Hardware Detail

Item Reference:	HW0278
Machine Type:	024	Serial Number:	31-09700
	Card punch
	The IBM 024 Card Punch and 026 Printing Card Punch (there is an example of an 026 elsewhere in the Museum) were announced in 1949. They were almost identical, with the exception of the 026's printing mechanism. Keypunches were used to encode data for input to IBM's early computers. The award winning external design of the 024/026 series for IBM was by Raymond Loewy, the industrial designer of “Streamlined” motifs who also designed railway passenger carriages of the 1930s and 1940s. Their heavy steel construction and rounded corners indeed echo the industrial Art Deco style. The concept of reducing data to a series of holes in a card was invented by Herman Hollerith in the 19th Century. Hollerith's Company later (1911) became one of the founder companies of IBM. The IBM 024 Card Punch here and its companion IBM 056 Verifier appear to have had a hard life. This 024 card punch is in full working order.
Date of Origin:		Donor:	RAPC
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Location:	On Display - HLG19	Commissioned By: Museum	Until: