On January 8, 1889, Herman Hollerith was issued U.S. Patent Nos. 395,781, 395,782, and 395,783, on the art of compiling statistics.  Hollerith’s cards were first used in in processing the 1890 Census.  He later founded The Tabulating Machine Company, which was one of the four predecessors of IBM.

Once ubiquitous, punch cards are now relegated to employee time keeping systems by those who “punch the clock” and of course some voting system (think “hanging chad”).