What information did Hollerith's card encode versus Jacquard's card?
Answer
Coded categorical data like sex and location.
The core difference between the two historical uses lay in the type of information encoded. Jacquard's card held simple binary information—representing whether a thread should lift or remain down—to create geometric art in textiles. In contrast, Hollerith's card was designed to hold coded categorical data points pertaining to human demographics, such as age, sex, and location, which were necessary inputs for generating comprehensive social statistics and analysis via his tabulating machine.
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