The patent is on a perforating machine, which could be regarded as a predecessor of the punch card machine (the punch card is referred to as the "perforated car

The patent is on a perforating machine, which could be regarded as a predecessor of the punch card machine (the punch card is referred to as the "perforated card" in the patent)... A copy of the patent document could be found here... https://www.google.com/patents/US998631 https://www.google.com/patents/US998631