that zone punch unavailable (and not needed) for combination with the numerical punches. For example, 

 if a given column appears to need fewer than 29 symbols and a special meaning is assigned to the 12 

 zone punch (see the third, sixth, and seventh items of the list above), the letters A through I are never 

 used for symbols in that particular column. In the same column in which the 12 zone punch has been 

 used for a unique meaning, however, if the 11 and zone punches have not also been assigned special 

 meaning (see the third possibility of the list above), the letters J through R and S through Z would be 

 available as symbols. 



In cases where the CBCC has assigned specific meanings to zone punches used alone (any of 

 the last six possibilities listed above, when the major category of information coded in the column 

 needs only 28 or fewer symbols), that specific meaning is of a different category of information than 

 is coded by the remaining symbols of the column. For example, the information category, stage of 

 development of the test organism , has been found to be adequately classified by nine items (nine 

 developmental stages), needing only the nine numeric symbols; thus, a different category of information 

 (sex) has been assigned to zone punches 12 and 11 used alone, the 12 zone punch designating the male 

 sex and the 1 1 zone punch the female. 



The 12 and 11 zone punches used alone are never written on the Code Sheet as Symbol "12" and 

 Symbol "1 1", since it can be confusing to have a symbol with two digits to be written in one column. 

 Instead, the CBCC always uses the two symbols, "*" and "#", respectively. The written Symbol "*" 

 is therefore always represented on the IBM card by a perforation at position 12 (the 12 zone punch) and 

 Symbol "#" by a perforation at position 11 (the 11 zone punch). The zone punch, however, is always 

 written literally as Symbol "0". 



As has been explained above, for each column of the punched card, 35 symbols are potentially 

 available. If, instead of using only one column for a given type of information, two columns are used, 

 the number of symbols available is greatly increased. For example, the CBCC has reserved both of 

 Columns 23 and 24 for indicating the genera belonging to the family indicated by Columns 21 and 22. 

 Thus, each genus and each family has a symbol of two units. This means that each of the 35 avail- 

 able symbols of one column can be combined with any of the 35 symbols of the second column so that 

 1225 symbols are available for that number of genera (Columns 23 and 24) or families (Columns 21 and 

 22) of test organisms. If three columns were used, the number of symbols available for any given 

 type of information would be correspondingly greater. 



The biology IBM punched card (Figure 2) differs from the ordinary card of Figure 1 only in the 

 special CBCC designaUons printed on the card. The top of the biology punched card is divided into 

 areas in which the IBM Interpreter can enter the code symbols represented by perforations in certain 

 of the columns. All the punched informaUon of the card is not included, but only the serial number 

 of the chemical tested and symbols for the test organism, sex and stage of the test organism, state 

 of the test organism, primary organ, action of the chemical, effectiveness, criterion of effectiveness, 

 secondary chemical, host, sex and stage of the host, state of the host, secondary organ, and tissue. 

 Since room at the top of the card is limited, only that coded information to which reference is most 

 frequently made is included. It will be noted that the interpretation of a punched column need not be 

 directly above the column, but the IBM Interpreter can be wired to inscribe the interpretation at another 

 position. For example, the criterion for evaluation is punched in Columns 69 and 70 (see the lower 

 part of the card), yet the Interpreter can print the interpretation at the top of the card in a position fixed 

 above Columns 54-57. 



The printing which appears horizontally across the 6, 7, and 8 punching positions of the biology 

 card represents a guide to anyone attempting to interpret directly the punching on the card; it shows 

 the division of the card into 31 punching "fields" of information about the biology test and four addi- 

 tional punching "fields" which are for other information categories (Chemical Serial Number, Code 

 Sheet Number, Code Line Number, and File Number). The central area of the card is occupied with 

 reference to the several special files of the IBM cards (files supplementary to the principal file of IBM 

 cards arranged by Chemical Serial Number). Since the last revision of these entries on the card, two 

 addiUonal files were established, the Host File and the Supplementary Taxonomy File. These files and 

 the Code Sheet are described later. The file to which a given card belongs is indicated by a colored 

 strip at the upper edge, a necessary means of distinction, since cards punched identically will be in 

 three of the files and may be in all of the files. When removed from its file, the manual refiling of the 

 card into its proper cabinet is assured by the color identification. The cards of the principal file, the 

 "Serial File", are distinguished by being entirely blue. 



The clipping of the upper right corner of the biology punched card is merely to distinguish the 

 punched card as containing biology information. CBCC chemistry punched cards are clipped in the 

 opposite corner. 



- 198 - 



