On a punched tap of 5 channels there were 5+1 hole places transversely, on a tape of 8 channels there were 8+1. These allowed the placement of 5 and 8 bit characters respectively where one hole represented one bit of the given character. The 5-row punched tape was used with the 31-unit telex code chart while the 8-row version was usually coded with the EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) characters including 255 codes. On the ‘+1′ hole place there was always a sprocket hole perforated - even when the character was “empty” (value=0) - having a significantly smaller diameter than the data holes intended for character-positioning. It divided the data holes in a 2:3 or a 3:5 proportion. The greatest advantage of the punched tape was that the punched characters had a fixed position. This was good if the data on the tape was accurately punched but it was erroneous if the data was incorrect especially when the error was in the middle of a real long punched tape reel. The punched tape spooler came in handy for such cases as it created a completely flat reel. By manually spooling, it was almost impossible to achieve that tapes completely overlap although it was important because in case of any tiny “hanging” edge the tape reader was not able to read the tape correctly, the tape could become damaged, got stuck or at worst broken. The tape spooler could help fixing the errors as well although the one-time data entry operators could read the punched tapes just as well as their predecessors could read the tapes of teleprinters. They were able to easily fix the tape manually when a hole was missing from the code, or patch an unnecessary hole with one ‘bit’ of the immense amount of ‘confetti’ produced by the punchers. They could even glue the ripped tapes together: the punched tape spooler winded the tape perfectly “smooth” after each manual intervention. Not to mention the tiny detail that rewinding a bigger tape reel manually could take several minutes; the punched tape spooler was able to wind a whole reel (250 ft = 80 m) over in about 25 seconds.