Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-08-08
DONE BY ELECTRICITY.

3,UUO,UUO NAMES COUNTED DAILY.
After the boxes of schedules are
received i'll Washington are unpacked
and the schedules classified they are
sent over to the Inter Ocean building
on Ninth street. II is IL brick edillce
of six or seven stories. There are
fully thousand persons ut work i'll
this building. Hero tho preliminary
count of the population is being
mado. The schedules are carried in
to tho basement and distributed upon
the floors. They ore first compared
with the daily reports Of tho emu
mcrators sent to the main Office while
tho census was being taken After
this comparison they are distributed
among The counters. The count is
made by electric machines. Thoro
arc n hundred of these machines
upon floor. A young lady sits in
front of cach ono. They resemble
small upright pianos. There arc
score of small Indicators facing the
young lady in tho upright portion of
tho instrument. A tiny keyboard
stands to tho right, filling the place
of the keys of piano. These keys
arc numbered from / to 90. With II
schedule before her the lady strikes
koy indicating the number of per-
sons i'll household. The Indicators
have dials and hands. They might
DO mistaken for little patent lover
clocks.
COUNTING DY ELECTRICITY.
There is an indicator for each key,
and IL check Indicator that gives the
sum total as fast rs the keys are
struck. Tho schedule of the emu
merator lies upon the table to the
left of the operator. The population
is counted by households. If n man
lives alone the operator strikes key
L. The unit hand Of tho check indi-
Gator does the same. Sny that the
next family is one of eight persons,
the operator strikes the key number
ed g. Tue eight persons are count
el ut tho touch. Tho hand on tho
dial OF the eight Indicator moves II
lot. and the check indicator checks
another family. Tho operator finds
tho number of each family on tho
schedule and strikes the key corrros
pondingly. At the end of the day
the Indicator shows how many house
holds i'll MI have been thus counted.
No. tells how many persons living
alono have been enumerated. Other
indicators register families of 8, 4, 5
and so on. by the mid of one Of
these machines n young lady has
counted $4,000 persons in a day.
The machines work by electric cur
ronts Each key, when struck, closes
circuit through the electro magnets
III it's own indicator and in the check
indicator. Tho magnets attract thoir
armatures and those do the work.
The circuits are closed through plat
mum points. The electric bells are
i'll circuit with the indicators. They
tell when the contact is made. They
sound like the juggling of sleigh
bells in winter.
HOW TIE WORK is DONE.
Tho population is being counted
on This floor at tho rate of 100000
per day. Two counts are made. Su-
perintendent Porter soon expects to
increase the number to 100000 per
day. The work of enumeration goes
on night and day. At dead OF night
the tinkling OF the little bells can be
heard in tho street outside. The
young ladies all work hard, each
striving to Guido the othor. The
work at night is done by young men.
They do not count nearly as many
names rs the young ladies'.
The second count is to verify the
first. The machines cannot make
mistakes. The girls who run them,
however, are not SO thorough Onco
in while they force the machines to
blunder. Tho Same schedules are,
therefore counted by different girls
on different machines.
COUNTING SPECIAL SCHEDULES.
The main census otiico is on G