document_title: Gemstone

question_text: parts of the surface of a gem stone

question_tokens: parts of the surface of a gem stone

text: Gemstone

text: Characteristics and classification[edit]

text: This article or section may have been copied and pasted from a source, possibly in violation of Wikipedia's copyright policy. Please remedy this by editing this article to remove any non-free copyrighted content and attributing free content correctly, or flagging the content for deletion. Please be sure that the supposed source of the copyright violation is not itself a Wikipedia mirror. (December 2017)

text: The traditional classification in the West, which goes back to the ancient Greeks, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious; similar distinctions are made in other cultures. In modern use the precious stones are diamond, ruby, sapphire, and emerald, with all other gemstones being semi-precious.[3] This distinction reflects the rarity of the respective stones in ancient times, as well as their quality: all are translucent with fine color in their purest forms, except for the colorless diamond, and very hard, with hardnesses of 8 to 10 on the Mohs scale. Other stones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. The traditional distinction does not necessarily reflect modern values, for example, while garnets are relatively inexpensive, a green garnet called tsavorite can be far more valuable than a mid-quality emerald.[4] Another unscientific term for semi-precious gemstones used in art history and archaeology is hardstone. Use of the terms 'precious' and 'semi-precious' in a commercial context is, arguably, misleading in that it deceptively implies certain stones are intrinsically more valuable than others, which is not necessarily the case.

text:
In modern times gemstones are identified by gemologists, who describe gems and their characteristics using technical terminology specific to the field of gemology. The first characteristic a gemologist uses to identify a gemstone is its chemical composition. For example, diamonds are made of carbon (C) and rubies of aluminium oxide (Al
2O
3). Next, many gems are crystals which are classified by their crystal system such as cubic or trigonal or monoclinic. Another term used is habit, the form the gem is usually found in. For example, diamonds, which have a cubic crystal system, are often found as octahedrons.

text: Gemstones are classified into different groups, species, and varieties.[5] For example, ruby is the red variety of the species corundum, while any other color of corundum is considered sapphire. Other examples are the emerald (green), aquamarine (blue), red beryl (red), goshenite (colorless), heliodor (yellow), and morganite (pink), which are all varieties of the mineral species beryl.

text: Gems are characterized in terms of refractive index, dispersion, specific gravity, hardness, cleavage, fracture, and luster. They may exhibit pleochroism or double refraction. They may have luminescence and a distinctive absorption spectrum.

text: Material or flaws within a stone may be present as inclusions.

text: Gemstones may also be classified in terms of their "water". This is a recognized grading of the gem's luster, transparency, or "brilliance".[6] Very transparent gems are considered "first water", while "second" or "third water" gems are those of a lesser transparency.[7]

text: Value[edit]

text: There is no universally accepted grading system for gemstones. Diamonds are graded using a system developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in the early 1950s. Historically, all gemstones were graded using the naked eye. The GIA system included a major innovation: the introduction of 10x magnification as the standard for grading clarity. Other gemstones are still graded using the naked eye (assuming 20/20 vision).[8]

text: A mnemonic device, the "four Cs" (color, cut, clarity, and carats), has been introduced to help the consumer understand the factors used to grade a diamond.[9] With modification, these categories can be useful in understanding the grading of all gemstones. The four criteria carry different weight depending upon whether they are applied to colored gemstones or to colorless diamonds. In diamonds, cut is the primary determinant of value, followed by clarity and color. Diamonds are meant to sparkle, to break down light into its constituent rainbow colors (dispersion), chop it up into bright little pieces (scintillation), and deliver it to the eye (brilliance). In its rough crystalline form, a diamond will do none of these things; it requires proper fashioning and this is called "cut". In gemstones that have color, including colored diamonds, it is the purity and beauty of that color that is the primary determinant of quality.

text: Physical characteristics that make a colored stone valuable are color, clarity to a lesser extent (emeralds will always have a number of inclusions), cut, unusual optical phenomena within the stone such as color zoning (the uneven distribution of coloring within a gem) and asteria (star effects). The Greeks, for example, greatly valued asteria gemstones, which were regarded as powerful love charms, and Helen of Troy was known to have worn star-corundum.[10]

text: Aside from the diamond, the ruby, sapphire, emerald, pearl (not, strictly speaking, a gemstone), and opal[11] have also been considered to be precious. Up to the discoveries of bulk amethyst in Brazil in the 19th century, amethyst was considered a precious stone as well, going back to ancient Greece. Even in the last century certain stones such as aquamarine, peridot and cat's eye (cymophane) have been popular and hence been regarded as precious.

text: Today such a distinction is no longer made by the gemstone trade.[12] Many gemstones are used in even the most expensive jewelry, depending on the brand name of the designer, fashion trends, market supply, treatments, etc. Nevertheless, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds still have a reputation that exceeds those of other gemstones.[13]

text: Rare or unusual gemstones, generally meant to include those gemstones which occur so infrequently in gem quality that they are scarcely known except to connoisseurs, include andalusite, axinite, cassiterite, clinohumite and red beryl.[14]

text: Gem prices can fluctuate heavily (such as those of tanzanite over the years) or can be quite stable (such as those of diamonds). In general per carat prices of larger stones are higher than those of smaller stones, but popularity of certain sizes of stone can affect prices. Typically prices can range from US$1/carat for a normal amethyst to US$20,000–50,000 for a collector's three carat pigeon-blood almost "perfect" ruby.[citation needed]

text: Grading[edit]

text: There are a number of[12] laboratories which grade and provide reports on gemstones.

text:
Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the main provider of education services and diamond grading reports. And also Colourstone reports.
International Gemological Institute (IGI), independent laboratory for grading and evaluation of diamonds, jewelry and colored stones.
Hoge Raad voor Diamant (HRD Antwerp), The Diamond High Council, Belgium is one of Europe's oldest laboratories. Its main stakeholder is the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.
American Gemological Society (AGS) is not as widely recognized nor as old as the GIA.
American Gem Trade Laboratory which is part of the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA), a trade organization of jewelers and dealers of colored stones.
American Gemological Laboratories (AGL), owned by Christopher P. Smith.
European Gemological Laboratory (EGL), founded in 1974 by Guy Margel in Belgium.
Gemmological Association of All Japan (GAAJ-ZENHOKYO), Zenhokyo, Japan, active in gemological research.
The Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand (Public Organization) or GIT, the Thailand's national institute for gemological research and gem testing, Bangkok
Gemmology Institute of Southern Africa, Africa's premium gem laboratory.
Asian Institute of Gemmological Sciences (AIGS), the oldest gemological institute in South East Asia, involved in gemological education and gem testing.
Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF), founded by Henry Hänni, focusing on colored gemstones and the identification of natural pearls.
Gübelin Gem Lab, the traditional Swiss lab founded by Eduard Gübelin.

text: Each laboratory has its own methodology to evaluate gemstones. A stone can be called "pink" by one lab while another lab calls it "padparadscha". One lab can conclude a stone is untreated, while another lab might conclude that it is heat-treated.[12] To minimise such differences, seven of the most respected labs, AGTA-GTL (New York), CISGEM (Milano), GAAJ-ZENHOKYO (Tokyo), GIA (Carlsbad), GIT (Bangkok), Gübelin (Lucerne) and SSEF (Basel), have established the Laboratory Manual Harmonisation Committee (LMHC), for the standardization of wording reports, promotion of certain analytical methods and interpretation of results. Country of origin has sometimes been difficult to determine, due to the constant discovery of new source locations. Determining a "country of origin" is thus much more difficult than determining other aspects of a gem (such as cut, clarity, etc.).[15]

text: Gem dealers are aware of the differences between gem laboratories and will make use of the discrepancies to obtain the best possible certificate.[12]

text: Cutting and polishing[edit]

text: A few gemstones are used as gems in the crystal or other form in which they are found. Most however, are cut and polished for usage as jewelry. The picture to the left is of a rural, commercial cutting operation in Thailand. This small factory cuts thousands of carats of sapphire annually. The two main classifications are stones cut as smooth, dome shaped stones called cabochons, and stones which are cut with a faceting machine by polishing small flat windows called facets at regular intervals at exact angles.

text: Stones which are opaque or semi-opaque such as opal, turquoise, variscite, etc. are commonly cut as cabochons. These gems are designed to show the stone's color or surface properties as in opal and star sapphires. Grinding wheels and polishing agents are used to grind, shape and polish the smooth dome shape of the stones.[16]

text: Gems which are transparent are normally faceted, a method which shows the optical properties of the stone's interior to its best advantage by maximizing reflected light which is perceived by the viewer as sparkle. There are many commonly used shapes for faceted stones. The facets must be cut at the proper angles, which varies depending on the optical properties of the gem. If the angles are too steep or too shallow, the light will pass through and not be reflected back toward the viewer. The faceting machine is used to hold the stone onto a flat lap for cutting and polishing the flat facets.[17] Rarely, some cutters use special curved laps to cut and polish curved facets.

text: Colors[edit]

text: The color of any material is due to the nature of light itself. Daylight, often called white light, is actually all of the colors of the spectrum combined. When light strikes a material, most of the light is absorbed while a smaller amount of a particular frequency or wavelength is reflected. The part that is reflected reaches the eye as the perceived color. A ruby appears red because it absorbs all the other colors of white light (green and blue), while reflecting the red.

text: A material which is mostly the same can exhibit different colors. For example, ruby and sapphire have the same primary chemical composition (both are corundum) but exhibit different colors because of impurities. Even the same named gemstone can occur in many different colors: sapphires show different shades of blue and pink and "fancy sapphires" exhibit a whole range of other colors from yellow to orange-pink, the latter called "padparadscha sapphire".[citation needed]

text: This difference in color is based on the atomic structure of the stone. Although the different stones formally have the same chemical composition and structure, they are not exactly the same. Every now and then an atom is replaced by a completely different atom, sometimes as few as one in a million atoms. These so-called impurities are sufficient to absorb certain colors and leave the other colors unaffected.

text: For example, beryl, which is colorless in its pure mineral form, becomes emerald with chromium impurities. If manganese is added instead of chromium, beryl becomes pink morganite. With iron, it becomes aquamarine.

text: Some gemstone treatments make use of the fact that these impurities can be "manipulated", thus changing the color of the gem.[5]

text: Treatment[edit]

text: Gemstones are often treated to enhance the color or clarity of the stone. Depending on the type and extent of treatment, they can affect the value of the stone. Some treatments are used widely because the resulting gem is stable, while others are not accepted most commonly because the gem color is unstable and may revert to the original tone.[18]

text: Heat[edit]

text: Heat can improve gemstone color or clarity. The heating process has been well known to gem miners and cutters for centuries, and in many stone types heating is a common practice. Most citrine is made by heating amethyst, and partial heating with a strong gradient results in “ametrine” – a stone partly amethyst and partly citrine. Aquamarine is often heated to remove yellow tones, or to change green colors into the more desirable blue, or enhance its existing blue color to a purer blue.[19]

text: Nearly all tanzanite is heated at low temperatures to remove brown undertones and give a more desirable blue / purple color.[20] A considerable portion of all sapphire and ruby is treated with a variety of heat treatments to improve both color and clarity.

text: When jewelry containing diamonds is heated (for repairs) the diamond should be protected with boric acid; otherwise the diamond (which is pure carbon) could be burned on the surface or even burned completely up. When jewelry containing sapphires or rubies is heated, those stones should not be coated with boracic acid (which can etch the surface) or any other substance. They do not have to be protected from burning, like a diamond (although the stones do need to be protected from heat stress fracture by immersing the part of the jewelry with stones in water when metal parts are heated).

text: Radiation[edit]

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text: Virtually all blue topaz, both the lighter and the darker blue shades such as "London" blue, has been irradiated to change the color from white to blue. Most greened quartz (Oro Verde) is also irradiated to achieve the yellow-green color. Diamonds are irradiated to produce fancy-color diamonds (which occur naturally, though rarely in gem quality).

text: Waxing/oiling[edit]

text: Emeralds containing natural fissures are sometimes filled with wax or oil to disguise them. This wax or oil is also colored to make the emerald appear of better color as well as clarity. Turquoise is also commonly treated in a similar manner.

text: Fracture filling[edit]

text: Fracture filling has been in use with different gemstones such as diamonds, emeralds and sapphires. In 2006 "glass filled rubies" received publicity. Rubies over 10 carats (2 g) with large fractures were filled with lead glass, thus dramatically improving the appearance (of larger rubies in particular). Such treatments are fairly easy to detect.

text: Synthetic and artificial gemstones[edit]

text: It is important to distinguish between synthetic gemstones, and imitation or simulated gems.

text: Synthetic gems are physically, optically and chemically identical to the natural stone, but are created in controlled conditions in a laboratory.[21] Imitation or simulated stones are chemically different than the natural stone but may be optically similar to it; they can be glass, plastic, resins or other compounds.

text: Examples of simulated or imitation stones include cubic zirconia, composed of zirconium oxide and simulated moissanite, which are both diamond simulants. The imitations copy the look and color of the real stone but possess neither their chemical nor physical characteristics. Moissanite actually has a higher refractive index than diamond and when presented beside an equivalently sized and cut diamond will have more "fire" than the diamond.

text: Synthetic, cultured or lab-created gemstones are not imitations. For example, diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds have been manufactured in labs to possess identical chemical and physical characteristics to the naturally occurring variety. Synthetic (lab created) corundum, including ruby and sapphire, is very common and costs much less than the natural stones. Smaller synthetic diamonds have been manufactured in large quantities as industrial abrasives, although larger gem-quality synthetic diamonds are becoming available in multiple carats.[22]

text: Whether a gemstone is a natural stone or lab-created (synthetic), the physical characteristics are the same. Lab-created stones tend to have a more vivid color to them, as impurities are not present in a lab and do not modify the clarity or color of the stone, unless added intentionally for a specific purpose.[citation needed]

text: List of extremely rare gemstones[edit]

text:
Painite was discovered in 1956 in Ohngaing in Myanmar. The mineral was named in honor of the British gemologist Arthur Charles Davy Pain. In 2005, painite was described by the Guinness Book of World Records as the rarest gem mineral on earth.[23][page needed]
Hibonite was discovered in 1956 in Madagascar. It was named after the discoverer the French geologist Paul Hibon. Gem quality Hibonite has only been found in Myanmar.[24]
Red beryl or bixbite was discovered in an area near Beaver, Utah in 1904 and named after the American mineralogist Maynard Bixby.
Jeremejevite was discovered in 1883 in Russia and named after its discoverer, Pawel Wladimirowich Jeremejew (1830–1899).
Chambersite was discovered in 1957 in Chambers County, Texas, USA, and named after the deposit's location.
Taaffeite was discovered in 1945. It was named after the discoverer, the Irish gemologist Count Edward Charles Richard Taaffe.
Musgravite was discovered in 1967 in the Musgrave Mountains in South Australia and named for the location.
Grandidierite was discovered by Antoine François Alfred Lacroix (1863–1948) in 1902 in Tuléar province, Madagascar. It was named in honor of the French naturalist and explorer Alfred Grandidier (1836–1912).
Poudretteite was discovered in 1965 at the Poudrette Quarry in Canada and named after the quarry's owners and operators, the Poudrette family.
Serendibite was discovered in Sri Lanka by Dunil Palitha Gunasekera in 1902 and named after Serendib, the old Arabic name for Sri Lanka.
Zektzerite was discovered by Bart Cannon in 1968 on Kangaroo Ridge near Washington Pass in Okanogan County, Washington, USA. The mineral was named in honor of mathematician and geologist Jack Zektzer, who presented the material for study in 1976.


document_title: Punched card

question_text: who used punch cards to create a new calculating system

root

text: Punched card

text: History[edit]

text: Basile Bouchon developed the control of a loom by punched holes in paper tape in 1725. The design was improved by his assistant Jean-Baptiste Falcon and Jacques Vaucanson (1740)[4] Although these improvements controlled the patterns woven, they still required an assistant to operate the mechanism. In 1804 Joseph Marie Jacquard demonstrated a mechanism to automate loom operation. A number of punched cards were linked into a chain of any length. Each card held the instructions for shedding (raising and lowering the warp) and selecting the shuttle for a single pass. It is considered an important step in the history of computing hardware.[5]

tag: p

text: Semen Korsakov was reputedly the first to use the punched cards[citation needed] in informatics for information store and search. Korsakov announced his new method and machines in September 1832; rather than seeking patents, he offered the machines for public use.[6][7]

text: Charles Babbage proposed the use of "Number Cards", "pierced with certain holes and stand opposite levers connected with a set of figure wheels ... advanced they push in those levers opposite to which there are no holes on the card and thus transfer that number" in his description of the Calculating Engine's Store.[8]

text: In 1881 Jules Carpentier developed a method of recording and playing back performances on a harmonium using punched cards. The system was called the Mélographe Répétiteur and “writes down ordinary music played on the keyboard dans la langage de Jacquard”,[9] that is as holes punched in a series of cards. By 1887 Carpentier had separated the mechanism into the Melograph which recorded the player's key presses and the Melotrope which played the music.[10][11]

text: Starting at the end of the 1800s tabulating machines based on punched cards became widely used for commercial and government data processing. Initially, these machines were purely mechanical, but by the 1930s, most were electromechanical, and had units for carrying out basic arithmetic operations.[12] Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a medium that could then be read by a machine. Prior uses of machine readable media, such as those above (other than Korsakov, Fenby and Carpentier), had been for control, not data. "After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards...", developing punched card data processing technology for the 1890 US census.[13]

text: Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company (1896) which was one of four companies that were amalgamated (via stock acquisition) to form a fifth company, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) (1911), later renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) (1924). Other companies entering the punched card business included The Tabulator Limited (1902) (later renamed the British Tabulating Machine Company), Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH (Dehomag) (1911), Powers Accounting Machine Company (1911), Remington Rand (1927), and H.W. Egli Bull (1931).[14] These companies, and others, manufactured and marketed a variety of punched cards and unit record machines for creating, sorting, and tabulating punched cards, even after the development of electronic computers in the 1950s.

text: Both IBM and Remington Rand tied punched card purchases to machine leases, a violation of the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act. In 1932, the US government took both to court on this issue. Remington Rand settled quickly. IBM viewed its business as providing a service and that the cards were part of the machine. IBM fought all the way to the Supreme Court and lost in 1936; the court ruling that IBM could only set card specifications.[15][16]

text: "By 1937... IBM had 32 presses at work in Endicott, N.Y., printing, cutting and stacking five to 10 million punched cards every day."[17] Punched cards were even used as legal documents, such as U.S. Government checks[18] and savings bonds.

text: During WW II punched card equipment was used by the Allies in some of their efforts to decrypt Axis communications. See, for example, Central Bureau in Australia. At Bletchley Park in England, 2,000,000 punched cards were used each week for storing decrypted German messages.[19]

text: Punched card technology developed into a powerful tool for business data-processing. By 1950 punched cards had become ubiquitous in industry and government. "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate," a generalized version of the warning that appeared on some punched cards (generally on those distributed as paper documents to be later returned for further machine processing, checks for example), became a motto for the post-World War II era.[20][21]

text: In 1955 IBM signed a consent decree requiring, amongst other things, that IBM would by 1962 have no more than one-half of the punched card manufacturing capacity in the United States. Tom Watson Jr.'s decision to sign this decree, where IBM saw the punched card provisions as the most significant point, completed the transfer of power to him from Thomas Watson, Sr.[22]

text: The UNITYPER introduced magnetic tape for data entry in the 1950s. During the 1960s, the punched card was gradually replaced as the primary means for data storage by magnetic tape, as better, more capable computers became available. Mohawk Data Sciences introduced a magnetic tape encoder in 1965, a system marketed as a keypunch replacement which was somewhat successful. Punched cards were still commonly used for entering both data and computer programs until the mid-1980s when the combination of lower cost magnetic disk storage, and affordable interactive terminals on less expensive minicomputers made punched cards obsolete for these roles as well.[23] However, their influence lives on through many standard conventions and file formats. The terminals that replaced the punched cards, the IBM 3270 for example, displayed 80 columns of text in text mode, for compatibility with existing software. Some programs still operate on the convention of 80 text columns, although fewer and fewer do as newer systems employ graphical user interfaces with variable-width type fonts.

text: Nomenclature[edit]

text: The terms punched card, punch card, and punchcard were all commonly used, as were IBM card and Hollerith card (after Herman Hollerith).[24] IBM used "IBM card" or, later, "punched card" at first mention in its documentation and thereafter simply "card" or "cards".[25][26] Specific formats were often indicated by the number of character positions available, e.g. 80-column card. A sequence of cards that is input to or output from some step in an application's processing is called a card deck or simply deck. The rectangular, round, or oval bits of paper punched out were called chad (chads) or chips (in IBM usage). Sequential card columns allocated for a specific use, such as names, addresses, multi-digit numbers, etc., are known as a field. The first card of a group of cards, containing fixed or indicative information for that group, is known as a master card. Cards that are not master cards are detail cards.

text: Card formats[edit]

text: The Hollerith punched cards used for the US 1890 census were blank.[27] Following that, cards commonly had printing such that the row and column position of a hole could be easily seen. Printing could include having fields named and marked by vertical lines, logos, and more.[28] "General purpose" layouts (see, for example, the IBM 5081 below) were also available. For applications requiring master cards to be separated from following detail cards, the respective cards had different upper corner diagonal cuts and thus could be separated by a sorter.[29] Other cards typically had one upper corner diagonal cut so that cards not oriented correctly, or cards with different corner cuts, could be identified.

text: Hollerith's early punched card formats[edit]

text: Herman Hollerith was awarded a series of patents[31] in 1889 for electromechanical tabulating machines. These patents described both paper tape and rectangular cards as possible recording media. The card shown in U.S. Patent 395,781 of June 8 was printed with a template and had hole positions arranged close to the edges so they could be reached by a railroad conductor's ticket punch, with the center reserved for written descriptions. Hollerith was originally inspired by railroad tickets that let the conductor encode a rough description of the passenger:

text: When use of the ticket punch proved tiring and error prone Hollerith developed the pantograph "keyboard punch". It featured an enlarged diagram of the card, indicating the positions of the holes to be punched. A printed reading board could be placed under a card that was to be read manually.[33]

text: Hollerith envisioned a number of card sizes. In an article he wrote describing his proposed system for tabulating the 1890 U.S. Census, Hollerith suggested a card 3 inches by 5½ inches of Manila stock "would be sufficient to answer all ordinary purposes."[34] The cards used in the 1890 census had round holes, 12 rows and 24 columns. A reading board for these cards can be seen at the Columbia University Computing History site.[35] At some point, 3 1⁄4 by 7 3⁄8 inches (82.6 by 187.3 mm) became the standard card size. These are the dimensions of the then current paper currency of 1862–1923.[36]

text: Hollerith's original system used an ad-hoc coding system for each application, with groups of holes assigned specific meanings, e.g. sex or marital status. His tabulating machine had up to 40 counters, each with a dial divided into 100 divisions, with two indicator hands; one which stepped one unit with each counting pulse, the other which advanced one unit every time the other dial made a complete revolution. This arrangement allowed a count up to 9,999. During a given tabulating run counters were assigned specific holes or, using relay logic, combination of holes.[34]

text: Later designs led to a card with ten rows, each row assigned a digit value, 0 through 9, and 45 columns.[37] This card provided for fields to record multi-digit numbers that tabulators could sum, instead of their simply counting cards. Hollerith's 45 column punched cards are illustrated in Comrie's The application of the Hollerith Tabulating Machine to Brown's Tables of the Moon.[38][39]

text: IBM 80-column punched card format and character codes[edit]

text: By the late 1920s customers wanted to store more data on each punched card. Thomas J. Watson Sr., IBM’s head, asked two of his top inventors, Clair D. Lake and J. Royden Peirce, to independently develop ways to increase data capacity without increasing the size of the punched card. Pierce wanted to keep round holes and 45 columns, but allow each column to store more data. Lake suggested rectangular holes, which could be spaced more tightly, allowing 80 columns per punched card, thereby nearly doubling the capacity of the older format.[40] Watson picked the latter solution, introduced as The IBM Computer Card, in part because it was compatible with existing tabulator designs and in part because it could be protected by patents and give the company a distinctive advantage.[41]

text: This IBM card format, introduced in 1928,[42] has rectangular holes, 80 columns, and 12 rows. Card size is exactly 7 3⁄8 by 3 1⁄4 inches (187.325 mm × 82.55 mm). The cards are made of smooth stock, 0.007 inches (180 μm) thick. There are about 143 cards to the inch (56/cm). In 1964, IBM changed from square to round corners.[43] They come typically in boxes of 2000 cards[44] or as continuous form cards. Continuous form cards could be both pre-numbered and pre-punched for document control (checks, for example).[45]

text: Initially designed to record responses to Yes–no questions, support for numeric, alphabetic and special characters was added through the use of columns and zones. The top three positions of a column are called zone punching positions, 12 (top), 11, and 0 (0 may be either a zone punch or a digit punch).[46] For decimal data the lower ten positions are called digit punching positions, 0 (top) through 9.[47] An arithmetic sign can be specified for a decimal field by overpunching the field's rightmost column with a zone punch: 12 for plus, 11 for minus (CR). For Pound sterling pre-decimalization currency a penny column represents the values zero through eleven; 10 (top), 11, then 0 through 9 as above. An arithmetic sign can be punched in the adjacent shilling column.[48] Zone punches had other uses in processing, such as indicating a master card.[49]

text: Reference:[50] Note: The 11 and 12 zones were also called the X and Y zones, respectively.

text: In 1931 IBM began introducing upper-case letters and special characters (Powers-Samas had developed the first commercial alphabetic punched card representation in 1921).[51][52][53] The 26 letters have two punches (zone [12,11,0] + digit [1–9]). The languages of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Finland require up to three additional letters; their punching is not shown here.[54]:88-90 Most special characters have two or three punches (zone [12,11,0, or none] + digit [2–7] + 8); a few special characters were exceptions: "&" is 12 only, "-" is 11 only, and "/" is 0 + 1). The Space character has no punches.[54]:38 The information represented in a column by a combination of zones [12, 11, 0] and digits [0–9] is dependent on the use of that column. For example, the combination "12-1" is the letter "A" in an alphabetic column, a plus signed digit "1" in a signed numeric column, or an unsigned digit "1" in a column where the "12" has some other use. The introduction of EBCDIC in 1964 defined columns with as many as six punches (zones [12,11,0,8,9] + digit [1–7]). IBM and other manufacturers used many different 80-column card character encodings.[55][56] A 1969 American National Standard defined the punches for 128 characters and was named the Hollerith Punched Card Code (often referred to simply as Hollerith Card Code), honoring Hollerith.[54]:7

text: For some computer applications, binary formats were used, where each hole represented a single binary digit (or "bit"), every column (or row) is treated as a simple bit field, and every combination of holes is permitted.

text: As a prank, in binary mode, punched cards could be made where every possible punch position had a hole. Such "lace cards" lacked structural strength, and would frequently buckle and jam inside the machine.[57]

text: The IBM 80-column punched card format dominated the industry, becoming known as just IBM cards, even though other companies made cards and equipment to process them.[citation needed]

text: One of the most common punched card formats is the IBM 5081 card format, a general purpose layout with no field divisions. This format has digits printed on it corresponding to the punch positions of the digits in each of the 80 columns. Other punched card vendors manufactured cards with this same layout and number.

text: IBM Stub card or Short card formats[edit]

text: The 80-column card could be scored, on either end, creating a stub that could be torn off, leaving a stub card or short card. A common length for stub cards was 51-columns. Stub cards were used in applications requiring tags, labels, or carbon copies.[45]

text: IBM 40-column Port-A-Punch card format[edit]

text: According to the IBM Archive: IBM's Supplies Division introduced the Port-A-Punch in 1958 as a fast, accurate means of manually punching holes in specially scored IBM punched cards. Designed to fit in the pocket, Port-A-Punch made it possible to create punched card documents anywhere. The product was intended for "on-the-spot" recording operations—such as physical inventories, job tickets and statistical surveys—because it eliminated the need for preliminary writing or typing of source documents.[58]

text: IBM 96-column punched card format[edit]

text: In the late 1960s, IBM introduced a new, smaller, round-hole, 96-column card format along with the IBM System/3 computer. These cards have tiny (1 mm), circular holes, smaller than those in paper tape. Data is stored in 6-bit BCD, with three rows of 32 characters each, or 8-bit EBCDIC. In this format, each column of the top tiers are combined with two punch rows from the bottom tier to form an 8-bit byte, and the middle tier is combined with two more punch rows, so that each card contains 64 bytes of 8-bit-per-byte binary coded data.[59]

text: Powers/Remington Rand UNIVAC 90-column punched card format[edit]

text: The Powers/Remington Rand card format was initially the same as Hollerith's; 45 columns and round holes. In 1930, Remington Rand leap-frogged IBM's 80 column format from 1928 by coding two characters in each of the 45 columns – producing what is now commonly called the 90-column card.[60] There are two sets of six rows across each card. The rows in each set are labeled 0, 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 and 9. The even numbers in a pair are formed by combining that punch with a 9 punch. Alphabetic and special characters use 3 or more punches[61][62]

text: Powers-Samas punched card formats[edit]

text: The Powers-Samas card formats began with 45 columns and round holes. Later 36, 40 and 65 column cards were provided. A 130 column card was also available - formed by dividing the card into two rows, each row with 65 columns and each character space with 5 punch positions. A 21 column card was comparable to the IBM Stub card.[63]

text: Mark sense card format[edit]

text: Mark sense (electrographic) cards, developed by Reynold B. Johnson at IBM, have printed ovals that could be marked with a special electrographic pencil. Cards would typically be punched with some initial information, such as the name and location of an inventory item. Information to be added, such as quantity of the item on hand, would be marked in the ovals. Card punches with an option to detect mark sense cards could then punch the corresponding information into the card.

tag: ul

text: Aperture card format[edit]

text: Aperture cards have a cut-out hole on the right side of the punched card. A 35 mm microfilm chip containing a microform image is mounted in the hole. Aperture cards are used for engineering drawings from all engineering disciplines. Information about the drawing, for example the drawing number, is typically punched and printed on the remainder of the card.

text: IBM punched card manufacturing[edit]

text: IBM's Fred M. Carroll[64] developed a series of rotary presses that were used to produce punched cards, including a 1921 model that operated at 460 cards per minute (cpm). In 1936 he introduced a completely different press that operated at 850 cpm.[17][65] Carroll's high-speed press, containing a printing cylinder, revolutionized the company's manufacturing of punched cards.[66] It is estimated that between 1930 and 1950, the Carroll press accounted for as much as 25 percent of the company's profits.[22]

text: Discarded printing plates from these card presses, each printing plate the size of an IBM card and formed into a cylinder, often found use as desk pen/pencil holders, and even today are collectible IBM artifacts (every card layout[67] had its own printing plate).

text: Cultural impact[edit]

text: While punched cards have not been widely used for a generation, the impact was so great for most of the 20th century that they still appear from time to time in popular culture. For example:

text:
Artist and architect Maya Lin in 2004 designed a public art installation at Ohio University, titled "Input", that looks like a punched card from the air.[68]
The Man Whose Name Wouldn't Fit: a book by Theodore Tyler[69]
The warning often printed on punched cards that were to be individually handled, "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate", coined by Charles A. Phillips, became a motto for the post-World War II era (even though many people had no idea what spindle meant).[70] The motto was also used for a book by Doris Miles Disney and a movie based on that book.[71]
Tucker Hall at the University of Missouri - Columbia features architecture that is reportedly influenced by punched cards. It is said that the spacing and pattern of the windows on the building will spell out “M-I-Z beat k-U!” on a punched card, making reference to the University and state's rivalry with neighboring state Kansas.[72]
At the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the exterior windows of the Engineering Research Building[73] were modeled after a punched card layout, during its construction in 1966.
At the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, a portion of the exterior of Gamble Hall (College of Business and Public Administration), has a series of light-colored bricks that resembles a punched card spelling out "University of North Dakota."[74]
In the Simpsons episode "Much Apu About Nothing", Apu showed Bart his PhD thesis, the world's first computer tic-tac-toe game, stored in a box full of punched cards.
In the Futurama episode "Mother's Day", as several robots are seen shouting 'Hey hey! Hey ho! 100110!' in protest, one of them burns a punch card in a manner reminiscent of draft-card burning. In another episode, Put Your Head on My Shoulders, Bender offers a dating service. He hands characters punch cards so they can put in what they want, before throwing them in his chest cabinet and 'calculating' the 'match' for the person. Bender is shown 'folding', 'bending', and 'mutilating' the punched card, accentuating the fact that he is making up the 'calculations'.
In the 1964–65 Free Speech Movement, punched cards became a

text: metaphor... symbol of the "system"—first the registration system and then bureaucratic systems more generally ... a symbol of alienation ... Punched cards were the symbol of information machines, and so they became the symbolic point of attack. Punched cards, used for class registration, were first and foremost a symbol of uniformity. .... A student might feel "he is one of out of 27,500 IBM cards" ... The president of the Undergraduate Association criticized the University as "a machine ... IBM pattern of education."... Robert Blaumer explicated the symbolism: he referred to the "sense of impersonality... symbolized by the IBM technology."... ––Steven Lubar[75]

text:
A legacy of the 80 column punched card format is that a display of 80 characters per row was a common choice in the design of character-based terminals. As of September 2014, some character interface defaults, such as the command prompt window's width in Microsoft Windows, remain set at 80 columns and some file formats, such as FITS, still use 80-character card images.
In Arthur C. Clarke's early short story "Rescue Party", the alien explorers find a "... wonderful battery of almost human Hollerith analyzers and the five thousand million punched cards holding all that could be recorded on each man, woman and child on the planet". Writing in 1946, Clarke, like almost all sci-fi authors, had not then foreseen the development and eventual ubiquity of the computer.

text: Standards[edit]

text:
ANSI INCITS 21-1967 (R2002), Rectangular Holes in Twelve-Row Punched Cards (formerly ANSI X3.21-1967 (R1997)) Specifies the size and location of rectangular holes in twelve-row 3 1⁄4-inch-wide (83 mm) punched cards.
ANSI X3.11 – 1990 American National Standard Specifications for General Purpose Paper Cards for Information Processing
ANSI X3.26 – 1980/R1991) Hollerith Punched Card Code
ISO 1681:1973 Information processing – Unpunched paper cards – Specification
ISO 6586:1980 Data processing – Implementation of the ISO 7- bit and 8- bit coded character sets on punched cards. Defines ISO 7-bit and 8-bit character sets on punched cards as well as the representation of 7-bit and 8-bit combinations on 12-row punched cards. Derived from, and compatible with, the Hollerith Code, ensuring compatibility with existing punched card files.

text: Punched card machines[edit]

text: Processing of punched cards was handled by a variety of machines, including:

text:
Keypunches — machines with a keyboard that punch cards from operator entered data.
Unit record equipment — machines that process data on punched cards. Employed prior to the widespread use of digital computers. Includes card sorters, tabulating machines and a variety of other machines
Computer punched card reader — a computer input device used to read executable computer programs and data from punched cards under computer control.
Computer card punch — a computer output device that punches holes in cards under computer control.
Voting machines — used into the 21st century


document_title: History of rail transport in the United States

question_text: when did scheduled common carrier freight and passenger service begin in the u.s.

question_tokens: when did scheduled common carrier freight and passenger service begin in the u.s.

text: History of rail transport in the United States

text: Chronological history[edit]

text: Early period (1720–1825)[edit]

text: A railroad was reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia in 1720.[4] Between 1762 and 1764, at the close of the French and Indian War, a gravity railroad (mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) is built by British military engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage (which the local Senecas called "Crawl on All Fours.") in Lewiston, New York.[5]

text: Early period (1826–1860)[edit]

text: The animal powered Leiper Railroad followed in 1810 after the preceding successful experiment — designed and built by merchant Thomas Leiper, the railway connects Crum Creek to Ridley Creek, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It was used until 1829, when it was temporarily replaced by the Leiper Canal, then is reopened to replace the canal in 1852. This became the Crum Creek Branch of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad (part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) in 1887. This is the first railroad meant to be permanent, and the first to evolve into trackage of a common carrier after an intervening closure.

text: In 1826 Massachusetts incorporated the Granite Railway as a common freight carrier[6] to primarily haul granite for the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument; operations began later that year.

text: Other railroads authorized by states in 1826 and constructed in the following years included the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's gravity railroad; and the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, to carry freight and passengers around a bend in the Erie Canal. To link the port of Baltimore to the Ohio River, the state of Maryland in 1827 chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the first section of which opened in 1830. Similarly, the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company was chartered in 1827 to connect Charleston to the Savannah River, and Pennsylvania built the Main Line of Public Works between Philadelphia and the Ohio River.

text: The Americans closely followed and copied British railroad technology. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier and started passenger train service in May 1830, initially using horses to pull train cars.[7]:90 The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was the first to use steam locomotives regularly beginning with the Best Friend of Charleston, the first American-built locomotive intended for revenue service, in December 1830.

text: The B&O started developing steam locomotives in 1829 with Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb.[8] This was the first American-built locomotive to run in the U.S., although it was intended as a demonstration of the potential of steam traction rather than as a revenue-earning locomotive.[7]:96 Many of the earliest locomotives for American railroads were imported from England, including the Stourbridge Lion and the John Bull, but a domestic locomotive manufacturing industry was quickly established, with locomotives like the DeWitt Clinton being built in the 1830s.[9] The B&O's westward route reached the Ohio River in 1852, the first eastern seaboard railroad to do so.[10]:Ch.V

text: By 1850, 9,000 miles (14,000 km) of railroad lines had been built.[11] The federal government operated a land grant system between 1855 and 1871, through which new railway companies in the uninhabited West were given millions of acres they could sell or pledge to bondholders. A total of 129 million acres (520,000 km2) were granted to the railroads before the program ended, supplemented by a further 51 million acres (210,000 km2) granted by the states, and by various government subsidies. This program enabled the opening of numerous western lines, especially the Union Pacific-Central Pacific with fast service from San Francisco to Omaha and east to Chicago. West of Chicago, many cities grew up as rail centers, with repair shops and a base of technically literate workers.[12]

text: Railroads soon replaced many canals and turnpikes and by the 1870s had significantly displaced steamboats as well.[13] The railroads were superior to these alternative modes of transportation, particularly water routes because they lowered costs in two ways. Canals and rivers were unavailable in the winter season due to freezing, but the railroads ran year-round despite poor weather. And railroads were safer: the likelihood of a train crash was less than the likelihood of a boat sinking. The railroads provided cost-effective transportation because they allowed shippers to have a smaller inventory of goods, which reduced storage costs during winter, and to avoid insurance costs from the risk of losing goods during transit.[14]

text: Likewise, railroads changed the style of transportation. For the common person in the early 1800s, transportation was often travel by horse or stage coach. The network of trails along which coaches navigated were riddled with ditches, potholes, and stones. This made travel fairly uncomfortable. Adding to injury, coaches were cramped with little leg room. Travel by train offered a new style. Locomotives proved themselves a smooth, headache free ride with plenty of room to move around. Some passenger trains offered meals in the spacious dining car followed by a good night sleep in the private sleeping quarters.[15] Railroad companies in the North and Midwest constructed networks that linked nearly every major city by 1860. In the heavily settled Corn Belt (from Ohio to Iowa), over 80 percent of farms were within 5 miles (8.0 km) of a railway. A large number of short lines were built, but thanks to a fast developing financial system based on Wall Street and oriented to railway securities, the majority were consolidated into 20 trunk lines by 1890.[16] Most of these railroads made money and ones that didn't were soon bought up and incorporated in a larger system or "rationalized". Although the transcontinental railroads dominated the media, with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 dramatically symbolizing the nation’s unification after the divisiveness of the Civil War, most construction actually took place in the industrial Northeast and agricultural Midwest, and was designed to minimize shipping times and costs.[17] The railroads in the South were repaired and expanded and then, after a lot of preparation, changed from a 5-foot gauge to standard gauge of 4 foot 8 ½ inches in two days in May 1886.[18]

text: With its extensive river system the United States supported a large array of horse-drawn or mule-drawn barges on canals and paddle wheel steamboats on rivers that competed with railroads after 1815 until the 1870s. The canals and steamboats lost out because of the dramatic increases in efficiency and speed of the railroads, which could go almost anywhere year round. The railroads were faster and went to many places a canal would be impractical or too expensive to build or a natural river never went. Railroads also had better scheduling since they often could go year round, more or less ignoring the weather. Canals and river traffic were cheaper if you lived on or near a canal or river that wasn't frozen over part of the year; but only a few did. Long distance transport of goods by wagon to a canal or river was slow and expensive. A railroad to a city made it an inland "port" that often prospered or turned a town into a city.[19]

text: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861–1877)[edit]

text: Rail was strategic during the American Civil War, and the Union used its much larger system much more effectively. Practically all the mills and factories supplying rails and equipment were in the North, and the Union blockade kept the South from getting new equipment or spare parts. The war was fought in the South, and Union raiders (and sometimes Confederates too) systematically destroyed bridges and rolling stock — and sometimes bent rails — to hinder the logistics of the enemy.[20]

text: In the South, most railroads in 1860 were local affairs connecting cotton regions with the nearest waterway. Most transport was by boat, not rail, and after the Union blockaded the ports in 1861 and seized the key rivers in 1862, long-distance travel was difficult. The outbreak of war had a depressing effect on the economic fortunes of the railroad companies, for the hoarding of the cotton crop in an attempt to force European intervention left railroads bereft of their main source of income.[21] Many had to lay off employees, and in particular, let go skilled technicians and engineers. For the early years of the war, the Confederate government had a hands-off approach to the railroads. Only in mid-1863 did the Confederate government initiate an overall policy, and it was confined solely to aiding the war effort.[22] With the legislation of impressment the same year, railroads and their rolling stock came under the de facto control of the Confederate military.

text: Conditions deteriorated rapidly in the Confederacy, as there was no new equipment and raids on both sides systematically destroyed key bridges, as well as locomotives and freight cars. Spare parts were cannibalized; feeder lines were torn up to get replacement rails for trunk lines, and the heavy use of rolling stock wore them out.[23] In 1864-65 the Confederate railroad network collapsed; little traffic moved in 1865.

text: The Southern states had blocked westward rail expansion before 1860, but after secession the Pacific Railway Acts were passed in 1862,[24] allowing the first transcontinental railroad to be completed in 1869, making possible a six-day trip from New York to San Francisco. Other transcontinentals were built in the South (Southern Pacific, Santa Fe) and along the Canada–US border (Northern Pacific, Great Northern), accelerating the settlement of the West by offering inexpensive farms and ranches on credit, carrying pioneers and supplies westward, and cattle, wheat and minerals eastward.

text: During the Reconstruction era, Northern money financed the rebuilding and dramatic expansion of railroads throughout the South; they were modernized in terms of track gauge, equipment and standards of service. The Southern network expanded from 11,000 miles (17,700 km) in 1870 to 29,000 miles (46,700 km) in 1890. The lines were owned and directed overwhelmingly by Northerners. Railroads helped create a mechanically skilled group of craftsmen and broke the isolation of much of the region. Passengers were few, however, and apart from hauling the cotton crop when it was harvested, there was little freight traffic.[25][26][27]

text: The Panic of 1873 was a major global economic depression which ended rapid rail expansion in the United States. Many lines went bankrupt or were barely able to pay the interest on their bonds, and workers were laid off on a mass scale, with those still employed subject to large cuts in wages. This worsening situation for railroad workers led to strikes against many railroads, culminating in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

text: The Great Strike began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in response to the cutting of wages for the second time in a year by the B&O Railroad. The strike, and related violence, spread to Cumberland, Maryland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago and the Midwest. The strike lasted for 45 days, and ended only with the intervention of local and state militias, and federal troops.[28]:112[29][30] Labor unrest continued into the 1880s, such as the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886, which involved over 200,000 workers.

text: Expansion and consolidation (1878–1916)[edit]

text: By 1880 the nation had 17,800 freight locomotives carrying 23,600 tons of freight, and 22,200 passenger locomotives. The U.S. railroad industry was the nation's largest employer outside of the agricultural sector.[31] The effects of the American railways on rapid industrial growth were many, including the opening of hundreds of millions of acres of very good farm land ready for mechanization, lower costs for food and all goods, a huge national sales market, the creation of a culture of engineering excellence, and the creation of the modern system of management.[32][33]

text: New York financier J.P. Morgan played an increasingly dominant role in consolidating the rail system in the late 19th century. He orchestrated reorganizations and consolidations in all parts of the United States. Morgan raised large sums in Europe, but instead of only handling the funds, he helped the railroads reorganize and achieve greater efficiencies. He fought against the speculators interested in speculative profits, and built a vision of an integrated transportation system. In 1885, he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, leasing it to the New York Central. In 1886, he reorganized the Philadelphia & Reading, and in 1888 the Chesapeake & Ohio. He was heavily involved with railroad tycoon James J. Hill and the Great Northern Railway.[34]:331–2

text: Industrialists such as Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould became wealthy through railroad ownerships, as large railroad companies such as the Grand Trunk Railway and the Southern Pacific Transportation Company spanned several states. In response to monopolistic practices and other excesses of some railroads and their owners, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act and created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1887.[28]:123–4[35] The ICC indirectly controlled the business activities of the railroads through issuance of extensive regulations.

text: Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents in order to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates." The conferences were the first of their kind, and by creating a community of interest among competing lines paved the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century.[34]:352–96 Congress responded by enacting antitrust legislation to prohibit monopolies of railroads (and other industries), beginning with the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890.[36]

text: The Panic of 1893 was the largest economic depression in U.S. history at that time. It was the result of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing, which set off a series of bank failures. One-quarter of U.S. railroads had failed by mid-1894, representing over 40,000 miles (64,000 km). The failed lines included the Northern Pacific Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. Acquisitions of the bankrupt companies led to further consolidation of ownership. As of 1906, two-thirds of the rail mileage in the U.S. was controlled by seven entities, with the New York Central, Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), and Morgan having the largest portions.[28]:125–6

text: James J. Hill joined forces with Morgan and others to gain control of the Northern Pacific. Hill formed the Northern Securities Company to consolidate the operations of the Northern Pacific with Hill's own Great Northern, but President Theodore Roosevelt, a trust-buster, strongly disapproved and took it to court. In 1904 the federal courts dissolved the Northern Security company (see Northern Securities Co. v. United States) and the railroads had to go their separate, competitive ways. By that time Morgan and Hill had ensured the Northern Pacific was well-organized and able to survive easily on its own.[34]:352–96

text: In 1901 the Union Pacific Railroad acquired all of the stock of the Southern Pacific. The Federal government charged UP with violating the Sherman Act, and in 1913 the Supreme Court ordered UP to divest itself of all SP stock.[37] This ruling was received with considerable alarm throughout the industry, as UP and SP were widely considered at that time not to be significant competitors.[38] (Later in the 20th century, with different economic conditions and changes in the law, UP successfully acquired the SP. See Resurgence of freight railroads.)

text: Continuing concern over rate discrimination by railroads led Congress to enact additional laws, giving increased regulatory powers to the ICC. The 1906 Hepburn Act gave the ICC authority to set maximum rates and review the companies' financial records.[39]

text: Nationalized management (1917–1920)[edit]

text: The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) temporarily took over management of railroads during World War I to address inadequacy in critical facilities throughout the overall system, such as terminals, trackage, and rolling stock. President Woodrow Wilson issued an order for nationalization on December 26, 1917.[40] Management by USRA led to standardization of equipment, reductions of duplicative passenger services, and better coordination of freight traffic.[28]:175 Federal control of the railroads ended in March 1920.[41]

text: Railroads in the early automobile era (1921–1945)[edit]

text: In the early 20th century, some members of Congress, the ICC, and some railroad executives developed concerns about inefficiencies in the American railroad system. Memories of the 1893 panic, the continuing proliferation of railroad companies, and duplicative facilities, fueled this concern. To an extent the need to nationalize the system during the war was an example of this inefficiency. These concerns were the impetus for legislation to consider improvements to the system.[42] The 1920 Esch-Cummins Act directed the ICC to prepare and adopt a plan for the consolidation of the railroad companies into a limited number of systems.[41] In 1929 the ICC published its proposed Complete Plan of Consolidation, also known as the "Ripley Plan," after its author, William Z. Ripley of Harvard University.[43][44] The agency held hearings on the plan, but none of the proposed consolidations was ever implemented. Many small railroads failed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Of those lines that survived, the stronger ones were not interested in supporting the weaker ones.[45] In 1940 Congress formally abandoned the Ripley Plan.[46]

text: Modern era (1946–present)[edit]

text: During the post-World War II boom many railroads were driven out of business due to competition from airlines and Interstate highways. The rise of the automobile led to the end of passenger train service on most railroads. Trucking businesses had become major competitors by the 1930s with the advent of improved paved roads, and after the war they expanded their operations as the Interstate highway network grew, and acquired increased market share of freight business.[28]:219 Railroads continued to carry bulk freight such as coal, steel and other commodities. However, the ICC continued to regulate railroad rates and other aspects of railroad operations, which limited railroads' flexibility in responding to changing market forces.

text: In 1966, Congress created the Federal Railroad Administration, to issue and enforce rail safety regulations, administer railroad assistance programs, and conduct research and development in support of improved railroad safety and national rail transportation policy. The safety functions were transferred from the ICC. The FRA was established as part of the new federal Department of Transportation.[47]

text: Two of the largest remaining railroads, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central, merged in 1968 to form the Penn Central. At the insistence of the ICC the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was added to the merger in 1969; in 1970 the Penn Central declared bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history until then.[28]:234 Other bankrupt railroads included the Ann Arbor Railroad (1973), Erie Lackawanna Railway (1972), Lehigh Valley Railroad (1970), Reading Company (1971), Central Railroad of New Jersey (1967) and Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (1972).

text: In 1970 Congress created a government corporation, Amtrak, to take over operation of Penn Central passenger lines and selected inter-city passenger services from other private railroads, under the Rail Passenger Service Act.[28]:234[48] Amtrak began operations in 1971.[49]

text: Congress passed the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 (sometimes called the "3R Act") to salvage viable freight operations from the bankrupt Penn Central and other lines in the northeast, mid-Atlantic and midwestern regions, through the creation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation (ConRail), a government-owned corporation.[50] Conrail began operations in 1976.[51] The 3R Act also formed the United States Railway Association, another government corporation, taking over the powers of the ICC with respect to allowing the bankrupt railroads to abandon unprofitable lines.

text: Amtrak acquired most of the right-of-way and facilities of the Penn Central Northeast Corridor from Washington, D.C. to Boston, under the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act (the "4R Act") of 1976.[28]:238[49]

text: In addition to freight railroads, Conrail inherited commuter rail operations from several predecessor railroads in the northeast, and these operations continued to be unprofitable. State and local government transportation agencies took over the passenger operations and acquired the various rights-of-way from Conrail in 1983.[51][52]

text: The National Association of Railroad Passengers, a non-profit advocacy group, was organized in the late 1960s to support operation of passenger trains.

text: Beginning in the late 1970s Amtrak eliminated several of its lightly-traveled lines. Ridership stagnated at roughly 20 million passengers per year amid uncertain government aid from 1981 to about 2000.[53][54] Ridership increased during the first decade of the 21st century after implementation of capital improvements in the Northeast Corridor and rises in automobile fuel costs.

text: Resurgence of freight railroads in the 1980s

text: In 1980 Congress enacted the Staggers Rail Act to revive freight traffic, by removing restrictive regulations and enabling railroads to be more competitive with the trucking industry.[55] The Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981 authorized additional deregulation of northeast railroads.[56] Among other things, these laws reduced the role of the ICC in regulating the railroads and allowed the carriers to discontinue unprofitable routes. More railroad companies merged and consolidated their lines in order to remain successful. These changes led to the current system of fewer, but profitable, Class I railroads covering larger regions of the United States.[28]:245–252

text: Since the beginning of the current deregulatory era, the following Class I railroads have been involved in mergers:

text:
Union Pacific acquired the Missouri Pacific and Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad in the 1980s, the Chicago and North Western in 1995, and the Southern Pacific in 1996
CSX was formed in 1986 from the Chessie System and the Seaboard System
BNSF Railway was formed in 1996 from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (the "Santa Fe") and Burlington Northern
Norfolk Southern was formed in 1982 from the Norfolk and Western and Southern Railway
Canadian Pacific acquired the Delaware and Hudson in 1991
Canadian National acquired the Illinois Central in 1999
CSX and Norfolk Southern acquired most of the Conrail freight rail assets in 1997.[51]

text: In 1995, when most of the ICC's powers had been eliminated, Congress finally abolished the agency and transferred its remaining functions to a new agency, the Surface Transportation Board.[57]

text: In the early 21st century, several of the railroads, along with the federal government and various port agencies, began to reinvest in freight rail infrastructure, such as intermodal terminals and bridge and tunnel improvements. These projects are designed to increase capacity and efficiency across the national rail network.[58][59] See Heartland Corridor and National Gateway.

text: Both the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations had announced plans for new high-speed rail lines in their first terms. In the case of Clinton era, the only tangible outcome was the introduction of Amtrak's Acela Express, serving the Northeast Corridor, in 2000. Obama even mentioned his rail plans in his State of the Union address, the first time in decades a President had done so. While several small scale improvements to rail lines were financed by federal money, more ambitious plans in Florida, Ohio and other states failed when newly elected Republican governors stopped existing high-speed rail plans and returned federal funding.[citation needed]

text: In 2015 construction began on the California High-Speed Rail line. The Phase I portion, which will link Los Angeles and San Francisco in under three hours, is projected to be complete in 2029.[60]

text: Technology[edit]

text: The B&O established its Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore in 1829. This was the first railroad manufacturing facility in the U.S., and the company built locomotives, railroad cars, iron bridges and other equipment there.[7]:208 Following the B&O example, U.S. railroad companies soon became self-sufficient, as thousands of domestic machine shops turned out products and thousands of inventors and tinkerers improved the equipment.

text: Rail manufacturing[edit]

text: In general, U.S. railroad companies imported technology from Britain in the 1830s, particularly strap iron rails, as there were no rail manufacturing facilities in the United States at that time. Heavy iron "T" rails were first manufactured in the U.S. in the mid-1840s at Mount Savage, Maryland[61] and Danville, Pennsylvania.[62] This improved rail design permitted higher train speeds and more reliable operation. Discovery of high-quality iron ores in the mid-19th century, particularly in the Great Lakes region, led to fabrication of better-quality rails.[63][64]

text: Steel rails began to replace iron later in the 19th century. Several railroads imported steel rails from England in the 1860s, and the first commercially available steel rails in the U.S. were manufactured in 1867 at the Cambria Iron Works in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. By the mid-1880s U.S. railroads were using more steel rails than iron in building new or replacement tracks.[65]

text: Track gauge[edit]

text: Through the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, not only local projects, but long-distance links, were completed, so that by 1860 the eastern half of the continent, especially the Northeast, was linked by a network of connecting railroads. However, although England had early adopted a standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm), once Americans started building locomotives, they experimented with different gauges, resulting in the standard gauge, or a close approximation, being adopted in the Northeast and Midwest U.S., but a 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge in the South, and a 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) gauge in Canada. In addition, the Erie Railway was built to 6 ft (1,829 mm) broad gauge, and in the 1870s a widespread movement looked at the cheaper 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge. Except for the latter, gauges were standardized across North America after the end of the Civil War in 1865.[66]

text: Locomotives[edit]

text: In the early years American railroads imported many steam locomotives from England. While the B&O and the PRR built many of their own steam locomotives, other railroads purchased from independent American manufacturers. Prominent among the early steam manufacturers were Norris, Baldwin and Rogers,[67] followed by Lima and Alco later in the 19th and 20th centuries.[68]

text: Diesel locomotives were first developed in Europe after World War I, and U.S. railroads began to use them widely in the 1930s and 1940s. Most U.S. roads discontinued use of steam locomotives by the 1950s. A diesel engine was expensive to build, but was less complex and easier to maintain than a steam locomotive, and required only one person to operate. This meant reduced costs and greater reliability for the railroads.[28]:213–14 Several companies developed fast streamliner trains, such as the Super Chief and the California Zephyr during the 1930s and 1940s. Their locomotives used either diesel or similar internal combustion engine designs. See Dieselisation in North America.

text: Though electric railways expanded in Europe, they never reached the same popularity in North America. They were built primarily in the north-west and the north-east beginning in the late 19th century. While some railroads used electric locomotives for both freight and passenger trains, by the end of the 20th century most freight trains were pulled only by diesel locomotives. The Northeast Corridor, the most heavily travelled passenger line in the US, is one of few long lines currently operating with electrification. See Railroad electrification in the United States.

text: Signalling and communications[edit]

text: Early forms of American railroad signaling and communication were virtually non-existent. Before telegraphs, the American railroads initially managed their train operations using timetables. However, there were no means of communication between drivers and dispatchers, and occasionally, two trains were sent on a collision course, or "cornfield meets."[69] With the advent of the telegraph in the 1840s, a more sophisticated system was developed that allowed the dissemination of alterations to the timetable, known as train orders. These orders overrode the timetable, allowing the cancellation, rescheduling and addition of trains. The earliest recorded use of train orders was by the Erie Railroad in 1851.[70]

text: The development of the electrical track circuit in the 1870s led to the use of systems of block signals, which improved the railroads' speed, safety and efficiency. Mechanical interlockings, which prevent conflicting movements at rail junctions and crossings, were also introduced in the U.S. in the 1870s, after their initial development in Britain.[71]

text: Labor relations and worker safety[edit]

text: Railways changed employment practices in many ways. Lines with hundreds or thousands of employees developed systematic rules and procedures, not only for running the equipment but in hiring, promoting, paying and supervising employees. The railway system of management was adopted by all major business sectors. Railways offered a new type of work experience in enterprises vastly larger in size, complexity and management. At first workers were recruited from occupations where skills were roughly analogous and transferable, that is, workshop mechanics from the iron, machine and building trades; conductors from stagecoach drivers, steamship stewards and mail boat captains; station masters from commerce and commission agencies; and clerks from government offices.[72]

text: In response to the strikes of the 1870s and 1880s, Congress passed the Arbitration Act of 1888, which authorized the creation of arbitration panels with the power to investigate the causes of labor disputes and to issue non-binding arbitration awards.[73] The Act was a complete failure: only one panel was ever convened under the Act, and that one, in the case of the 1894 Pullman Strike, issued its report only after the strike had been crushed by a federal court injunction backed by federal troops.

text: Congress attempted to correct these shortcomings in the Erdman Act, passed in 1898.[74] This law likewise provided for voluntary arbitration, but made any award issued by the panel binding and enforceable in federal court. It also outlawed discrimination against employees for union activities, prohibited "yellow dog" contracts (employee agrees not to join a union while employed), and required both sides to maintain the status quo during any arbitration proceedings and for three months after an award was issued. The arbitration procedures were rarely used. A successor statute, the Newlands Act, was passed in 1913 and proved more effective,[75] but was largely superseded when the federal government nationalized the railroads in 1917.

text: As railroads expanded after the Civil War, so too did the rate of accidents among railroad personnel, especially brakemen. Many accidents were associated with the coupling and uncoupling of railroad cars, and the operation of manually operated brakes (hand brakes). The rise in accidents led to calls for safety legislation, as early as the 1870s.[76]:2–4 In the 1880s, the number of on-the-job fatalities of railroad workers was second only to those of coal miners.[76]:5 Through that decade, several state legislatures enacted safety laws. However, the specific requirements varied among the states, making implementation difficult for interstate rail carriers, and Congress passed the Safety Appliance Act in 1893 to provide a uniform standard.[76]:6–7[77] The law required railroads to install air brakes and automatic couplers on all trains, and led to a sharp drop in accidents.

text: The Esch–Cummins Act of 1920 terminated the nationalization program and created a Railway Labor Board (RLB) to regulate wages and issue non-binding proposals to settle disputes. In 1921 the RLB ordered a twelve percent reduction in employees' wages,[78] which led to the Great Railroad Strike of 1922, involving rail shop workers nationwide, followed by a court injunction to end the strike.[79] Congress passed the Railway Labor Act of 1926 to rectify the shortcomings of the RLB procedures.[80]

text: Congress added railroad worker safety laws throughout the 20th century.[76]:16-25 Significant among this legislation is the Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970, which gave the FRA broad resposibilities over all aspects of rail safety, and expanded the agency's authority to cover all railroads, both interstate and intrastate.[81]

text: Impact on American economy and society[edit]

text: According to historian Henry Adams the system of railroads needed:

text: The impact can be examined through five aspects: shipping, finance, management, careers, and popular reaction.[83]

text: Shipping freight and passengers[edit]

text: First they provided a highly efficient network for shipping freight and passengers across a large national market. The result was a transforming impact on most sectors of the economy including manufacturing, retail and wholesale, agriculture and finance. Supplemented with the telegraph that added rapid communications, the United States now had an integrated national market practically the size of Europe, with no internal barriers or tariffs, all supported by a common language, and financial system and a common legal system. The railroads at first supplemented, then largely replaced the previous transportation modes of turnpikes and canals, rivers and intracoastal ocean traffic. For highly efficient Northern railroads played a major role in winning the Civil War, while the overburdened Southern lines collapsed in the face of an insurmountable challenge.[84] In the late 19th century pipelines were built for the oil trade, and in the 20th century trucking and aviation emerged.[85][86]

text: Basis of the private financial system[edit]

text: Railroads financing provided the basis of the private (non-governmental) financial system. Construction of railroads was far more expensive than factories or canals. The famous Erie canal, 300 miles long in upstate New York, cost $7 million of state money, which was about what private investors spent on one short railroad in Western Massachusetts. A new steamboat on the Hudson, Mississippi, Missouri, or Ohio rivers cost about the same as one mile of track.

text: In 1860, the combined total of railroad stocks and bonds was $1.8 billion; 1897 it reached $10.6 billion (compared to a total national debt of $1.2 billion).[87] Funding came from financiers throughout the Northeast, and from Europe, especially Britain.[88] The federal government provided no cash to any other railroads. However it did provide unoccupied free land to some of the Western railroads, so they could sell it to farmers and have customers along the route. Some cash came from states, or from local governments that use money as a leverage to prevent being bypassed by the main line. Larger sound came from the southern states during the Reconstruction era, as they try to rebuild their destroyed rail system. Some states such as Maine and Texas also made land grants to local railroads; the state total was 49 million acres.[89] The emerging American financial system was based on railroad bonds. Boston was the first center, but New York by 1860 was the dominant financial market. The British invested heavily in railroads around the world, but nowhere more so than the United States; The total came to about $3 billion by 1914.[90] In 1914–1917, they liquidated their American assets to pay for war supplies.[91][92][93]

text: Inventing modern management[edit]

text: The third dimension was in designing complex managerial systems that could handle far more complicated simultaneous relationships than could be dreamed of by the local factory owner who could patrol every part of his own factory in a matter of hours. Civil engineers became the senior management of railroads. The leading innovators were the Western Railroad of Massachusetts and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1840s, the Erie in the 1850s and the Pennsylvania in the 1860s.[94]

text: After a serious accident, the Western Railroad of Massachusetts put in place a system of responsibility for district managers and dispatchers keep track of all train movement. Discipline was essential—everyone had to follow the rules exactly to prevent accidents. Decision-making powers had to be distributed to ensure safety and to juggle the complexity of numerous trains running in both directions on a single track, keeping to schedules that could easily be disrupted by weather mechanical breakdowns, washouts or hitting a wandering cow.[95] As the lines grew longer with more and more business originating at dozens of different stations, the Baltimore and Ohio set up more complex system that separated finances from daily operations. The Erie Railroad, faced with growing competition, had to make lower bids for freight movement, and had to know on a daily basis how much each train was costing them. Statistics was the weapon of choice. By the 1860s, the Pennsylvania Railroad—the largest in the world—was making further advances in using bureaucracy under John Edgar Thomson, president 1852-1874. He divided the system into several geographical divisions, which each reported daily to a general superintendent in Philadelphia. All the American railroads copied each other in the new managerial advances, and by the 1870s emerging big businesses in the industrial field likewise copied the railroad model.[96]

text: Career paths[edit]

text: The fourth dimension was in management of the workforce, both blue-collar workers and white-collar workers. Railroading became a career in which young men entered at about age 18 to 20, and spent their entire lives usually with the same line. Young men could start working on the tracks, become a fireman, and work his way up to engineer. The mechanical world of the roundhouses have their own career tracks. A typical career path would see a young man hired at age 18 as a shop laborer, be promoted to skilled mechanic at age 24, brakeman at 25, freight conductor at 27, and passenger conductor at age 57. Women were not hired.[97]

text: White-collar careers paths likewise were delineated. Educated young men started in clerical or statistical work and moved up to station agents or bureaucrats at the divisional or central headquarters. At each level they had more and more knowledge experience and human capital. They were very hard to replace, and were virtually guaranteed permanent jobs and provided with insurance and medical care. Hiring, firing and wage rates were set not by foreman, but by central administrators, in order to minimize favoritism and personality conflicts. Everything was by the book, and increasingly complex set of rules told everyone exactly what they should do it every circumstance, and exactly what their rank and pay would be.[98] Young men who were first hired in the 1840s and 1850s retired from the same railroad 40 or 50 years later. To discourage them from leaving for another company, they were promised pensions when they retired. Indeed, the railroads invented the American pension system.[99]

text: Love–hate relationship with the railroads[edit]

text: America developed a love–hate relationship with railroads. Boosters in every city worked feverishly to make sure the railroad came through, knowing their urban dreams depended upon it. The mechanical size, scope and efficiency of the railroads made a profound impression; people would dress in their Sunday best to go down to the terminal to watch the train come in. David Nye argues that:

text: Travel became much easier, cheaper and more common. Shoppers from small towns could make day trips to big city stores. Hotels, resorts and tourist attractions were built to accommodate the demand. The realization that anyone could buy a ticket for a thousand-mile trip was empowering. Historians Gary Cross and Rick Szostak argue:

text: The engineers became model citizens, bringing their can-do spirit and their systematic work effort to all phases of the economy as well as local and national government.[102] By 1910, major cities were building magnificent palatial railroad stations, such as the Pennsylvania Station in New York City, and the Union Station in Washington DC.[103]

text: But there was also a dark side. As early as the 1830s, novelists and poets began fretting that the railroads would destroy the rustic attractions of the American landscape. By the 1840s concerns were rising about terrible accidents when speeding trains crashed into helpless wooden carriages.[104] By the 1870s, railroads were vilified by Western farmers who absorbed the Granger movement theme that monopolistic carriers controlled too much pricing power, and that the state legislatures had to impose maximum prices. Local merchants and shippers supported the demand and got some "Granger Laws" passed.[105] Anti-railroad complaints were loudly repeated in late 19th century political rhetoric.[106] The idea of establishing a strong rate fixing federal body was achieved during the Progressive Era, primarily by a coalition of shipping interests.[107] Railroad historians mark the Hepburn Act of 1906 that gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the power to set maximum railroad rates as a damaging blow to the long-term profitability and growth of railroads.[108] After 1910 the lines faced an emerging trucking industry to compete with for freight, and automobiles and buses to compete for passenger service.[109]

text: Historiography[edit]

text: There is no question about the importance of railroads in American history. Churella finds that back in the 1950s business and economic historians, led by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and Robert Fogel, made railroads the centerpiece of advanced historiography.[110] That era has passed as graduate programs have faded away, courses on railroad history do not make the curriculum, and the historiography has shifted away from professional historian to the "rail fans"—very well informed amateur writers fascinated by the memorabilia, technology and locomotives of the steam era. Looking at the voluminous output of rail fan authors, Klein says:

text: The result is a multiplicity of histories of specific railroads, large and small. Typically they deal with standard topics: the builders and their organizational, legislative and financial dealings; colorful construction crews laying down wood ties and steel rail; the development of locomotives and passenger cars; boosters who sought a stop in their little town else it would die; the 1880–1920 golden age of the passenger long-distance travel and local excursions; the steady erosion of passenger service during the automobile age; the freight agent and the small-town depot. They end with the more recent saga of retrenchment, merger, and abandonment.[113][114] Klein, Churella, Roth, and Franham all find that the popular writers show little interest in the development of managerial and organizational complexity of the sort that Chandler studied, or the economic impact that concerned Fogel's cohort.[115] From outside the field of railroad history, academic labor historians now deal with the culture of the workers, strikes, the careers for blue collar and white collar men, and racial discrimination. Academic political historians deal with the Granger, Populist and Progressive attacks, and in federal or state regulation.[113]

text: Appendix: Railroad active mileage by region[edit]

text:
Railroad Active Mileage by Region

Region
1830
1840
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890

New England
(ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT)
30
513
2,596
3,644
4,3273
5,888
6,718

East
(NY, PA, OH, MI, IN, MD, DE, NJ, DC)

1,484
3,740
11,927
18,292
28,155
40,826

South
(VA, WV, KY, TN, MS, AL, GA, FL, NC, SC)
10
737
2,082
7,908
10,610
14,458
27,833

Midwest
(IL, IA, WI, MO, MN)

46
4,951
11,031
22,213
35,580

South Central
(LA, AR, OK/Indian Territory)

21
107
250
331
1,621
5,154

West
(ND, SD, NM, WY, MT, ID, UT, TX, AZ, NE, KS, TX, CO, CA, NV, OR, WA)

239
4,578
15,466
47,451

TOTAL U.S.
40
2,755
8,571
28,920
49,168
87,801
163,562

tag: table