The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
chad box
n.
A metal box about the size of a lunchbox (or in some models a large
wastebasket), for collecting the chad (sense 2) that accumulated in Iron
Age card punches. You had to open the covers of the card punch
periodically and empty the chad box. The bit bucket was notionally the
equivalent device in the CPU enclosure, which was typically across the room
in another great gray-and-blue box.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
chad box
chip box
(IBM called this a "chip box") A metal box about
the size of a lunchbox (or in some models a large
wastebasket), for collecting the chad that accumulated in
Iron Age card punches. You had to open the covers of the
card punch periodically and empty the chad box.
The bit bucket was notionally the equivalent device in the
CPU enclosure, which was typically across the room in
another great grey-and-blue box.
[Jargon File]
(1996-11-20)