Computers & Business Machines

• 

  Punch Card Used at the Southern Railway Company

  Description

  Herman Hollerith began manufacturing tabulating machines to compile statistics to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The nation only compiles a census every ten years, so Hollerith sought business from foreign governments and from commercial customers.

  As early as 1895, the New York Central began using tabulating equipment to track goods moved by the railroad. Hollerith radically redesigned the punch card, putting information in columns with the numbers from 0 to 9. Several columns of numbers comprised a field, which contained information on a single matter. By 1907, the Central was an established customer and other railroads adopted machine accounting. The Southern Railway Company used this 45-column card. It has fields for the date, the receiving station, the waybill number, the code, the forwarding station, the junction point, "Com.", "C.L.", freight, charges, and prepaid amounts.

  Reference:

  G. D. Austrian, Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 111–141, 250–251.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1910

  1910, roughly

  1910 roughly

  maker

  Tabulating Machine Company

  ID Number

  MA.317982.01

  accession number

  317982

  catalog number

  317982.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Wiring Diagram Removed from Card Punch

  Description

  This diagram was removed from a Remington Rand card punch with museum number MA.336297.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  ID Number

  MA.305981.06.01

  accession number

  305981

  catalog number

  305981.06.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Punch Card Probe

  Description

  This cylindrical metal stainless steel rod is about 8" long and resembles a crochet hook. The metal is serrated along the middle part of the rod. One end is hooked, the other is flattened and U-shaped. The donor worked with tabulating machines and then computer equipment from the 1940s into at least the 1960s.

  Reportedly the hook was used to line up punched cards and the flattened end to complete holes that had not punched properly.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1950

  1950, roughly

  ID Number

  2006.3088.01

  nonaccession number

  2006.3088

  catalog number

  2006.3088.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM Model 24 Card Punch

  Description

  This gray desk-sized machine for punching cards to be used as computer input has a table with keyboard at the front and a card hopper, card bed, and card stack at the back. The keyboard is cabled to the punch. Cards move from the hopper at the top left, down into the card bed, across the bed to the left, and up into the stack on the left side. It is possible to punch individual cards and to have several cards programmed to be punched identically in some columns. The model IBM 24 does not print data entered at the top of the card.

  A mark on the punch reads: IBM 24 (/) CARD PUNCH. Another mark there reads: PROPERTY OF (/) INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. (/) 024 30864 SO.

  References:

  IBM, Reference Manual IBM 24 Card Punch IBM 26 Printing Card Punch, White Plains, N.Y.: IBM, 1965. The first version of this manual appeared in 1949.

  IBM, Field Engineering Maintenance Manual 24-Base Machines, White Plains, N.Y.: IBM, 1965. This manual has museum number 1987.0528.03 and was received with the machine.

  John Diebold & Associates, "IBM 024 and 026 Card Punches," Automatic Data Processing Equipment, Chicago: Cudahy Publishing Company, 1957, section 1A 380.1, pages 2–6.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1965

  maker

  International Business Machines Corporation

  ID Number

  1987.0528.01

  accession number

  1987.0528

  catalog number

  1987.0528.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Contact Board Associated with Herman Hollerith

  Description

  This wooden board has six switches on it, and six metal nubs. The nubs and one end of each switch are screwed into the board. On the opposite side are contacts for electrical wires. Twelve nails in the board on top assure that one switch can only meet one nub. Holes at opposite ends of the board allow it to be attached to a table, with a groove in the back for wires.

  Compare to switches on the Hollerith tabulating system with museum number MA.317982.05.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1900

  maker

  Hollerith, Herman

  ID Number

  MA.335637

  accession number

  1977.0114

  catalog number

  335637

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Punch Card Marked DO-5081, Received with Key Punch

  Description

  This eighty-column paper punch card is rectangular, with the upper left corner cut off. It is punched symmetrically. Text along the top reads: MANUAL KEY PUNCH - ABOUT 70 YEARS OLD. A form number printed along the bottom reads: DO-5081. Further text reads: PRINTED IN U.S.A.

  Received with card punch with museum number 1987.0601.01.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1930s

  maker

  IBM

  ID Number

  1987.0601.01.02

  accession number

  1987.0601

  catalog number

  1987.0601.01.02

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Model Relating to Powers Tabulating Equipment

  Description

  The wooden base of this model holds a metal container with a paper punch card that fits in it. A metal piece swings from a crosspiece above the card. The base also holds supports for another metal crosspiece. Three metal pieces rotate with this crosspiece. The base also holds two larger, facing metal rectangles. One rectangle has a plastic piece screwed to the top.

  A mark on the right side of the punch card reads: POWERS ACCOUNTING MACHINE COMPANY (/) ACCOUNTS PAYABLE. A mark on the left side of the punch card reads: P1384. The punched holes are round.

  A piece of paper pasted to the top of the base reads: This model represents my new (/) invention of a tabulator in connec- (/) tion with perforated cards, elimina- (/) ting a pin box of 540 pins and sub- (/) stitution forty-five levers instead. (/) Also eliminating connection box, with (/) both of these improvements the speed (/) will be doubled and such machine will (/) be small in size, cheaper to build, (/) more flexible and easier to manipulate. (/) August 19, 1924 (/) James Powers. Also signing the document were Fred J. Dole, Charles E. Whiteman and Achilles Rovegno, all of whom had associations with Francis H. Richards of New York, Powers’s patent attorney.

  No patent corresponding to this invention has been found.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1924

  maker

  James Powers

  ID Number

  1991.0871.03

  accession number

  1991.0871

  catalog number

  1991.0871.03

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Counter from a Hollerith Tabulating Machine

  Description

  This is a single counter from a Hollerith tabulating machine. It has square brass pieces on top and bottom, with a brass mechanism in between. A paper-covered metal dial on top is divided around the edge into 100 equal parts. Two hands are on the face of the dial. Advancing the small hand by 100 (one revolution) advances the large hand by one. Hence the counter can read up to 9,999.

  A mark around the center of the dial reads: THE HOLLERITH (/) ELECTRIC TABULATING SYSTEM (/) PATENTED, 1889.

  Compare to the dials on MA.312895.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1890

  ID Number

  MA.335638

  catalog number

  335638

  accession number

  1977.0114

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Remington Rand Model 3 Card Punch

  Description

  From the early 20th century, a few American offices used punched cards to enter data onto accounting machines. In 1929 the Powers Accounting Machines Division of Remington Rand, Inc., introduced a "double deck" punch card for data entry. It had two sets of 45-column rows, for a total of 90 columns. This desk-sized, electrically powered device punched both 45 and 90 column cards. Keys at the right front set the machine. Pressing the "TRIP" bar in front of these activated the punch. The machine could be set to punch duplicate data, or to duplicate cards. With special key tops, not present on this version of the machine, one could enter alphabetic data, not simply numbers.

  The machine has a mirror, which should be mounted, for viewing cards.

  A tag on the front of the machine reads: Remington Rand. It lists patent numbers ranging from 1,643,779 (issued September 27, 1927) to 2,203,355 (issued June 4, 1940). A red tag attached to one edge reads: 020300 14946 4. A metal tag near one corner reads: VA9-14946.

  References:

  L. Heide, Punched-Card Systems and the Early Information Explosion 1880–1945, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009, esp. pp. 76–96.

  Powers Accounting Machines Division of Remington Rand, Inc., "Powers Reference Manual," Buffalo, N.Y.: Powers Accounting Machines, 1935.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1940

  maker

  Remington Rand Inc.

  ID Number

  1998.0211.01

  accession number

  1998.0211

  catalog number

  1998.0211.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM 001Card Punch

  Description

  For the first half of the 20th century, much data was entered into data processing machines using punched cards. This machine for punching such cards was manufactured by International Business Machines Corporation of New York.

  This key-driven, manual punch has 14 black keys. Twelve are for the 12 rows on a punch card. These are labeled from 0 to 9, X, and blank. Another key moves the card one space to the left and the last releases it. Keys are fed in from the right. A portion of a punch card attached in back of the machine has a pointer attached to it which allows one to determine the column of the card one is punching. The device is set up for 80-column cards and punches rectangular holes. A cylindrical protrusion extends from the back of the machine.

  A metal tag attached to the front of the object reads: PROPERTY OF (/) INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. (/) 001-12036-JH (/) ENDICOTT, NEW YORK, U.S.A. A mark stamped into the back of the card bed reads: 01 202.Two rods are marked at the front below the punching position: 202.

  IBM cards with rectangular holes and 80 columns were introduced in 1928. Cards with 12 rows of holes date from the early 1930s.

  Reference:

  E. W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995, pp. 48–49.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  after 1930

  maker

  International Business Machines Corporation

  ID Number

  MA.333894

  accession number

  304350

  catalog number

  333894

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Tabulating Machine Component, Control Panel for an IBM 403 Tabulating Machine

  Description

  By the late 1940s, the calculations and printout of IBM accounting machines were determined by setting a plugboard like this one and then feeding in data punched on cards. This control panel was used specifically in an IBM 403 tabulating machine, a device introduced in the late 1940s and distributed at least into the late 1960s.

  The object has a rectangular metal frame with a metal handle on one of the long edges. It is divided into three sections, each containing a plastic circuit board with numerous holes. Many colorful plastic and cloth-coated wires are plugged into the holes. The board is wired for calculating invoices.

  A red tag attached under the handle reads: 403 INVOICE. A tag glued under the panel reads: MFG. BY (/) MAC PANEL (/) COMPANY. This tag also reads: HIGH POINT (/) N. C. and: TYPE 913. A mark stamped at the bottom of one circuit board reads: TYPE 402-403 22573 PRINTED IN USA.

  According to the company website, MAC Panel Company was founded in High Point in 1958.

  This example came from a programmer who worked with punch card equipment and computers from 1940 until 1985.

  References:

  IBM, IBM 402, 403 and 419 Accounting Machine Manual of Operation, New York: IBM, 1953, pp. 4–7. This is 2006.3088.03.20.

  Accession file.

  M. Campbell-Kelly, ICL: A Business and Technical HistoryOxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 90–92.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1960

  maker

  International Business Machines Corporation

  MAC Panel Company

  ID Number

  2006.0174.01

  accession number

  2006.0174

  catalog number

  2006.0174.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Electrical Component Associated with Herman Hollerith

  Description

  This metal component includes a wooden framework painted black. An interrupter is at one end, and an electromagnet within the box. Herman Hollerith was the first inventor to build successful computing devices based on electromagnets. This may have been a part of a tabulating machine.

  This piece does not seem to match any drawing in Hollerith’s patents.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1890

  ID Number

  1995.3037.01

  nonaccession number

  1995.3037

  catalog number

  1995.3037.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Tabulating Machine Company Card Punch

  Description

  From the early 20th century into the 1970s, Americans used punched cards to enter data into tabulating equipment and then electronic computers. This is an early key-operated punch, based on patents of the inventor Herman Hollerith.

  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 that releases the card guide. Three of the thirteen rubber key tops are missing.

  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: 17262. Two rods are marked at the front below the punching position: 392.

  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 United States in 1901 and remained in essentially the same form for over half a century.

  Compare MA.335634 and MA.334635.

  Reference:

  G. D. Austrian, Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 174–175.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1902

  distributor

  Tabulating Machine Company

  maker

  Tabulating Machine Company

  ID Number

  MA.335635

  accession number

  1977.0114

  catalog number

  335635

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM Verifier for Punched Cards

  Description

  This key-driven, manual verifier has 15 black rubber keys. Twelve are for the 12 columns on a punch card. These are labeled from 0 to 9, X, and blank. Two other keys move the card one space, and the last key releases the card. Cards are fed manually from the left. A mechanism at the center of the machine senses whether or not a hole has been punched in a given line. If one depresses a key corresponding to a hole punched on the card, the card advances one place to the left. If the hole on the card does not match what is punched, the card does not move. Depressing the blank key at the front of the verifier then cuts a hole at the bottom of the column in which the error occurs. Erroneous cards are then retyped on a card punch. If the hole and the key typed match, the card advances one column.

  A mark stamped on the base of the machine toward the left reads: 05111993-A0.

  IBM introduced verifiers as part of its line of punch card equipment around 1917. Cards with 12 columns date from the early 1930s onward.

  Reference:

  C. J. Basche, L. R. Johnson, J. H. Palmer and E. W. Pugh, IBM’s Early Computers, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986, pp. 7–8, 11.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1935

  maker

  International Business Machines Corporation

  ID Number

  1979.0931.01

  accession number

  1979.0931

  catalog number

  1979.0931.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM Punch Card Gauge

  Description

  This gray metal instrument checked the "registration" or alignment of a card punch. Its surface is marked and numbered like an IBM punch card, with 80 columns of numbers. A sample punched card, held in place by three protrusions, fit over the surface and was compared to the rectangles below. Machines out of registration could then be reported.

  A mark on the bottom reads: MFG. BY I.B.M. Another mark there reads: GAUGE CARD FACE UP.

  The device fits in a brown cardboard envelope that is covered with cellophane. A mark on the envelope reads: 450550.

  This is a gauge for an IBM 5081 punch card and a related card punch. It was used at the University of Pittsburgh in Professor Robert A. McConnell’s research on parapsychology.

  For a related card, see 1990.0113.03.

  Reference:

  Accession File.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1960s

  maker

  IBM

  ID Number

  1990.0113.01

  catalog number

  1990.0113.01

  accession number

  1990.0113

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Gang Punch Made by the British Tabulating Machine Company

  Description

  In the 1880s American engineer Herman Hollerith devised a system to compile statistical information by entering data on individuals onto punched cards, allowing holes in the cards to admit wires and complete electrical circuits, and using electric counters to accumulate totals.

  Hollerith devised this kind of punch, which he called a gang punch, to punch data that was common to several cards. For data on a census, this might be the enumeration district. For payroll applications, it would be the date of payday.

  In 1904 a British firm organized to lease Hollerith machines in Britain and much of the rest of the wold. A subcontractor manufactured punch cards. From the 1920s. the British Tabulating Machine Company manufactured punch card equipment itself. This gang punch is one of its products.

  This punch has a 12x10 array of holes.The rows of holes are labeled Y, X, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Six metal cylinders fit into the holes for punching, with a manually operated press to push them down. Cards are fed and removed by hand, from right to left. On the left is a metal plate with zigzag rows of holes on its top front and top back edge. These may be used to indicate the position of the card before punching.

  A tag on the right side of the punch under the card bed reads: THE (/) BRITISH TABULATING MACHINE Co (/) VICTORIA HOUSE, SOUTHHAMPTON ROW, LONDON, W.C.1 (/) GREAT BRITAIN AND U. S. A. - BRITISH BUILT. A stamp on the press reads: 5390.

  References:

  M. Campbell-Kelly, ICL: A Business and Technical History, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

  H. Hollerith, "Quick Setting Press," U. S. Patent 1,193,390, August 1, 1916. The machine shown in this patent has levers for setting the pins. This is not true with this object.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1920s

  maker

  British Tabulating Machine Company

  ID Number

  MA.320563

  accession number

  241402

  catalog number

  320563

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM Manual Card Punch

  Description

  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.

  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.

  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.

  An 80-column punch card and a photocopy of a piece of International Time Recording Company stationery came with this object.

  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.

  References:

  E. W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995, p. 49.

  Accession file.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  after 1930

  maker

  IBM

  ID Number

  1987.0601.01

  accession number

  1987.0601

  catalog number

  1987.0601.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Tabulating Machine Company Card Punch

  Description

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  Compare MA.335634 and MA.334635.

  Reference:

  G. D. Austrian, Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 174–175.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1902

  distributor

  Tabulating Machine Company

  maker

  Tabulating Machine Company

  ID Number

  MA.335634

  accession number

  1977.0114

  catalog number

  335634

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Leaflet, Complete Data Processing with Modern Punched-Card and Computer Facilities UNIVAC Service Centers

  Description

  This is one of a series of illustrated publications associated with Univac Service Centers. It describes generally the staffed and equipped centers created to make Univac tabulating equipment and mainframe electronic computers available to a range of users. The Remington Rand Univac form number is U1750.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  author

  Remington Rand Univac. Division of Sperry Rand

  ID Number

  1997.3012.04.19

  catalog number

  1997.3012.04.19

  nonaccession number

  1997.3012

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Framed Photograph of a Hollerith Pantograph Card Punch

  Description

  This gelatin-silvered photograph shows an early version of the pantograph card punch that Herman Hollerith patented in 1890. The photograph is matted, and has a glass cover and wooden frame.

  Four places on the photograph are marked in red ink: 2.

  For related object, see MA.312896.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1890

  ID Number

  MA.317982.04

  accession number

  317982

  catalog number

  317982.04

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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