2013.20.2

Data Card Reader

Rectangular steel table on two steel bench legs, rubber pads on bases of legs; rectangular depression in table, the size of a computer punch card, lined on bottom with black rubber, with rounded cutouts on each corner to facilitate removal of card, as well as a hole under the table to facilitate lifting a card out of the depression from below; aluminum slide fitted over top of table; click in the slide engages with series of gauge holes on front edge of table; top edge of table has notches spaced every ten gauge holes; the slide has a vertical slot, flanked by nine holes on top, and three on bottom; yellow Dyna-tape with braille labels number these holes.

H-2 W-0.009 L-9.25 D-5.25 inches

ca. 1971

Used by donor in his job as a computer programmer for Miles Laboratories in Elkhart, IN. From donor, "This small device enabled a blind programmer/analyst to proofread keypunched data cards before loading them as input for computer jobs. To use the device, the user would slip a keypunched data card into the reader, move the slide to the first column of the card. He/she would then move a stylus down the slot in the slide and note the position of each punched hole. Knowing the Haloreth code enabled the user to identify what character was in each column. Using the device was slow, so it was practical only for reading the first few cards of a program compile to see that no errors were present. I received my card reader from a fellow blind programmer, Bob Crook of Indianapolis, who began his computer career a few years before I did."

Gift of Paul Filpus, 2013.20