Punched card sorter, United Kingdom, 1967

Punched card sorter, consisting of 2 main units, a painted wooden shelf unit and approximately 300 punched cards, used to organise cards with punched holes (encoding information about people) in different ways to help in analysis of information, used by Ann Cartwright and co-workers at the Institute for Social Studies in Medical Care for over 20 years in surveys of general practise, maternity services, the needs of the elderly and other groups, and attitudes to death, made by International Computers and Tabulators, UK, 1967.

Before electronic computers became widely available, other machines handled large amounts of information. This punched card sorter, consisting of two main units, organised information in different ways to analyse it accurately. For instance, the cards may be hole punched for male in one part of the card and female on another. This at least sorted the information according to sex.

The main card sorter is accompanied by a painted wooden shelf unit and approximately 300 punched cards. It was made by British company International Computers and Tabulators and was used for over 20 years by statistician Ann Cartwright at the Institute for Social Studies in Medical Care. The card sorter helped analyse surveys such as attitudes towards general practice, maternity services, and the needs of the elderly. This produced health and social studies statistics.