hopper
A tray, or chute, that accepts input to a mechanical device, such as a disk duplicator or printer. In the days of punch cards, millions of cards were numerically or alphabetically organized by placing them into the hopper of a card sorter, taking them out of all the stackers and putting them back into the hopper for the next card column.
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| Sorter Hopper |
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| In the 1940s and 1950s, millions of punch cards were placed into hoppers on IBM sorters such as this one. The hoppers were also fitted with two-foot extensions that held more cards. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org) |
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| Paper Hoppers |
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| This Dataproducts laser printer holds 250 sheets of paper in the top hopper and 2,000 in the bottom. (Image courtesy of Hitachi Koki Imaging Solutions, Inc.) |
hopper
1. a funnel-shaped chamber or reservoir from which solid materials can be discharged under gravity into a receptacle below, esp for feeding fuel to a furnace, loading a railway truck with grain, etc.
2. any of various long-legged hopping insects, esp the grasshopper, leaf hopper, and immature locust
3. an open-topped railway truck for bulk transport of loose minerals, etc., unloaded through doors on the underside
4. Computing a device formerly used for holding punched cards and feeding them to a card punch or card reader
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