Object Details
maker
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
Credit Line
Gift of International Business Machines Corporation
date made
1920s
ID Number
MA.320563
accession number
241402
catalog number
320563
Object Name
card punch
Physical Description
metal (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 20.3 cm x 30.3 cm x 24.4 cm; 8 in x 11 15/16 in x 9 19/32 in
place made
United Kingdom: England, London
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Computers & Business Machines
Tabulating Equipment
Data Source
National Museum of American History
web subject
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_694423