Electrotype Printing Block Showing a Manual Hollerith Key Punch

Electrotype Printing Block with Hollerith Key Driven Card Punch

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.

View manifest View in Mirador Viewer

Object Details

Description

This electrotype printing block is engraved in metal and attached to a wooden block. It shows a manually operated, key-driven Hollerith card punch with 11 keys. Hollerith patented such a machine in 1901, but it had only ten keys, numbered from 0 to 9. The machine shown on the electroplate has these number keys, plus one marked X.

For key punches similar but not identical to that shown, see MA.335634, MA.335635, and MA.333894.

Reference:

H. Hollerith, "Apparatus for Perforating Record Cards," U.S. Patent 682,197, September 10, 1901.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Gift of the Hollerith Family

date made

ca 1902

ID Number

1977.0503.02

catalog number

336121

accession number

1977.0503

Object Name

electrotype printing block

Physical Description

wood (overall material)

metal (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 2.3 cm x 9.1 cm x 5.4 cm; 29/32 in x 3 19/32 in x 2 1/8 in

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Mathematics

Computers & Business Machines

Tabulating Equipment

Data Source

National Museum of American History

web subject

Mathematics

Metadata Usage

CC0

Link to Original Record

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-927d-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record ID

nmah_1213837