Now, the reason they used punch cards was that Jacquard, in France, had created the Jacquard loom, which was weaving these incredible patterns controlled by punch cards, so he was just repurposing the technology of the day, and like everything else he did, he's using the technology of his era, so 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, cogs, steam, mechanical devices. Ironically, born the same year as Charles Babbage was Michael Faraday, who would completely revolutionize everything with the dynamo, transformers, all these sorts of things.
Usavam-se cartões perfurados porque Jacquard, em França. tinha criado o tear de Jacquard, que tecia belos padrões controlados por cartões perfurados. Babbage estava apenas a reutilizar a tecnologia da época. Como em tudo o que fazia,  usava a tecnologia da época. Nos anos 1830, 1840, 1850,  usava as engrenagens, o vapor, dispositivos mecânicos. Ironicamente, nascido no mesmo ano de Charles Babbage, surgiu Michael Faraday que viria a revolucionar tudo com o dínamo, transformadores, e coisas dessas.