Tabulating Machine Company Card Punch
date: label: date made
content: ca 1902
name: label: distributor
content: Tabulating Machine Company
label: maker
content: Tabulating Machine Company
notes: label: Description
content: From the early 20th century into the 1970s, Americans used punched cards to enter data onto tabulating equipment and then electronic computers. This early key-operated punch is based on patents of the inventor Herman Hollerith.
label: Description
content: The machine has a shaped iron base painted black that includes a grooved plate for cards, a mechanism at the back for advancing cards being punched, a single row of punches, and a group of 12 keys for punching round holes with these punches. Another key at the back releases the card guide. Nine of the thirteen rubber key tops are missing.
label: Description
content: A metal label on the front of the machine reads: THE TABULATING MACHINE CO (/) NEW YORK CITY (/) PATENTED (/) JUNE 18, 1901. SEPT. 10. 1901. A mark at the left front edge of the card bed reads: 17849. Two rods are marked at the front below the punching position: 234.
label: Description
content: The Tabulating Machine Company was formed by Hollerith in 1896 and merged to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1911. This firm became International Business Machines Corporation. The key punch was introduced in the U.S. in 1901 and remained in essentially the same form for over half a century.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.335634 and MA.334635.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: G. D. Austrian, <I>Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing</I>, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 174–175.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place distributed
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: web subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
label: See more items in
content: Tabulating Equipment
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Estate of Herman Hollerith, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335634
label: accession number
content: 1977.0114
label: catalog number
content: 335634
objectType: label: Object Name
content: card punch
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10.6 cm x 43.3 cm x 13 cm; 4 3/16 in x 17 1/16 in x 5 1/8 in