Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Holes
Think-A-Tron

Date:

1960

Material:

Card-stock cards, plastic device with metal hardware

Dimensions:

Card 2½ × 1¼ in. (64 × 32 mm)

Company:

Hassenfeld Bros. (Hasbro)

Location:

Central Falls, Rhode Island, United States

A "punch card" for the Hasbro Think-A-Tron, a trivia game simulating a main frame computer. Somewhat disappointingly, the holes in the cards are only for show. The answer is actually encoded as a notch on the leading edge of the card; there are five possible positions for notches, which allows up to five alternative answers (A, B, C, T, F, where T and F correspond to True and False). When the card is inserted, its notch engages a lever that allows the wheel inside to rotate and light up one of five letters (Gardi 2020). The light bulb inside is powered by 2 D-size batteries, which are inserted in the compartment on the bottom. The game came with 300 cards; additional cards could be purchased in packages of 50.

A tiny edge-nochted card shaped like a punch card with punched holes and a trivia question with 3 possible answers.
The Book of Knowledge: The Children's Encyclopedia. was a well known encyclopedia at the time.

Pushing the card holder in starts the mechanism. Rewinding the lever releases the card. The two dials are used to keep score.

References
⌃  Back to citationGardi, Michael. 2020. How the Original Think-A-Tron Works. Hackaday.io. Dec 19, 2020.