From 1958, IBM Corporation sold portable, stylus-operated card punches like this one to prepare the cards used in data processing equipment.
The tan instrument consists of a plastic frame that holds 13 long plastic rectangles along its length. A transparent plastic template which has an array of evenly spaced holes fits over the rectangles, and cards are placed over this. A plastic stylus with a metal point punches holes. The object and a card with instructions fit in a cardboard box. A mark on the punch reads: IBM PORT-A-PUNCH. A mark on the end of the box reads: International Business Machines Corporation [/] Part No. 456861.
Card 1990.0113.04 (an IBM D10687 punch card) was designed for use with this card punch.
The materials in this accession were used to reduce data accumulated in Robert A. McConnell’s research on parapsychology.
References:
Accession file.
Web site of the IBM Archives, accessed October 16, 2012.