The function of the punch card collator

What does a punch card collator do? Operations were mostly divided into two categories: Non-changing numbers (e.g. adresses are subject to few changes) and changing numbers (e.g. sales volume are constantly changing).

If we had a list of customer names to be sorted, we would first give each customer a 5 digit customer number. We can then sort this list in numerical order or sort by their names.

Diagram about the function of the card collator

In our simple example, we have only two types of cards: Address cards and sales cards. The address input station/hoppers are filled in ascending customer numbers. Likewise the sales cards are in ascending order in the sales input station/hopper. Now the collator merges these two stacks to one stack where the sales cards are associated with every matching address/customer number. If the address/customer number card which is associated to a sales number is missing (or the other way around), the collator will separate the card in another pocket.

The ability to sort the 2 independent decks of input cards into these 3 categories was the primary task of the collator. Therefore, the machine requires 2 input hoppers and at least 4 output pockets. In addition there were many other sorting variations and possibilites for this machine.