Punched tapes have been used for decades to control a variety of devices, from looms to lathes to pianos to computers. They combine the inflexibility of the punch card with the linear inaccessibility of magnetic tape, but they're incredibly cheap and can be replaced easily. Unfortunately they also tear and wear out easily. Except as metaphor, the punch tape was an early dead end in computer data storage.
This file created with Hypertype 2.2 by Simon St.Laurent