IBM Manual Card Punch
date: label: date made
content: after 1930
name: label: maker
content: IBM
notes: label: Description
content: For much of the 20th century, data was entered into data processing machines using punched cards. This is a machine for punching such cards manufactured by International Business Machines Corporation of New York.
label: Description
content: The tabletop key-driven machine punches twelve rectangular holes per column in 80-column cards. On the right are ten rubber digit keys, a key marked X and a blank key. Keys above these keys move cards one space to the left and all the way to the left. Cards are inserted and removed by hand. The machine rests in an iron base painted black. An enclosed metal cylinder protrudes from the back. The instrument sits at an angle in a wooden box painted green. In the box is a pointed metal rod.
label: Description
content: The stamped number on the back right of the machine reads: 98 146. A mark painted across the back reads: HARRIET 8EC GR. A sticker attached to the back of the box reads: I-606 (/) NOT FOR (/) SALE. A mark on the side of the box reads: NASC (/) Rm 207-A (/) BLD #1. There are spaces for tags on the front of the machine, but no tags.
label: Description
content: An 80-column punch card and a photocopy of a piece of International Time Recording Company stationery came with this object.
label: Description
content: In 1901 Herman Hollerith patented a card punch with keys that was the forerunner of this instrument. IBM cards with rectangular holes and 80 columns were introduced in 1928. Cards with 12 rows of holes date from the early 1930s. This particular machine was for many years the property of IBM employee Robert B. Roberts.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: E. W. Pugh, <I>Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology</I>, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995, p. 49.
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Computers & Business Machines
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content: Tabulating Equipment
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: In Memory of Robert B. Roberts
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0601.01
label: accession number
content: 1987.0601
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0601.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: card punch
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 cm x 43.4 cm x 14.7 cm; 6 5/16 in x 17 3/32 in x 5 25/32 in