due credit will of course be given):


>  1947 (EARLIEST ATTESTATION) COMES FROM MERRIAM-WEBSTER FILES
>
>       The earliest attestation for chad is 1947 and comes from the
>files of Merriam-Webster. The following [ADS-L] Nov. 20, 2000
>message was sent by Joanne Despres (jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM):
>
>       '...the 1947 citation for "chad" in our files reads as follows:
>
>       "The sample tape shown in Figure 2 is of the form produced by the
>       typing reperforator.  It is known as chadless tape because the
>       small discs, called chads, which are perforated to form the code
>       combinations are not cut completely from the tape but are
>       perforated only sufficiently to permit the chads to rise like small
>       hinged lids in response to the sensing pins of a transmitter.
>
>       RCA Review
>       Radio Corp. of America Vol. 8 No. 3
>       RCA Lab. Div. Sept. 1947
>
>       'This same citation also provides our earliest evidence for
>"chadless."  Every other early source I've looked at defines
>"chadless" in the same way, i.e., in terms of a tape-punching
>method resulting in a lack of chads.  The absence of any reference
>to the name "Chadless" in these cites would seem to cast doubt
>on the back-formation hypothesis posited as an explanation for
>"chad."  Jim Rader mentioned to me that he'd investigated this
>hypothesis some time ago by checking patent records for the
>name, but came up with nothing.  The "perhaps" derivation in W3
>from a Scots word meaning "gravel"  appeared to him to be pure
>guesswork.'
>
>       FRED SHAPIRO LOOKS AT THE ABOVE 1947 QUOTE IN CONTEXT
>                       (Nov. 21, 2000 ADS-L message)
>
>       For those of you who are eagerly awaiting more findings in
>the Great Chad Quest, I have checked the original source of the 1947
>Merriam-Webster citation.  The context does not, alas, shed any
>further light on the
>etymological question.  The one thing I glean from examining the original
>article in the RCA Review is that the milieu of this earliest known usage
>is not computers, but rather radiotelegraphy.  (The second oldest source,
>the 1959 cite in the OED Addition Series, is also from a telegraphy
>source.)
>       I also looked for other articles mentioning "chad" in the RCA
>Review and other engineering journals from the late 1940s, but found
>nothing.
>
>Fred Shapiro, Editor
>YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS, forthcoming.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/attachments/20010103/46e8c038/attachment.htm>