Teletype Corp.,"chad"

[Mark A. Mandel]

Frank Abate <abatefr at EARTHLINK.NET> writes:

>>>>>
Then there are punch cards, which go back at least to the 1890 US Census and
its Hollerith machines.

The point is that people have been creating (if not saying) chad or chips
for many, many years, and the search for earlier uses may take us very far
back before 1947.  I have not found an earlier cite as yet, but I suspect
there may be good evidence from people who can access written records about
telegraphy and the teletype.
<<<<<

The Jacquard loom (1804*) used punched cards to define the patterns to be
woven. It is regarded as an important influence on Babbage and Hollerith.**

That may not be directly relevant to the etymology of "chad", but it sure
looks like a hell of an antedate for punched cards!

* http://dept.kent.edu/museum/anne/KSUM/paisley/Jac.html
** http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~ped/teachadmin/histsci/htmlform/lect4.html

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com