Today in History - 1905

The Punchboard or Salesboard was patented in 1905 by C. A. Brewer and C. G. Scannell of Chicago. Even though the equivalent of punchboards had been around for many years, they had never been available in such a neat and portable form.

Once the boards became cheap to manufacture, they literally flooded the country. Noted gambling author John Scarne estimates that 30 million punchboards were sold in the years between 1910 to 1915. He also estimates that 50 million punchboards were sold in 1939 alone, during the peak of their popularity.