A very good information source about how the different codings is the Punched Card Codes Page which is Part of Douglas W. Jones Punched Card Collection. Other good resources are:
- The Punched Card
- Collected Information on Punched Card Codes
- 100+ Codes Compiled by the late Dik Winter (CWI, Amsterdam).
The IBM 026 is a Key Punching Machine to create punched cards. The Machine was introduced in July 1949. It is the first Key Punching Machine where the Operator had Keyboard like a Typewriter before there was one key per hole (the coding was done manually by the Operator).
Code Plates where used to 'store' the 5 × 7 dot matrix character glyphs. The code plate is a tiny, roughly stamp-sized piece of metal containing a grid of tiny projections. The purpose of this code plate is to encode and generate character glyphs in a flexible manner: Where there are projections, a printing dot is encoded, where the projections are milled off, the respective dot will remain blank. On the IBM026 the Code Plate had a 7 x 8 Code Grid which had 47 valid characters for printing. This Code Grid was enlarged for the later Models IBM029 and IBM129. See the Punched Card Typography — IBM 026, 029, 129 for more information.
For the IBM026 the following Code Plates existed (This Information was taken from 24 Card Punch 26 Printing Card Punch Parts Catalog on Page 21 Print Unit Asm Code Plate). Option A and H where the most common one.
| Part No | Option | 12 | 11 | 0-1 | 8-3 | 12-8-3 | 11-8-3 | 0-8-3 | 8-4 | 12-8-4 | 11-8-4 | 0-8-4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 312047 | A | & | - | / | # | . | $ | , | @ | ¤ | * | % |
| 313334 | B | / | - | & | # | . | $ | , | @ | ¤ | * | % |
| 313335 | C | & | - | 0 | # | . | $ | , | @ | ¤ | * | % |
| 313336 | D | - | - | / | # | . | $ | , | @ | ¤ | * | % |
| 340949 | E | - | / | & | # | . | ??? | , | > | < | * | % |
| 340950 | G | + | - | / | + | . | $ | , | - | ¤ | * | % |
| 341097 | F | + | - | / | = | . | $ | , | - | ) | * | ( |
| 362277 | H | + | - | / | = | . | $ | , | ' | ) | * | ( |
| 362276 | A | & | - | / | # | . | $ | , | @ | ¤ | * | % |
Look for Option A in the table above. Sometimes this configuration was also called 'Alphanumeric' or 'BCD-A'.
I haven't found any information about this Code Plate (execpt it's existence and information in the Table above).
Look for Option H in the table above. Sometimes this configuration was also called 'Hollerith' or 'BCD-H'.
The IBM 029 Key Punch was introduced in about 1964.
On the IBM029 the Code Plate had a 8 x 8 Code Grid which had 63 valid characters for printing. See IBM029 Field Engineering Maintenance Manual Page 56-64 Print Unit Figure 4-39 Overlay for Figure 4-40, Figure 4-40 Code Plate Chart E'L', Figure 4-46 Character Patterns E'L', Figure 4-47 Character Patterns E'A' and Reference Manual IBM 29 Card Punch Page 38 Printing / Character Arrangements and Page 42 Figure 29 Key Graphics and Punched-Hole Codes Taken from IBM029 Card Punch Illustrated Parts Catalog Page 117-120
| Part No | Description |
|---|---|
| 5372327 | Plate-Printing Code E A |
| 5372328 | Plate-Printing Code E B |
| 5372329 | Plate-Printing Code E C |
| 5372330 | Plate-Printing Code E D |
| 5372331 | Plate-Printing Code E E |
| 5372332 | Plate-Printing Code E F |
| 5372333 | Plate-Printing Code E G |
| 5372334 | Plate-Printing Code E H |
| 5372335 | Plate-Printing Code E J |
| 5372336 | Plate-Printing Code E K |
| 5372337 | Plate-Printing Code E L |
| 5404164 | Code Plate used with Spanish N Feature |
The IBM 129 Key Punch was introduced in about 1971.
Taken from Parts Catalog IBM 129 Card Data Recorder Models 1-3 Page 87-88
| Part No | Description |
|---|---|
| 963307 | Code Plate-Katakana |
| 5372334 | Code Plate, H Character Set |
| 5372337 | Code Plate, USA/Italy/Ger/Spain/Latin Am. |
| 5480436 | Code Plate, ASCII |
| 8107850 | Code Plate, Finland/Sweden |
| 8107939 | Code Plate, Denmark/Norway |
| 8109173 | Code Plate, U.K. English |
| 8109283 | Code Plate, French(FRANC)/Belgium |
| 8110399 | Code Plate, Portugal |
| 8112110 | Code Plate, Brazil |