[GreenKeys] OT: New coffee-table book on punched cards

[John, W9DDD]

A hand punch would have been an asset to someone who lived a fair 
distance off campus and had to deal with the wait list to get on the 029.

John, W9DDD

On 2/12/2020 11:48 AM, Doug Alderdice wrote:
> I've seen pictures of those card punches but have never come across one 
> in real life.
> 
> Wow, that would be a tedious way of preparing a job!  A couple of times 
> some friends and I went to the one state college campus that was near 
> one of the friend's homes to use the key punches there to get ahead on 
> what we were working on at school, but as I recall the college machines 
> didn't print on the cards, so you had to make sure you were typing 
> correctly, so we didn't do that too often.  The 029s we had at school 
> printed.
> 
> Doug, KA2WFT
> 
> On 2/12/2020 12:41 PM, Ken Wiebe wrote:
>> Long-lost device?
>>
>> When I was in high school (as some others have related) - I had the 
>> opportunity to program the school district IBM 360 by submitting 
>> punched-card Fortran programs ("jobs").  I punched the cards myself on 
>> a portable hand-operated punch.
>>
>> Over the years I have monitored ebay and the web looking for the 
>> portable punch but come up empty.
>>
>> The punch was about the length and width of a modern full-sized 
>> keyboard, maybe a little bigger.  You stuck the card to be punched 
>> into a guide at one end.  In the center of the punch stood the control 
>> mechanism about 8-10 in. high, which had a dial to select the 
>> character to be punched, and a large lever to be depressed when ready 
>> to punch a column.  As the card passed under the control mechanism, 
>> holes were punched into the card according to the dial setting.  The 
>> card would advance to the next column automatically as part of the 
>> punch process.
>>
>> I can't remember if the punch also printed characters at the top of 
>> the card - I'm thinking it did but not certain.
>>
>> It was quite a chore to punch even a small program.  But fun, and 
>> rewarding if the program ran!  (it would take a week or so to find 
>> out, hehe)
>>
>> Anyone ever run across one of these punches?
>>
>> -Ken
>> Tacoma, WA
>>
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