The bit bucket was the container on Teletype machines or IBM key punch machines into which chad from the paper tape punch or card punch was deposited. In theory, the bit bucket was full of '1' bits, the '0' bits being represented by the places on the paper tape or punched card that the punch had not punched out.

The term was then generalized into any place where useless bits go including the trash can or rubbish bin. In Unix, this term is used to refer to /dev/null. In OpenVMS, this term refers to SYS$NULL:.

The term is also used to refer to that mysterious place on a computer where lost documents go, as in:

"What happened to that important spreadsheet that you were just editing?"

"Oh, it went into the bit bucket."

External links

• Bit bucket entry at FOLDOC
• Bit bucket from the Hacker Dictionary