Keypunch

A keypunch is a device used for the purpose of entering data onto punch cards by precisely punching holes in the cards at specific locations as determined by the keys struck by the operator. Early keypunches were manual devices. Later keypunches were electromechanical devices which combined several different functions in one unit. These often resembled small desks with keyboards similar to those on typewriters and were equipped with hoppers for blank cards and stackers for punched cards. Some keypunch models could print, at the top of a column, the character represented by the hole(s) punched in that column. The small pieces punched out by a keypunch fell into a chad box, or (at IBM) chip box, or bit bucket.