Mark sense was a trade name used by IBM for punched card technology that allowed cards marked with a pencil to be converted into punched cards. This allowed persons to record punched card data with only a pencil.

In the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, mark sense technology was widely used for applications like recording meter readings and recording long distance telephone calls. Many thousands of pencils were made expressly for mark sense applications by the Dur-O-Lite Pencil Company and by the Autopoint Company. Many of the pencils made for the "Bell System" were stamped "MARK SENSE LEAD" and for the Federal Government, "US Government Electrographic."

It was developed by IBM engineer, Reynold Johnson. Similar in operation to automatic test scoring technology developed previously, mark sense technology used special pencils equipped with "mark sense" leads. The Federal Government used the technology under the name electrographic technology.

Various IBM equipment could be used with mark sense cards including the IBM 514 Reproducing Card Reader, the IBM 557 Alphabetic Interpreter, the IBM 614 Mark Sense Card Reader, and the IBM 519 Electric Document Originating Machine.

See also

• Optical Mark Recognition
• Scantron

External links

• Guide to Dur-O-Lite and Autopoint Mark Sense Pencils