Christie's auction and other computer history events

[William Donzelli]

> In fact after reading Hodges' book, the Polish story screams out
> for attention. Those people worked out, in their underground, ways
> to decode *mechanically* (holed cards and knitting needles sort of
> thing) deep mathematical solutions to practical problems.

The "knitting needle" method actually was an established system in
business pre-war. The cards were quite different - typically punched only
on the edges (hole, no hole, or slot - trinary?) so a needle could be
inserted, then a shake would do the sort. The cards also were punched on
all four edges.

William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org