IBM Type 012 Electric Duplicating Key Punch - 1925

The IBM Type 012 tabletop key punch (1925) was the first model capable of duplication; that is, automatically copying columns from one card to another.


Photo: IBM Archives, Machine Files, used by permission. Click image to enlarge

  Left: What appears to be a Type 012 Electric Duplicating Key Punch in the Crystallography Lab at the California Institute of Technology. The only puzzle is it seems to be handling 80-column cards with rectangular holes (see closeup), which were introduced in 1928, whereas the 012 pictured above uses 45-column round-hole cards. In any case, it appears that this punch was procured for the lab through a request from Linus Pauling to IBM's Director of Pure Science, Columbia's Wallace Eckert in 1947.

Photos: circa 1947, Gates and Crellin Laboratories, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Caltech; courtesy Larry Henling, Beckman Institute, Caltech. Click images to enlarge.

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Most recent update: Tue Sep 25 13:07:45 2007

Frank da Cruz / fdc@columbia.edu / Columbia University Computing History