Punch Card Probe

Identifier

http://dp.la/api/items/8f5e640c4316a4c7d515091d2f29e286

Title

Punch Card Probe

Date

ca 1950

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.
Currently not on view

Subject

Punch Cards
Computers & Business Machines
Mathematics
Tabulating Equipment

Source

Smithsonian Institution

Relation

https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NMAH-DOR2012-8020&max=150

References

http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=record_ID=nmah_1427497&repo=DPLA

Subject

Punch Cards
Computers & Business Machines
Mathematics
Tabulating Equipment

Citation

“Punch Card Probe,” Center for Knit and Crochet Digital Repository, accessed August 9, 2026, https://digital.centerforknitandcrochet.org/items/show/28018.

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