Linnaeus invented the index card

We all know Carl Linnaeus as the father of taxonomy, but how did he keep all that taxonomic information organized? Turns out he invented index cards:

Speaking at the annual meeting of the British Society for the History of Science in Leicester, UK on Saturday 4 July, Mueller-Wille will reveal his preliminary findings of research on Linnaeus' manuscripts held June 16 at the Linnaean Society of London...

Towards the end of his career, in the mid-1760s, Linnaeus took this further, inventing a paper tool that has since become very common: index cards. While stored in some fixed, conventional order, often alphabetically, index cards could be retrieved and shuffled around at will to update and compare information at any time.

Carl Linnaeus Invented The Index Card

[#1 posted by Capsaicin, June 16, 2009 7:44 AM]

Well Newton invented the cat flap...

[#2 posted by Alex_M, June 16, 2009 8:07 AM]

Interesting. Mendeleev did something similar with chemical elements when he constructed the periodic table.

[#3 posted by Timothy Hutton, June 16, 2009 8:44 AM]

Cory said:

We all know Carl Linnaeus as the father of taxonomy

No, we don't.

Many of us may know Carl Linnaeus as the father of taxonomy...

[#4 posted by PFlint, June 16, 2009 8:49 AM]

Because Mendeleev foresaw that the boxes on the table would be approximately square, he cut the paper so. Then he applied a glue that would still stick if the paper were removed and relocated. He Posted It on a wall while the project was ongoing.

Totally made that up.

[#5 posted by Alex_M, June 16, 2009 9:45 AM]

Well, Timothy, every Swede certainly knows. He's on their money..

http://web.telia.com/~u43505984/100kr-1987f.jpg

[#6 posted by Anonymous, June 16, 2009 10:09 AM]

Well, if you're going to get pedantic, Mr. Hutton, it's either Carolus Linnaeus or Carl Linne, take your pick but don't mix. Mmm-kay?

Now, let's have a cladist chime in for the obligatory disrespect to linnean systematics.

[#7 posted by Timothy Hutton, June 16, 2009 3:34 PM]

Having already professed my ignorance on the topic (see #3, above), I feel no shame in admitting that I relied on an expert (Cory) for the spelling of the name (check out the quote)...

[#8 posted by Anonymous, June 17, 2009 1:09 AM]

"His real Swedish name is Carl Linnaeus and the Latinized form is Carolus Linnaeus, the name he used most when he published his scientific works in Latin... After he was ennobled in 1761, he took the name Carl von Linné."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus#Name

[#9 posted by Anonymous, June 17, 2009 6:19 AM]

timothy leary discusses this at length is is book "the game of life" published in 1993...